The Chinese begin their year about the vernal equi- nox, and the festival observed on the occasion is one of the most splendid of their religious feasts. All classes, including the emperor, mingle together in free and un- restrained intercourse, and miite in thanksgiving for mercies received, as well as in prayer for a genial season and an abundant crop. In Japan the day is spent in visiting and feasting. The Sabians held a grand festival on the day that the sun enters Aries, which was the first day of their year, when the priests and the people marched in procession to the temples, where they sacrificed to the planetary gods. Among the ancient Persians prisoners were liberated and offend- ers forgiven on this day; and, in short, the Persian new-year's day resembled the Sabbatical year of the Jews. A curious Oriental custom peculiar to this day may be mentioned. It is called by the Arabs and Per- sians the " Game of the Beardless River," and consists in a deformed man, whose hair has been shaved and his face ludicrously painted with variegated colors,
riding along the streets on an ass, and behaving in the most whimsical manner, to the great delight of tlie multitudes that followed him. Thus equipped, he rides from door to door soliciting small pieces of money. A similar custom is still found in various parts of Scotland under the name of " guizzarding."
On March 10, or the commencement of the year among the Druids, was performed the famous ceremony of cutting the mistletoe (q. v.). Beneath the oak where it grew preparations were made fur a banquet and sac- rifices, and for the first time two white bulls were tied by the horns. Then one of the Druids, clothed in white, mounted the tree and cut off the mistletoe with a golden sickle, receiving it into a white sarjum, or cloak, laid over his hand. The sacrifices were next com- menced, and prayers were offered to God to send a blessing upon his own gift, while the plant was sup- posed to bestow fertility on man and beast, and to be a specific against all sorts of poisons.
On the first day of the year, as Humboldt informs us, the Mexicans carefully adorned their temples and houses, and employed themselves in various religious ceremo- nies. One, which at first perhaps was peculiar to this season, though subsequently it became of more frequent occurrence, was the offering up to the gods of a human sacrifice. The wretched victim, after having been flayed alive, was carried to the pj-ramidal summit of the sacred edifice which was the scene of these barbarities, and after his heart had been torn out by a priest in presence of assembled thousands, his body was consumed to ashes by being placed on a blazing funeral pile. The Muyscas, or native inhabitants of New Granada, cele- brate the same occasion with peacefid and unbloody rites. They assemble as usual in their temples, and their priest distributes to each worshipper a figure formed of the flour of maize, which is eaten in the full belief that it will secure the individual from danger and adver- sity. The first lunation of the Muysca year is denom- inated by "the month of the ears of maize." From the various facts thus adduced, it is plain that the rites con- nected with New-Year's day may be traced back to the remotest ages, that they have been celebrated in all na- tions and ages, and tliat, though of a festive and cheer- ful, they have never been uniformly of an essential re- ligious character.
The social observances of the first day of the new year appear to have been in substance the same in all ages. From the earliest recorded celebration, we find notice of feasting and the interchange of presents as usages of the day. Suetonius alludes to the bringing of presents to the capital ; and Tacitus makes a similar reference to the practice of giving and receiving New- Year's gifts. Under the Ca?sars these presents became such a source of personal profit to the sovereign, and so onerous to his subjects, that Claudius limited them by a decree. This custom was continued by the Christian kingdoms into Avhich the Western empire was divided. In England we find many examples of it, even as a ]iart of the public expenditure of the court, so far down as the reign of Charles II ; and, as all our antiquarian writers mention, the custom of interchanging presents as common in all classes of society (see Eccleston's English Antiquities, p. 317, 443). At present the ring- ing in of the New Year from the belfry of churches is the only open demonstration of joy at the recurrence of the anniversary'. This is now a custom also in other countries. In France it still subsists, uneclipsed by the still pojiular practice of Christmas gifts. In many coun- tries the night of New -Year's live, " St. Sylvester's Eve," was celebrated with great festivity, which was prolouged till after twelve o'clock, when the New Year was ushered in with congratulations, complimentary visits, and mutual wishes for a " Happy new year." This is an ancient Scottish custom, which also prevails in many parts of (Jcrmany, where the form of wish — " Prosst (for the Lat. prosit) Neu-jahr" — '• Jlav the new year be happy" — sufficiently attests the antiquity of the