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The Old New Year (Russian: Старый Новый год, Ukrainian: Старий Новий рік, Bulgarian: Стара Нова Година) or the Orthodox New Year ( Serbian: Православна нова година or Pravoslavna nova godina) is an informal traditional Slavic Orthodox holiday, celebrated as the start of the New Year by the Julian calendar.

According to the Julian calendar, according to which the Serbian Orthodox Church counts time, Serbian New Year is celebrated on January 13th. In some towns, celebrations are organized on squares, but much more in restaurants and in the family circle. This is an opportunity to revive tradition.

Serbian New Year is also called Little Christmas, so a branch of the oak tree, kept since Christmas, is lit. Local cultural and art associations perform songs and dances. Traditional dishes and drinks are served – cured meat, cheese, kaymak, sour cabbage cooked in ceramic pots, mulled wine and brandy.
The tradition of the Old New Year has been kept in Serbia,Russia,Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Belarus,Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro. In the first half of the 20th century, segments of the Scottish Gaelic community still observed the feast and today, groups such as Edinburgh's Am Bothan see this as a convenient date for Gaelic events.

Little Christmas

A traditional folk name for this holiday is Mali Božić – Little Christmas. The head and the right Boston butt of pečenica, which have been reserved at Christmas dinner, are served for dinner on this day. A part of this meal consists of little round loaves made with cornmeal and cream. They are named vasilica after Saint Basil the Great, because January 1 is also the feast day of this saint. People versed in scapulimancy used the shoulder blade of the Boston butt to foretell events concerning the family in the ensuing year.The snout cut from the head of pečenica could have been used in love magic. If a girl looked stealthily through the snout at a boy she loved, but who did not care for her, he would supposedly go mad about her

On the day before Little Christmas, especially in south-eastern Serbia, a group of young unmarried men goes through streets of their village and chase away demons by making a deafening noise. Sirovari, as these men are called, shout as loud as possible two words, "Sirovo burovo!" accompanied by the noise made with bells, ratchets, and horseshoes strung on a rope. The group consists of seven, nine or eleven members; it is said that if there were an even number of sirovari, one of them would die within a year. Moving through the village, they try to make it impossible for anyone to count them. They constantly change positions in the group, hide and suddenly reappear. Villagers are glad to receive them in their homes, and treat them with food and drink.

The following custom was recorded at the end of the 19th century in the north Dalmatian region of Bukovica. Early in the morning of Little Christmas, children of a family would spread Christmas straw from their house around the stake in the center of their village's threshing floor. The use of this stake was to tether a horse to it; the animal was then driven around to thresh grain by treading with its hooves. The woman of the house would bake a big round unleavened loaf of bread with a hole in its center, inscribed with circles, crosses, hooks, and other symbols on its surface. The loaf would be taken to the threshing floor, and fixed round the stake. The oldest man of the family would hold the stake with his right hand above the loaf. As for his left hand, the next oldest man would hold it with his right hand, and so on to the youngest boy who could walk steadily. Holding hands in this manner, they would run around the stake three times. During the running they would shout in unison as loud as possible, "Ajd ajde, koba moja!" meaning "Giddy-up, my mare!" – except for the man holding the stake, who would shout, &quot😉e! De! De!" meaning "Go! Go! Go!" They would after that take the hollow loaf back home, and put it near the ognjište beside the remnant of badnjak. The woman of the house would "feed them fodder", i.e. prepare a meal for them, consisting of đevenica (a sort of dried sausage), roast pork, and the hollow loaf, plus rakia for adults. Having eaten, they would go back to the threshing floor and repeat the whole ritual, only this time without the loaf. In the end, they would collect Christmas straw from the threshing floor; it was put in hens' nests to prevent them from laying eggs outside the nests. This custom was considered as especially joyful for children.

HAPPY NEW YEAR
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