In the sacred traditions of the people native to the Great Lakes region of North America, there's a beautiful tale about finding the date of the New Year which, if applied to this year, reveals that we can all start our new year observances as early as Wednesday, December 16th.
The tale is directly linked to the moon and the stars of this season, and describes how several tribal children were assumed into the night sky to become the star cluster we know as the Pleiades. They had taken up ceremonial practice too soon~they were too young~despite the warning from their elders, and because of this, they were called by the Great Spirit to a greater task.
Now though the loss of these children into the night sky deeply saddened the people, the Great Spirit comforted them by describing the "higher service" to which the children were called: He explained that each year, five sleeps after the December New Moon, when the star cluster of Pleiades (which is actually the children) is highest, then it is time to observe and celebrate the New Year. Pleiades is almost directly overhead on December evenings, looking slightly southeast, and we've just had New Moon on December 11th, so five sleeps later will be this Wednesday, December 16th.
This story of children becoming stars in the native tradition of the Great Lakes mirrors, in the opposite direction, the Christian tradition that describes how, rather than children becoming stars, a single star shines over or becomes a child on earth, known in this season as the Christ child.
The great mystery pointed to in both cases is the sacred relationship between the human being and the stars, and the role of sleep and dreaming in accessing the wisdom to know this connection. So pay attention to your dreams right now, because it just may be that through them, the stars are bringing new awareness to birth.