> and this
> meaning
> of `other feast` must have been early developed in Slavic since in
> that
> Russian Novgorod Chronicle the word already refers to a summertime
> period
> not coincidental with solstice).
I don't think this is a crucial point in your argumentation (and I'm not
taking sides), but just for the record: the word in the Novgorod chronicle
is explained as 'winter solstice' both in Sreznevskij's dictionary and the
fundamental Old Russian dictionary issued by the Institute of the Russian
language; Trubac^ev's ESSJ gives the same meaning (and, AFAIK, the meaings
of Old Russian words were usually re-checked for the ESSJ, the dictionary
cardfile being next door to the ESSJ team's office). I don't know where
Bernecker has got the meaning you quote.
Sergei