The Doubled Festive Season

New Year and Christmas is a very emotional and a seemingly confusing time for Russians. I say this without sarcasm or question to a Russian native for his opinion, but I can clearly see that the period is very culturally charged, that they are unsure of how to celebrate the occasions in a calm and well prepared manner and that they have to do it twice every year just to make sure that they get it right.

Email New Year and Christmas Wishes
Photo Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 2007

To start at the beginning, Christmas is celebrated on the 25th December, nearly as if it was any other day of the year, with only a liberal amount of handshaking and good wishes being passed around. In fact the Christmas tree had not even been put up, the Turkey or Chicken was still running around the farm and the cook was having a bad hair day like all the other days before in as much as lunch was the same as dinner and resembled a breakfast at the greasy spoon for $1.10 (twenty cents more for a dollop of ketchup and a splash of salt). It passed by all onboard without note or recognition and so passed Boxing Day and the rest of the year!

With the onslaught of 2007 the atmosphere suddenly started to pick up! Out of nowhere a Christmas tree appeared, admittedly the decorations of coke cans and crown pies (fortunately still wrapped) did suggest that nothing had been prepared in advance, but they looked good from a distance and certainly started to give shape to the season, even if some of it had already passed!

The Crown Pie Decorations
Photo Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 2007

At this point, should confusion be reigning as to why the tree goes up after Christmas, Russians follow, or used to follow a different calendar than the west. The Russian Christmas used to be on 7th January with a New Year following hot on its heels on the 14th January (if one where to put the dates on a western calendar). As far back as Peter the 1st the Russians decided to follow the western calendar to be on the same wavelength as the rest of the world and to allow Santa to do one trip only, but then, before they could all get used to the Western Calendar, communism reared its head and threw a spanner in the works by banning Christmas altogether. By the time the collapse of communism sunk in, well, most people still find it all very confusing with the end result that they seem to have a Christmas followed by a new year and then another Christmas followed by another new year!

Out of the four possible days for celebration, it seems that the main day of the season is the Western New Year which seems to follow the style of a big feed in the late evening and then a liberal amount of handshaking interspersed with brief spouts of dancing before everybody retires to bed at 2430hrs.

The Western Christmas is not worth getting out of bed for and the Old Russian New Year is deemed pointless and not an eyelid is blinked!

This leaves the Old Russian Christmas, the one that was not allowed to be celebrated but which now snuggles comfortably at the end of a national holiday that lasts from January the 1st to the January the 8th. This day is celebrated in style! It has become a day not just for the family, more of a day to get totally and utterly demented on a variety of cheap alcoholic drinks from bottles without labels on them and to shake hands and kiss each other as if the 'end of the world' has been postponed for another year. In fact it is celebrated just like a bunch of Scotts in Edinburgh on New Years Eve!

All very confusing to the foreigner! The season though is explained with ease by the Russians, "It's all just an excuse to drink". Although this does read wrong; that Russians don't need an excuse to drink - in a country where beer is not even classed as Alcohol and where 1.5ltrs of beer costs less than 1 pound to buy an excuse seems pointless to give.

Ieuan Dolby
Author and Webmaster of SeaDolby.com
Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 12th January 2007