Day 2763 (Tuesday) 31st December 2024

This is looking down on Eze Village

and this is Menton.

 These are our Christmas decorations on the top road.

It was a little cloudy this morning but there’s still some heat in the sunshine and we went to Nice to have our last kebab of 2024, it was very cold on the scooter.

This is our bench where we eat our shared kebab. 

Happy New Year’s eve

Who was Saint Sylvester and why does France celebrate him on New Year’s Eve?

A 'saint Sylvester' celebration in Paris. Photo by JOEL ROBINE / AFP

Been invited to a 'Saint Sylvester party' in France? Don't worry, you probably won't need to know anything about the 4th century saint himself.

France, in common with most of the rest of the world, has a celebration on the night of December 31st to mark the end of the year and the beginning of the next year. It mostly involves Champagne, some nice food, dancing and perhaps some fireworks, depending on where you are.

December 31st is the time when everyone gathers to celebrate the end of the old year and the beginning of the new - and January 1st is a public holiday, to allow you to deal with your hangover.

But while the general New Year period is known as le nouvel an (the new year), the evening of December 31st is known as Le réveillon de la Saint-Sylvestre, often shortened simply to le Saint-Sylvestre. 

But who was Saint Sylvester and how did his name come to be linked to one of the biggest parties of the year?

He's one of the Catholic Church's least known saints - in the sense that there is little about his life that is certain.

Sylvester was pope from January 31st, 314 – the year after the Edict of Milan declared tolerance for Christianity in the Roman Empire – until his death, in December 335. 

He was one of the first popes to be honoured with the title ‘confessor’.

According to one legend, he even baptised the Roman Emperor Constantine, curing him of leprosy in the process. This, however, has been dismissed as a fifth-century hoax, not least because Sylvester died, in Rome, two years before Constantine’s deathbed baptism by Eusebius of Nicomedia, in what is now modern-day Turkey.

What is known, is that during Sylvester’s papacy, work started on a Basilica dedicated to Saint Peter in Rome – the first Saint Peter’s. The original building, on the site of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, stood until the 16th century, and is now usually known as Old Saint Peter’s.

The Basilica of Saint John Lateran, the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, and several churches built over the graves of martyrs were also founded during Sylvester’s papacy.

Vatican News, the official media of the Holy See, states: “Sylvester marked the transition from pagan Rome to Christian Rome and witnessed the construction of the great Constantinian basilicas.”

But the scale of his involvement in the rise of the Roman Catholic church, in the rapid development of Christianity around this time isn’t clear. It is understood he wasn’t present at the First Council of Nicaea in 325, where key tenets of the Catholic faith were agreed.

And, today, Sylvester is widely forgotten, while Constantine gets all the 'development of Christianity' glory.

However, the pope-turned-Saint was buried in Rome, on December 31st, 335 - which is why December 31st is his saint's day.

It's also been suggested that this day is appropriate for him, because his reign as pontiff marked the transition from the pagan to the Christian faith as the dominant religion of the Roman empire, and December 31st marks the transition from the old year to the new.

Either way, this is why New Year's Eve is often known as the Feast of Saint Sylvester.

Fortunately, however, the accent remains more on drinking, dancing, fireworks and general merriment and you're not required to know any obscure facts about the early Catholic church. 

French Word of the Day: Le Réveillon

Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

You'll certainly hear this French term around the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

Why do I need to know le réveillon?

Because you might be invited to celebrate this with your French friends.

What does it mean?

Le Réveillon - roughly pronounced luh rev-ay-yon - refers to a ‘late night meal’ or feast.

You’ll hear it quite a lot around the Christmas/ New Year’s holidays, as it is both the name for the main Christmas meal, which traditionally takes place late on December 24th, and (more commonly) for the dinner and festivities on New Year’s Eve.

It comes from the verb veiller – ‘to stay awake’ or ‘to keep vigil’.

Historically, the common practice across France was to attend Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, and then come back to eat a traditional seafood banquet. Under the Ancien Régime, the term réveillon could be used for a variety of religious celebrations and feasts (not just Christmas). 

As for New Year’s Eve, the phrase is technically a bit longer - you would say Le réveillon de la Saint-Sylvestre, often shortened simply to Le Réveillon or le Saint-Sylvestre. This is a reference to the lesser known Saint Sylvester, who is credited with helping transition ‘pagan Rome to Christian Rome’ and was buried in Rome, on December 31st, 335.

As for the secular celebrations of New Year’s Eve, those did not start appearing until the 18th century, according to Le Figaro, and New Year’s Day did not become an official public holiday until 1810.

For New Year’s Eve, you can also refer to it as le nouvel an or le 31 décembre.

Use it like this

Tu fais quoi pour le Réveillon cette année ? Nous organisons une soirée si tu veux venir. - What are you doing for New Year’s Eve this year? We’re hosting a party if you want to come.

Où voulez-vous sortir pour le réveillon du nouvel an ? - Where do you guys want to go out for New Year’s Eve this year?

Je pense pas que nous ferons un grand repas pour le Réveillon de cette année. La famille n'arrivera que le 25 au soir. - I don’t think we’re doing a big meal for Christmas Eve this year. The family won’t be arriving until the night of the 25th.

This was Badger last night, curled up on the sofa.