wo in
the afternoon, that it might be finished by three, the hour at which
it was allowed to eat on the fasts of the stations. We have among
the works of the fathers many severe invectives against the
superstitions and excesses of this time. See St. Austin, (serm. 198,
in hunc diem,) St. Peter Chrysologus, (serm. in calendas,) St.
Maximus of Turin, (Hom. 5, apud Mabill. in Musaeo Italico,) Faustinus
the Bishop, (apud Bolland. hac die. p. 3,) &c. The French name
Etrennes is pagan, from _strenae_, or new-year gifts, in honor of the
goddess Strenia. The same in Poitou and Perche, anciently the
country of the Druids, is derived from their rites. For the
Poitevins for Etrennes use the word Auguislanneuf, and the
Percherons, Equilans, from the ancient cry of the Druids, _Au guy
l'an neuf_, i.e. _Ad Viscum, annul novus_, or to the mistletoe the
new-year, when on new-year's day the Pagans went into the forests to
seek the mistletoe on the oaks. See Chatelain, notes on the Martyr.
Jan. 1, p. 7.

The ancients began the year, some from the autumnal, others from the
vernal equinox. The primitive patriarchs from that of autumn, that
is, from the month called by the Hebrews Tisri, which coincides with
part of our September and October. Hence it seems probable, that the
world was created about that season; the earth, as appears from Gen.
iii. 2, being then covered with trees, plants, fruits, seeds, and
all other things in the state of their natural maturity and
perfection. The Jews retained this commencement of the year, as a
date for contracts and other civil purposes; as also for their
sabbatical year and jubilee. But God commanded them to begin their
ecclesiastical year, or that by which their religious festivals were
regulated, from the spring equinox, or the Hebrew month Nisan, the
same with part of our March and April, Exod. xii. 2. Christian
nations commenced the year, some from the 25th of March, the feast
of the Annunciation, and bordering upon the spring equinox; others
from Christmas; others from its octave day, the first of January, in
which our ancestors have often varied their practice. Europe is now
agreed in fixing the first of January for this epoch.

The Julian year, so called from Julius Caesar, from whom the Roman
calendar received its last reformation, consisted of 365 da