Christmas and New Year's
This year I spent my first Christmas and New Year's overseas. Christmas was a little strange, because it's not an official holiday here, and not widely celebrated (they celebrate the Orthodox Christmas on January 7, but it's not a major holiday). So December 24 and 25 kind of crept up on me unexpectedly, though there has been quite a buildup of holiday decorations and lights in the city in anticipation of New Year's Eve. I had a nice, quiet Christmas Eve dinner with a couple of my local friends (which unfortunately did not get started until about 10 p.m., because I was stuck in a three-hour traffic jam in the city). On Christmas Day, one of my colleagues hosted a Christmas dinner for most of my coworkers, and in the evening I went to another friend's house for a Christmas party.
New Year's Eve is the biggest holiday of the year here, dating from Soviet times. It starts off as a family holiday, with families hanging out together and then eating dinner around midnight (after watching the president's annual New Year's address to the nation and toasting the new year with champagne). After dinner, people leave and make the rounds to their friends’ apartments throughout town; also, the streets are filled with people setting off fireworks and walking around town, etc. The fireworks were virtually nonstop from the time it got dark on New Year's Eve (6 p.m.), until daylight; in fact, they've started again as I write this on the evening of January 1. People sit up all night talking, eating, drinking, exchanging gifts, and dancing, and often don't go to bed until daylight. A group of friends from my church hosted a party at their apartment, and I joined-- we broke tradition a little bit and ate around 10:30 p.m. Guests kept coming throughout the night as they finished with their families, etc.-- every time someone rang the bell, we shut off all the lights, turn off the music, and surprise them with a loud "happy new year" in Russian when we finally opened the door. We stayed up all night dancing and talking and eating. I'm proud of myself for making it until morning--it helps when you're drinking tea and Red Bull instead of alcohol. I got home around 7:45 a.m.
You can see some pictures here.
New Year's Eve is the biggest holiday of the year here, dating from Soviet times. It starts off as a family holiday, with families hanging out together and then eating dinner around midnight (after watching the president's annual New Year's address to the nation and toasting the new year with champagne). After dinner, people leave and make the rounds to their friends’ apartments throughout town; also, the streets are filled with people setting off fireworks and walking around town, etc. The fireworks were virtually nonstop from the time it got dark on New Year's Eve (6 p.m.), until daylight; in fact, they've started again as I write this on the evening of January 1. People sit up all night talking, eating, drinking, exchanging gifts, and dancing, and often don't go to bed until daylight. A group of friends from my church hosted a party at their apartment, and I joined-- we broke tradition a little bit and ate around 10:30 p.m. Guests kept coming throughout the night as they finished with their families, etc.-- every time someone rang the bell, we shut off all the lights, turn off the music, and surprise them with a loud "happy new year" in Russian when we finally opened the door. We stayed up all night dancing and talking and eating. I'm proud of myself for making it until morning--it helps when you're drinking tea and Red Bull instead of alcohol. I got home around 7:45 a.m.
You can see some pictures here.
posted by Cosmic Stan at 5:00 PM
<< Home