December 26, 2013

Happy New Year!


Happy New Year!

If you’re an American in Russia in December, your surroundings may feel eerily familiar: people put decorated trees up in their homes, stress out about buying presents, plan for good times with family and friends… But then December 25 comes and goes, and yet nothing seems to change. What gives?

As a matter of fact, the big winter holiday for Russians is New Year’s Eve, not Christmas. Orthodox Christmas falls on January 7, and is fully and truly a religious holiday. New Year’s Eve, on the other hand, has all the familiar trappings of Christmas, but with nothing religious about it. Who’s behind this? Those atheist communists, right?

Sure, the Bolsheviks eliminated Christmas as a holiday, banning its celebration in 1929. They were also responsible for the strange order of the holidays: when they switched the country over to the Gregorian calendar, suddenly all the church holidays (which were and still are timed to the Julian calendar) were shifted with respect to civil holidays. This suited the Bolsheviks just fine, as it undermined the stability of the church. When all was said and done, New Year’s remained as the only winter holiday.

Thus Peter decreed: here there is to be a tree.

But for New Year’s to remain, it had to first be introduced. As with several other important changes in Russian society, this, too, originated with Peter the Great.

In the distant past, Russians celebrated the New Year in September, as ordained by the Orthodox Church; years were counted from Genesis. After his travels in Europe, Peter decreed that – contrary to popular belief – “the currently passing year is the 1699th since the birth of Christ, and on the next January 1, the new 1700th year will come, as will a new century.” Thus Russia joined the rest of Europe, just in time for the eighteenth century.

To put it bluntly, Peter was all about keeping up with the Joneses – the other European countries. He wanted the Russian New Year to be no worse than theirs, and so his decree included specific instructions for decorating the city: people with the means were required to put up “some decorations of pine and juniper branches or trees,” while “meager” people had to at least put some kind of branch or twig by their gates. These decorations were then dressed up with nuts, fruits, and vegetables – but Russians continued to look to their Western neighbors, and by the nineteenth century they adopted more familiar traditions of decorating holiday trees.

A modern variation on Peter's "branches" idea.

But in the end, New Year’s still owes its current popularity to the Bolsheviks, even if its conception and secularism came from Peter. Along with Christmas, they banned the celebration and decorations of New Year’s, as belonging to the old order. And yet, starting in 1935, some of its features came back in “trees” (in Russian, the word can refer to both the tree itself and the associated party), organized for children as a holiday for the “joyful and happy childhood one can have in our country.”

And we know who to thank for that...
(Thank you to dear Stalin for our happy childhood!)

P.S. All the calendar-shifting left Russians with one extra holiday: Old New Year’s, celebrated on January 13, thirteen days after everyone else’s New Year. As much as it may sound like a contradiction, it still carries a share of the original holiday’s cheer, and marks the close of Russia's two-week-long holiday.

 

For more, see russianelka.ru [ru].

Image credit: Eugenia Sokolskaya, sovmusic.ru

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
How Russia Got That Way

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955