|
|
Russians observe a number of holidays: statutory and informal, old
and new, religious and secular. The first holiday of the year is the
New Year celebrations with five statutory days off from 1st to 5th
January. Russia’s equivalent of Santa Claus is called Father Frost
whose main function is, of course to give presents to children. In
their homes Russians decorate fir trees, which are called “New Year
trees”, not Christmas trees. Parties and balls begin on New Year’s
Eve and usually last till the small hours of the morning on 1st
January. |
Many Russians also observe the unofficial tradition of celebrating
the “Old-Style” New Year on 13th January, which is New Year’s
Eve according to the Julian, or Old Style, calendar that had been in
use in Russia up to 1918.
Following the collapse of atheistic communism, religious festivals
have revived. Christmas has been restored as a public holiday and
is observed by Russian Orthodox believers on 7 January. Easter is
now celebrated more widely too. Moslems, Jews, Buddhists, and
adherents of other faiths can now observe their holidays without the
fear of oppression.
23 February is now officially called the Motherland Defenders’ Day,
but was known under the Soviets as the Soviet Army Day. The holiday
is treated as Men’s Day and women are expected to give presents to
their husbands, partners or sons regardless of whether they have
served in the army or not. Men and women reverse roles on 8 March,
International Women’s Day, when men give them gifts of flowers and
other presents.
May Day is celebrated on 1st May and is officially called Spring and
Labor Day. It is followed closely by the Victory Day celebrations on
9 May, when the nation remembers millions of its citizens who lost
their lives in World War II. Meetings are held of war veterans and
flowers and wreaths are laid at the tombs of the victims of war.
12 June is Russia Day, Russia’s new national holiday. On that day in
1990 the 1st Congress of People’s Deputies of the Russian Soviet
Federative Socialist Republic adopted the Declaration of Sovereignty
by an overwhelming majority of nearly 100 percent. The day of the
adoption of the declaration was made a national holiday in 1994.
4 November is National Unity Day and is Russia’s newest holiday. It
has been introduced to replace the Soviet national holiday -
the 7 November, the anniversary of the
1917 Bolshevik Revolution, in an effort to overcome the political
controversy that surrounds the communist legacy. However, the
remaining communist supporters continue to mark the 7 November as
the occasion to show their unflagging enthusiasm for Lenin’s ideas.
Copyrighted material
