RUSSIAN HOLIDAYS

Russia is very rich with different kinds of holidays. There are 8 national holidays which are official days off, and there are dozens of non-official holidays. Let’s talk about the most popular Russian holidays which conserve a lot of specific traditions and which Russian people love so much.

The New Year’s Day is not only the first on the calendar but it is also the first in popularity. This holiday is the longest in Russia, because people start to celebrate it 31st of December continue with Christmas day and finish January 14 on the “Old New Year” (which corresponds to January 1 in the Julian calendar, used in before 1918).

In many Russian families New Year holiday is considered to be a family one. So, it means that all members of a family gather at home and pass the night from December 31 to January 1 together. Everybody prepares presents and is happy to gift them to their dear ones wishing all the best for all the new year. There are a lot of interesting programs and musical concerts on TV these days. That’s why TV becomes one of the members almost in each Russian family.

Another peculiarity of the New Year’s holiday is a lot of tasty and heavy food. Each woman regards as her duty to prepare her firm dish for this holiday. Let’s add to this traditional “olivie” (which is known as Russian salad abroad), “vinigret”, some meat and/or fish dish, and 2 other different salads. Don’t forget to leave a place in your stomach for a wonderful cake which is also prepared by the mistress of the house.

After all said, it’s no wonder that many Russians even don’t mention how the New Year holiday disappears and they start to celebrate Christmas. Russian Christmas is celebrated January 7 and famous for its numerous traditions which source lays in the remote times of the past, the times of paganism. Christianity had finished with the religious ceremonies of paganism. However, many traditions were preserved by the people in the form of entertainment and festive occasions, some of them were even adopted to the Christian ceremonies and traditions.

One of such ceremonies is called "koliadki" (Christmas carol). The ceremony includes wishing of wealth and happiness for everybody. Young people travel from house to house, having themselves a rousing good time, and singing songs known as “kolyadki”. In return for their songs, the singers are offered food and coins, which they gladly accept, moving on to the next home.

Now, let’s return from religious to public holidays. The next 2 popular holidays are February 23 and March 8. The first one is called Protector of Motherland Holiday and is considered to be the holiday of Russian men, not only those who protected in their life but also those who could potentially do it. That’s why even little boys think that it is their holiday. The second one is called International Women’s day, and is considered to be the day of all women in Russia. Men try to gift the best flowers and to make wonderful surprises for their women. And once again, the tables are full of different tasty dishes and TVs translate musical concerts.

April passes without great public holidays, but in May there are even two! As it often happens in Russian one holiday comes to another. So, everything starts on May 1, Labour Day. Russians used to celebrate this holiday in the soviet epoch, but this habit turned out to be so strong that they continue doing it nowadays. If this holiday come to the week-end, you could see all the railway stations crowed with towns-men going to their “dacha” (little house in a village) where they plant out the first vegetables. So it is really a labour day in the true sense of this word.

When people come back from their “dacha” they find themselves in the city decorated with million flags on the occasion of celebrating May 9 which is Victory Day. It is one of the most important days in the modern history of Russia ! People celebrate the victory over the German Nazism in WW2. In all over the world it is celebrated on May 8. The thing is that the pact of capitulation was signed at 22.43 of Central European time and but in Russia it was already 0.43, so another day had already come. Victory Day is a patriotic holiday which unites the entire nation in memory of those who died in that war. There are always great parades and concerts on the main places of Russian cities.

Victory Day is not the only holiday full of history. There are also June 12, the Independence Day and November 4, Day of the National Unity. The last one is a new holiday for Russians because only some years ago they started to celebrate it. It was the day when in XII century Russian people united after long years of distemper to release their country from Polish invaders and to elect a new tsar. It seems to be a nice idea to celebrate this holiday in order to make all Russians feel more united and proud of their country. But it appeared that people cannot accustom at once to this holiday, because earlier during decades they used to celebrate November, 7 as a public holiday. Only in some years they could celebrate this holiday as it existed for ages, because all Russians adore holidays. Maybe it’s the main reason why they do have so many wonderful and interesting holidays!