Naturally, we seldom find all of these elements grouped together on a equal footing In certain societies the ceremonies of extinguishing and re-kindling the fire predominate in others it is the expulsion of demons and diseases or the expulsion of the "scapegoat" in animal or human form. It is at the same period that the initiation ceremonies for young men are performed. The spirits lavish honours upon them for several days, after which they are led in procession to the outskirts of the village, or are driven from it. In many places the belief still survives that at the year's end the souls of the dead return to earth and visit the living. There were often ceremonial combats between two groups of actors, or collective orgies, or processions of masked men (representing the souls of the ancestors, or the gods). in the second part of the ceremonial the expulsion of "demons" - by means of noises, cries, blows, or by the expelling of an animal (the "scapegoat" of the Israelites) or of a man (Mamurius Veturius, in Rome), regarded as the material vehicle through which the sins of the community were removed beyond its boundaries. The end of the year was marked by a number of rituals: fasting, collective ablutions and purification extinguishing the fire and ritually rekindling it. This conception of the end and the beginning of a temporal period based on the observation of biocosmic rhythms, formed part of a larger system - the system of periodic regeneration of life, presupposing a new Creation, or symbolic repetition of the cosmos. However, neither the instability and latitude in the beginning of the New Year, nor the varying lengths attributed by different peoples, were able to lessen the importance attached by all nations to the end of one period of time and the beginning of another. The majority of other historical cultures (and Egypt itself down to a certain period) had a year, both lunar and solar, of 360 days (that is, 12 months of 30 days each), to which five extra days (called the intercalary days) were added. The adoption of the solar year as the unit of time is of Egyptian origin. This means that the "divisions of time" are determined by the rituals governing the renewal of food reserves, that is, the rituals that guarantee the continued existence of the whole community. In most primitive societies the "New Year" is equivalent to the raising of the taboo on the new harvest which is thus proclaimed edible for the whole community. The beginning of the year varied from country to country and from epoch to epoch, calendar reforms being constantly introduced to make the ritual meaning of festivals fit the seasons with which they were supposed to correspond. Primitive peoples divided time into periods such as heat and cold, drought and rain, sowing and harvest, but at a very early stage of history these divisions led to the idea of a temporal cycle and hence to the concept of the "year". Office of International Standards and Legal Affairs.
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