Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
40
The Biggest Party of the Year
Presents under a fir tree, a copious family feast, and a big man with a long white
beard—for a Russian, these traditions conjure up not Christmas, but New Year's
Eve. The atheist Soviet government wiped religious holidays off the official
calendar, but they couldn't suffocate the midwinter holiday spirit. Stalin, recog-
nizing the people's unwillingness to abandon Christmas traditions, encour-
aged their shift to the more secular New Year's holiday. Even today, a decade
and a half after the collapse of Soviet Communism, New Year's remains the
primary event on the Russian calendar. Russian Orthodox Christmas—cele-
brated on January 7, according to the Julian calendar in use before the revolu-
tion—has reassumed some of its former significance, but it's seen as a day for
attending Mass and singing hymns instead of gift-giving and family celebra-
tion. Those rituals are reserved for December 31, when even the smallest chil-
dren stay up to ring in the New Year.
Some restaurants and clubs are tapping into Western New Year's rituals with
expensive all-night parties drenched in champagne, but the majority of Rus-
sians consider it an at-home, family event. The appetizers emerge in early
evening, when relatives squeeze around the over-burdened table. For the next
several hours, people eat, drink, tell stories, and dance to favorite songs. Father
Frost, or Dyed Moroz, delivers gifts sometime around midnight. Because most
Russians live in apartment buildings, the whole coming-down-the-chimney
tradition plays no role here, and family members pull presents from cupboards
or from under beds. In fairy tales, Dyed Moroz is assisted by a Snow Maiden,
Snegurochka, and some families dress up as the two characters.
Menu items reflect the end of the pre-Christmas fast called for by Orthodox
custom, 40 days of refraining from meat and dairy products: beef and pork
3
Julian calendar, which was about 2
weeks behind the one used by the West-
ern world.
February 23:
Defenders of the Mother-
land Day (Armed Forces Day). With
the military draft still mandatory, many
Russians see this as a general “Men's
Day,” involving much vodka and stories
of hazing and corrupt commanding
officers.
February/March:
Maslenitsa, or Butter
Week. Not an official holiday. The week
before Orthodox Lent is traditionally a
time to eat lots of buttery
bliny
(crepe-
like pancakes) and other rich foods that
believers will forego for the next 40
days. Each day of the week has a sig-
nificance, such as Cleansing Thursday
when Russians purge overstuffed clos-
ets, and Forgiveness Sunday when peo-
ple forgive wrongs committed over the
past year. The origins of the holiday are
pagan, and many towns stage raucous
Maslenitsa festivals. It's not Carnival or
Mardi Gras, but it's lively.
March 8:
International Women's Day.
Begun by U.S. feminists in the 1920s,
the holiday became a Soviet banner for
gender equality. Today's Russian women
lament that men get pampered 364
days a year and women get appreciated
only on Vosmovo Marta (Mar 8). It's a
