Fun facts about Russian New Year's Eve 🥂

Christmas🎅 is one of the favorite holidays among many people in the whole world, including in Russia and ex-Soviet countries! 🎄 But.. we don't call them Christmas Holidays (Рождéственские прáздники) there, but rather New Year's Holidays (Новогóдние прáздники -  [Nuhva'gódnie prázniki]). 

In this article I want to share with you 5 fun facts about New Year's Eve in Russia and some other ex-Soviet countries. (Yes, we still share some traditions).

1. Western Countries' Christmas is our New Year's Eve. Everything associated with Christmas in Europe (tree, gifts, Santa, spending time with your family) is attributed to New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve is the most important holiday for many people in Russia. It's the most magical night of the year, the night of miracles, and many people believe that magical things can happen that night and that their life will change for the better on the 1st of January. That's why Russians start holiday season only on the 30th of December.

Christmas is not that important in modern Russia because of many years of religious oppression by the communist regime in the XX century. Christmas had been widely celebrated since the X century, but in 1929, Christmas was prohibited and became an illegal holiday.
Christmas ban also implied the ban of the Christmas tree and family gatherings. (Very mister grinch)

In 1936 new government decided to bring the holiday tradition back because it was supposed to boost societal morale, but they eliminated all the Christian connotations. That's how people started to celebrate New Year's Eve with Christmas traditions.

Nowadays, people who celebrate Christmas are mainly practicing Christians, but the celebration itself is way more humble than New Year's Eve. It includes night church service (from 11 pm to 2 am) and community gatherings. Some christian families have a tradition of cooking 12 different dishes for the Christmas dinner by the number of apostles.

A shot from the legendary Soviet movie about the New Year's  "Карнавальная ночь" (Carnival Night)

2.Three foods must be on the festive New Year's Eve table. Tangerines (мандари́ны) - Champagne  (шампáнское) - Russian salad, a.k.a Оливье. All the rest is variable. These three items are not under discussion. Period.  Why tangerines? Because in the 50th, when this tradition started, there were food shortages in the USSR. There was not any other fruit available. No import was permitted from the capitalist countries. Tangerines grew in the Caucasian region and were in season in December, so it looked like a perfect supply solution.

3. Christmas is celebrated nowadays on the 7th of January, or more precisely, on the night of the 6/7 of January because the Russian Orthodox Church follows the Julian calendar, and the Catholic church follows the Gregorian calendar. Religious holidays are celebrated by the Russian Orthodox Church 2 weeks later.

That's why when you want to wish merry Christmas and Happy New Year in Russian, you say,

"С новым годом и Рождеством" (Happy New Year and Christmas). New Year comes first!

4.Let's recap how you can wish Happy New Year in Russian:

• С Но́вым го́дом! - (Happy New Year)
• С наступа́ющим! (Happy upcoming holiday)
• Счастли́вого Но́вого го́да! (Happy New Year) 

C Новым годом can sound a bit weird since it sounds just like stating the fact rather than giving wishes. The structure for that is поздравлять (congratulate) с (on) + instrumental case. To wish someone a happy holiday, we say, "I congratulate you on this holiday" like it were a personal thing. In Russian it is Я поздравляю вас/тебя с Новым годом. But then we skip поздравляю and just leave С новым годом! The same applies to Merry Christmas - С Рождеством!

5. A year did not start on the 1st of January before. From 988 to 1492, New Year was celebrated on the 1st of March in Old Russia, then from 1492 to 1700, on the 1st of September. Only in 1700 did Peter the Great sign a decree establishing the 1st of January as the first day of the year; it was the Julian Calendar, though, so it fell on the 14th of January. In 1918 we started to celebrate it on the 1st of January. That's why Russians celebrate a unique holiday Old New Year (Старый Новый Год) which is New Year's according to the old Julian calendar style.
It falls on the 14th of January. Didn't know it?



Счастливого Нового года! Всего самого доброго в 2023! 
Happy New Year! All the kindest wishes for 2023!