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Apart from the Christian church stratum (and partially accompanying it) the antique tradition is also felt: Greek and Roman holidays celebrated at certain points of the agricultural year.

These old-time customs and beliefs were based, it seems, upon the labour experience of the earliest cultivator and herdsman, his anxiety for the harvest, his eagerness to obtain and preserve it at all costs, as well as concern for the herds and for the whole household economy. To this a desire was added to forecast the destinies of the people themselves.

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The present first issue of our collection, which is devoted to calendar customs as a whole, deals with the winter cycle of these customs. Further issues are envisaged dealing with the spring, summer and autumn cycles.

The winter cycle of holidays, embracing a period from about the end of October to the beginning of January (the exact dates differ among various peoples), is saturated to a greater degree than all the rest with beliefs, forecasting and rituals. This is due to material causes: the importance of an early preparation for the new agricultural year, the first presages of which are noticed from the moment of the winter solstice. It is to this period (December 25 to January 6) that most customs and beliefs are timed.

Besides features common to all European peoples, popular rituals and beliefs disclose also regional variations. These are linked in part with geographical differences between countries (Southern, Middle, Northern Europe); hence different economic specialisation (land cultivation, highland cattle herding etc.) and in part with the dominant religion: for example, for members of the Orthodox Church January 6 is the Epiphany holiday (the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist); for Catholics and Protestants it is the holiday of the Three Kings (Three Magi) who came to worship the newborn Jesus Christ; hence the «water blessing» rituals among the Orthodox, and the Three Kings procession in Western Europe. The regional differences are, however, as yet insufficiently studied.

At present almost all these old-time customs and rituals have lost their former religious or magic significance and survive merely as popular entertainments, customs adhered to in a spirit of jest.