Hello, everyone! Hope you're having an amazing Christmas time with your family and friends and hope you'll got everything you wanted as a present! ^^ Here's me during Christmas 2009 - 2010 which I spent in the US! x) Old funny picture, but I love it!
What I want to talk about today is Russian Christmas traditions, which actually are New Year traditions :) Many of you might wonder why your Russian friends don't say "Merry Christmas!" while having a chat over Facebook on December 24th and 25th, well, easy! Because in Russia we don't celebrate Christmas. Russia belongs to the Orthodox Christian Church and our Christmas is January 7th, however, during the communist times everything connected with religion was prohibited and people had no choice but have the celebration involving Christmas Tree and presents and other festive traditions during the New Year time. And thus New Year is the most "important" holiday for Russia ever since, leaving January 7th as a reason for very religious people to go to church and praise the birth of Jesus.
Now, during the New Years time we prepare all day long, cooking different salads and dishes, getting all the alcohol ready, buying last minutes presents and fireworks, because no matter if you gather with your family or friends, you're supposed to lay a very rich table with lots of food and drinks, or otherwise you're going to be very poor and have nothing to eat during the next year (or so superstition says). We have a saying "You're spending your next year the way you celebrated the New Years day".
This is how the traditional New Year table looks like in Russia. Traditional meals are caviar sandwiches, tangerines, lots of different salads. Champagne is the traditional drink for the New Year.
It's also a tradition that at 11:00 pm on the 31st December everyone should sit down and drink some alcohol to say farewell to the old year and to thank it for everything good that it brought. That's also the time to open the presents which have been awaiting under the New Year tree.
All day on 31st of December TV channels broadcast traditional movies about New Year which all of us has seen millions of times, but still watch it every year, because without them the holiday is just not the same. One of the most popular and traditional ones is "Irony of Fate or Enjoy Your Bath!". The film was made during the soviet times in 1963 and tells an amazing story which took place on the 31st of December. A group of friends from Moscow have a tradition to go to sauna every New Year. One of them was supposed to fly to Saint-Petersburg right after it, but they've got so drunk that another man was sent there instead. Funny story is that the man got to Saint-Petersburg without realising where he was, called a taxi and said his Moscow address. Taxi got him home and it happened so that the block of apartments was identical, the door lock was identical so the key fit in, the furniture was identical, too (everything was identical in USSR), that he didn't even realise he's not at his own home. When the owner of the flat arrives, the fun begins :) You should watch it! I love this movie endlessly! It just never gets old :)
At 11:55 pm, right befor the New Year, the president of Russia gives his speach, which is broadcasted on every channel. It's used to be the most important message, but right now it's just a bunch of crap, some promisses, the words about "this year was not easy, but we made it, we're strong and it's going to be better", so we don't really listen, what we wait for is the chiming clock from the Red Square Kremlin in Moscow to strike 12 (which is also broadcasted on TV), the tradition says, that while the clock strikes 12 you should open champagne, pour it into glasses, then write your wish on the piece of paper, burn it, put ashes in your glass of champagne and drink it. If you manage to do everything untill the last stike, your wish is going to come true :) I do it every year and it works, guys!!! :) Here's the video of the chiming clock from Red Square striking 12 :) Get the atmosphere :)
After it the national anthem plays and all of the people around scream "S Novym Godom!" ("Happy New Year") and kiss and hug each other. Afterwards we drink and dance and call our relatives and go outside to have our fireworks :) We pretty much party till the very early morning and then go to bed.
I really love it! There's nothing like the atmosphere of the New Year in Russia :) I hope I managed to share even a little bit of it with you, guys! :)
Have a very Merry Holiday Season! Love you!
Ivy <3
@missy @rambo @lyxzen
