Russians really love celebrating the New Year – they have two New Year celebrations in two weeks! Not a lot of business gets done in Russia during this time as people are traveling to visit family and friends, exchanging gifts, and toasting to the successes of last year and hoping for good fortune to come.
Old New Year
The reason Russia has two celebrations of the New Year is due to a calendar change that happened in 1918. After the revolution, the new government changed the official calendar to the Gregorian calendar but the Russian Orthodox Church continued to use the Julian calendar. So in Russia New Year’s is celebrated on January 1st just like everywhere else, but they also have Old New Year from the Julian calendar which is celebrated on January 13/14th (depending on the year). Due to the same reason Russians also have the opportunity to celebrate Christmas two times (December 25th and January 7th).
Christmas in Russia
Russians have Christmas trees (“yolka” in Russian), but since there was no Christmas in the Soviet Union they became New Year’s trees. The custom of decorating trees came from Peter the Great, after visiting Europe in the 1700s. Russia has a Santa Claus-like figure in a man called Grandfather Frost (“Ded Moroz” in Russian). Ded Moroz brings gifts to all the children and even participates in the lighting of the Christmas tree for special events – he has a special cane which when tapped on the ground magically lights up the Christmas tree. Ded Moroz is always seen with the beautiful Snow Maiden (“Snigurichka”) who helps him distribute gifts.
Russian Ruble Exchange Rate
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