Merry Christmas! ("Again?" you say.) Even thought the rest of society operate on the Gregorian calendar, the Orthodox church still operate on the Julian calendar. Tomorrow, January 7th is Orthodox Christmas.
I have noticed a couple of people have wished me a merry Christmas. In Russian this is "с рождеством" (s rozhdestvom- literally "with the birth", Christ is linguistically implied. This certainly did not happen to me last year in Novosibirsk. I don't know if this is because Russian society continues to change, or because Krasnoyarsk is more religious. Apparently a small city north of here "Eniseysk" is considered the Orthodox centre of Russia, so it could follow that Krasnoyarsk is more religious. Nevertheless it is nice to know that people have religious freedom in Russia now.
Melody experienced a big blessing today when walking through the forest. A lady pulled her over and greeted her with the full blessing "Happy new year with the birth of Christ." She included the name of Christ in her blessing. (In Russia the order is reversed!)
Tonight we were taken completely by surprise when a group of young people rang our doorbell. When we answered they began singing carols to us and the other people in our corridor. This was very enjoyable. They were dressed in cute costumes, and asked for some sweets. They promised 3 years of happiness for blessing carolers. We don't need the luck, but we were happy to bless them anyway.
Enjoy this unique slice of authentic Russian culture. As Russians celebrate New Years as their main holiday, it means that Christmas is more of a religious holiday. I think the fact that they dress up and asked for sweets is a very welcome alternative to the ugliness of Halloween.
There is not an orthodox church here in Akademgorodok, and it is quite cold this week, so we will probably not make it to one tomorrow, but it was nice to be reminded.
"With the birth!"
3 comments:
That's really cool! Loved their costumes... wonder how "authentic" they are to traditional designs. We often still carol in rural Saskatchewan Canada, but the traditions in Newfoundland are even more interesting: One where they would carol or "revel" in the middle of the night: sneak into people's kitchens in the dark, while occupants are in bed, sing "the" Christmas and/or "the" New Year's carol, and then move along. Check this out: http://soundprint.org/radio/display_show/ID/594/name/A+Little+Before+'Tis+Day
(you might need to copy and paste into your browser). It's a radio program recorded in Newfoundland, so you can enjoy the 'special accents too! Then there's a bizarre version called "mummering." Check out Mummers at the Door, here:
http://soundprint.org/radio/display_show/ID/678/name/Mummers+at+the+Door
You wrote - "Even though the rest of society operate on the Gregorian calendar"
I am interested to know what you mean by 'the rest of society'? Do you mean the 'new roman society' of the 'freedom loving nations'? Do you mean the middle east? Do you mean Asia? Do you mean central asia? There are also other slavic nations that celebrate Christmas on the 7th (the 'original' date before Pope Gregory decided to change it) - eg Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Belorussia, the Ukraine etc. There is a whole world outside of the Roman Empire. It is good that Russians actually celebrate the nativity separately to the Christmas tree and Santa Claus. They do not get the two confused, unlike modern western tradition. It is also good that the general population mentions the birth of Christ in this context. Christ is all but missing from Christmas in the west.
Nickolai
Hi Nickolai,
All I meant to say was that the rest of Russian society use the Gregorian calendar for everything else. Within the Russian Federation, it is only the Orthodox church that use the old calendar.
The switch to the Gregorian calendar is more a mathematical adjustment than anything else, even though it was viewed as religious at the time. When the calendar changed in Russia, January 7th on the new calendar was exactly the same as December 25th on the old.
I am very aware that all Orthodox churches around the world celebrate Christmas on the Julian 25th of December, not just Russia. Although to be honest, the majority of Russian society do not celebrate the nativity anymore than in the west.
I am also very aware that there is a world outside of Europe. The Muslim world have a different calendar altogether in which it is 1428, instead of 2008. I had no cultural prejudice in writing this post. In fact I thought it was a rather fun and positive one. Don't you?
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