Nonsense. You know, there are better sources than James Frazer and his ilk. Ronald Hutton, for one. He rips that assertion to shreds.
I’ve only been studying Celtic history/archaeology/anthropology/mythology for 30 years so what do I know?
You've been studying the Celts for over 30 years and the best you can do is a link to Wikipedia?
Where’d you get your “knowledge”?
From things called "books." You can find them in places called "libraries."
The Celts divided the year into *2* halves.
The Gaulish calendar appears to have divided the year into two halves: the 'dark' half, beginning with the month Samonios (the October/November lunation), and the 'light' half, beginning with the month Giamonios (the April/May lunation)
The Gauls weren't the only Celts. Remember: pan-Celtic. Further, speculation without context over how the solar year may have been symbolically divided is not the same as proof of the existence of a pan-Celtic New Year's Eve celebration.
By the way, where did you get the citation? Some BBC coffee table book/documentary tie in?
The Coligny Calendar.
You may not be aware of that.
[most of what little evidence is extant comes from the Gaulish records, therefore they are the best surviving *written* documentation]
I used the Wiki page simply because I didn't want to “aim to high” for you and thought something simple would suffice.
BTW, I own books on this subject that you couldn't afford to buy.
I found Frazer's “Golden Bough” amusing but not enough so to ever read another of his works.
What I own are dry, dusty, tedious archaeological/anthropological tomes that trace the migrations of the proto-Celtic/IE peoples from their origins to the “modern” Celts.
Hutton's “Pagan Religions of the British Isles” was quaint but I question his motives.
[as do many others]
http://www.suppressedhistories.net/articles/hutton_review.html
Go read the CARMINA GADELICA instead.
It's contemporaneous.