Official feasts used to be an important part of the human community. People would gather together to remember something sacred, express their faith and hope for the future, and / or just be together formally, recognizing each other as being part of a shared community. Few things express a desire for shared companionship and social intimacy more than dining together. Sadly, the gathering together for feasting is increasingly a relic of the past – at least here in the West.
It need not be so! Today we will remember the ancient feasts.
The Feast Day of St. Sylvester
This Feast Day honors Pope Sylvester I, a 3rd century Christian who held his office during an important and tumultuous time in Church history. He is credited, via Medieval legend, with the conversion of Constantine I.
Today he is also connected with New Year’s Eve celebrations around the world, many of which have rich (strange) traditions.
Pope Sylvester I (also Silvester, 270 – 31 December 335) was the bishop of Rome from 31 January 314 until his death on 31 December 335. He filled the See of Rome at an important era in the history of the Western Church, though very little is known of his life.
The accounts of his pontificate preserved in the seventh- or eighth-century Liber Pontificalis contain little more than a record of the gifts said to have been conferred on the church by Constantine I, although it does say that he was the son of a Roman named Rufinus.
One of the Symmachian forgeries, the Constitutum Silvestri, is an apocryphal alleged account of a Roman council, which partially builds on legends in the Acts of Sylvester which has been preserved in Greek, Syriac, and in Latin and the fictional stories of Sylvester’s close relationship with the first Christian emperor. These also appear in the Donation of Constantine.
Legacy
Long after his death, the figure of Sylvester was embroidered upon in a fictional account of his relationship to Constantine, which seemed to successfully support the later Gelasian doctrine of papal supremacy, papal auctoritas (authority) guiding imperial potestas (power), the doctrine that is embodied in the forged Donation of Constantine of the eighth century. In the fiction, of which an early version is represented in the early sixth-century Symmachean forgeries emanating from the curia of Pope Symmachus (died 514), the Emperor Constantine was cured of leprosy by the virtue of the baptismal water administered by Sylvester.
The Emperor, abjectly grateful, not only confirmed the bishop of Rome as the primate above all other bishops, he resigned his imperial insignia and walked before Sylvester’s horse holding the Pope’s bridle as the papal groom. The Pope, in return, offered the crown of his own good will to Constantine, who abandoned Rome to the pope and took up residence in Constantinople. “The doctrine behind this charming story is a radical one,” Norman F. Cantor observes: “The pope is supreme over all rulers, even the Roman emperor, who owes his crown to the pope and therefore may be deposed by papal decree”. The legend gained wide circulation; Gregory of Tours referred to this political legend in his history of the Franks, written in the 580s.
In the West, the liturgical feast of Saint Sylvester is on 31 December, the day of his burial in the Catacomb of Priscilla. This is now the last day in the year and, accordingly, in German-speaking countries and in some others close to them, New Year’s Eve is known as Silvester. In some other countries, too, the day is usually referred to as Saint Sylvester’s Day or the Feast of Saint Sylvester. In São Paulo, Brazil, a long-distance running event called the Saint Silvester Road Race occurs every year on 31 December.
The conversion of Constantine was one of the most important events in the history of the Church, as it ended three centuries of persecution. Perhaps because of the import of that moment, St. Sylvester’s Day has long been widely celebrated for a very long time and now has a number of very colorful (pig walking for good luck, among others) regional traditions. (via wiki)
Several countries, primarily in Europe, use a variant of Silvester’s name as the preferred name for the holiday; these countries include Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Slovenia.
Austria and Germany
In the capital of Austria, Vienna, people walk pigs on leashes for their Saint Silvester’s Day celebration in hope to have good luck for the coming year. Many Christian households in Germany mark Saint Silvester’s Day by practicing the custom of Bleigiessen using Silvesterblei (Silvester lead), in which Silvesterblei is melted over a flame in an old spoon and dropped into a bowl of cold water; one’s fortune for the coming year is determined by the shape of the lead. If the lead forms a ball (der Ball), luck will roll one’s way, while the shape of a star (der Stern) signifies happiness.
Belgium
Christians of Belgium have a tradition that a maiden who does not finish her work by the time of sunset on Saint Silvester’s Day will not get married in the year to come.
Brazil
Along with exploding fireworks, the Saint Silvester Road Race, Brazil’s oldest and most prestigious running event, takes place on Saint Sylvester’s Day and is dedicated to him.
Israel
In Israel, New Year’s Eve is referred to as Silvester to distinguish it from Rosh Hashanah—the Jewish New Year—which occurs in either September or October.
As some Israelis consider Pope Sylvester to have been an antisemite, the observation of New Year’s Eve has been divisive among parts of the country’s Jewish population, and celebrations tend to be relatively modest in comparison to other countries. In 2014, a report by a wearable technology manufacturer found that an average of 33% of Israelis went to bed before midnight on 31 December; notably, the Silvester is not an official holiday in Israel and January 1 is a regular workday, unless falling on a weekend.
On Saint Sylvester’s Day, “lentils and slices of sausage are eaten because they look like coins and symbolize good fortune and the richness of life for the coming year.”
Switzerland
On the morning of Saint Sylvester’s Day, the children of a Christian family compete with one another to see who can wake up the earliest; the child who arises the latest is playfully jeered. Men have, for centuries, masqueraded as Silvesterklaus on Saint Sylvester’s Day.
Ossetia
As late as the 19th century, the nominally ChristianOssetians – an ancient Iranian people of the Caucasus descended from the Scythian nomads of the steppes – still had a class of shaman-like soothsayers called Burkudzauta or Kurysdzauta who would, on the eve of Saint Sylvester’s Day, undertake dream journeys to the land of the dead in order to wrest from the warlike dead a bountiful harvest in the year to come. This practice was first documented in the year 1824 by pioneering ethnographer and orientalist Julius Klaproth. Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg has noted (in his work Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath) marked parallels between this Ossetian ‘combat in ecstasy‘ and those formerly practiced by the benandanti of Friuli and also by certain other shaman-like figures in Hungary and the Balkans.
What do you eat for the Feast Day of St. Sylvester?
There are a lot of meals associated with this particular feast day, among them eel dishes served in Italy. I am not up for eel, nor do I think I could get the ingredients if I were, so I am going to recommend a drink named after this famous saint, commonly made and served in German-speaking countries as part of the celebration.
Put water, lemon and orange rind, spices and sugar in deep saucepot. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. Add remaining ingredients; simmer 30 minutes; strain. Pour into heat-proof punch bowl.
Recipe Source: Catholic Cookbook, The by William I. Kaufman, The Citadel Press, New York, 1965
I would recommend that being an adults-only celebratory beverage.
What is a prayer to say for the Feast Day of St. Sylvester?
Come, O Lord, to the help of your people, sustained by the intercession of Pope Saint Sylvester, so that, running the course of this present life under your guidance, we may happily attain life without end.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
When is the Feast Day of St. Sylvester celebrated?
St. Sylvester’s Day occurs annually on 31 December.
I hope everyone who celebrates has a wonderful day!
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