But, Wikipedia is citing an explanation based entirely on rabbinic midrash. Historically, the reason why Christmas comes a week before Jan 1 has nothing at all to do with the circumcision of anybody. The first month, January, actually is named for the Roman god, Janus. December 25 was a festival long before the advent of Christianity. It was the birthday of Osirus (an Egyptian god of the underworld, associated with the planet Saturn, which was thought to be the Sun of the night), and the birthday of Mithras, a solar eastern god whose cult was popular among Roman soldiers. It had these associations because it was 3 days after the winter solstice. Thus, it was a celebration of the return of the Sun, the beginning of the lengthening of days. Some suspect that Chanuka also had winter soltice affiliations, coming on the 25th day of the month that since the Babylonian Exile has been called Kislev (what it was called in pre-exillic times is unknown). Interestingly, in relation to this, the leading candle on the chanukia (the 9-branched candelabra used on chanuka) is known as Shammash, which was a Canaanite and Mesopotamian Sun god. This suggests that Chanuka and Christmas both have pagan origins. If so, it would explain why the rabbis of the early Talmudic period were eager to add their own myths to the story of Jesus. For any criticism of the historical claims of the Jesus story would bring into question several Jewish claims regarding their own holidays, which by that time had been given a variety of monotheistic explanations for their origins.
1) There is no rabbinnic medrash, statement in the Talmud or later commentaries, etc., dealing with the origin of the Gregorian/Julian/whatever New Years Day. No one ever even mentions this day.
2) I mostly agree with your statements about the origins of Christmas and New Year's. I was not clear that I was positing a cause of why some people have a celebration on Jan 1, not why Jan 1 became New Years and a holiday.
3) The conjecture as to the pagan roots of the Chanukah based on the Shammash is 100%, beyond a shadow of a doubt, absolutely false.
While the Hebrew word for sun (Shemesh) likely has an entymologic relationship to the pagan god Shammash, the Hebrew root Shammash means to serve or to use. Its origin is Aramaic and it was co-opted into Hebrew most likely during or just before the second temple period. The root makes one appearance in the Bible in Daniel, which is mostly written in Aramaic with only the beginning in Hebrew, and refers to thousands of servants.
In the Talmud, the root Shamash is used etremely commonly in words that mean use, service, benefit, etc. The actual word Shamash is used to refer to the server at the Paschal meal in a discussion about laws pertaining to that person. In later literature, the word Shamash is used to refer to the synagogue attendant, and this word is used in this manner in modern times as well.
As for the candle in the menorah (chanukiah) which in modern times is called the Shamash, it originally did not exist when Chanukah was created. Originally, people lit lights for Chanuka, numbering one for each night (actually, this is a super over-simplification, but expounding on this will be tangential), outside their doors. The Talmud states that in times of persecution, when it was not safe to advertise the celebration of Chanuka, the lights would be lit inside the house. In this instance, the Talmud states that one must light an additional light for utility purposes unless they have another fire, such as a torch or fireplace, already in the house (One is not allowed to derive benefit from the light of the Hannukah lights, so this additional light/fire is used instead). The Talmud merely referes to this additional light as just that, an additional light (Ner Aheret). It is not called Shammash. However, the word used to describe its purpose (utility) has, as its root, the root Shammash.
The Shammash of Chanuka does have its roots from the above. The first mention of this is in the Ashkenazic literature, starting in the 13th century. In reference to the above requirement of the additional light inside the house, it ws recorded that among Ashkenazic Jewry, it became accostomed that instead of lighting a completely separate light, they would take the light that was used to light the Chanukkah lights and place that light in an adjacent position. This light is called Shammash, and it is explained in multiple places that the reason it is called this is because it has serviced the Chanuka lights (ie by lighting them) and afterward it is used to serve utilitarian purposes. It then became customary to make this light bigger than the Chanuka lights or to place this light in a position elevated above the Hanuka lights so that if someone were to approach the Chanuka lights to use them as a source of light, which is forbidden, they would gravitate to the bigger or higher light and use that one instead. Interestingly enough, in France in the 14th century or so, the custom was to place this Shammash in a LOWER position, so that it could more fully illuminate a room, since its inherent purpose was utility.
Today, the custom has been universally accepted, amongst Ashkenazic and Sepharadic communities, to have a Shammash and place it in a slightly elevated position.
To sum up, the root shammash was well established to mean to use or to serve long before the concept of the Shammash in Chanuka existed. The Shammash in its original form was just called an "additional light", yet its purpose was described using the root Shammash. Only much later did this become called a Shammash, and those who called it that clearly explain how it got that name.
4) The Syrian-Greek wars which led to the creation of Chanuka stretched over tens of years sometime between 200-100 BCE. This was well into the era of recorded history. There are apochrypha books dealing with Chanuka and it is mentioned in Josephus.
5) There are numerous theories as to how it got established as an 8 day holiday and on 25 of Kislev. I wont go into them, but keep in mind that the war of Chanuka was fought to eject both the Syrian-Greeks and their influence on the Jewish culture. A large part of that influence was to try to force Syrian-Greek paganism onto the Jewish culture. It makes no sense to mark such a holiday by incorporating the very holidays of the culture that was just expelled.
This is completely opposite to Christmas. Christmas was presumably established as part of a campaign to make Christianity more palatable to the pagan masses that the early Christians were trying to convert. Therefore, it makes sense for the early Christians to co-opt an established pagan festival into Christianity in order to convert them.
6) The Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar adjusted for the solar seasons by adding a month every few years. Therefore, unlike the 25th of December, which always falls a couple of days after the winter solstice, the 25th of Kislev can fall anywhere from late Novermber to late December.
7) The Hebrew months as currently names are taken from Persian names. In the Bible, the months are simply numbered 1-12 from Nisan, the month in which the Exodus is recorded to have taken place.
8) Finally, once again, the idea that the Talmud has myths about Jesus in order to protect the roots of Judaism is such a completely absurd idea. As far as I know, there was no cadre of history professors in the 4-5th century going around trying to examine the ancient roots of religions at that time.
