Russian Christmas Tree Tradition

Christmas in russia occurs on january 7th according to the russian orthodox calendar.

Russian christmas tree tradition.

In the orthodox tradition nothing is eaten or drunk on christmas eve until the first star appears in the sky. Christmas is a time for visiting family attending church services and enjoying a christmas feast. Russian orthodox christmas takes place on january 7th following the old calendar this is the 25th of december and the celebration lasts for six days. Eclipsed by new year s celebrations russian christmas is somewhat less important than it is in other eastern european nations.

Celebrating the new year is a more important holiday in russia than christmas. He is accompanied by snegurochka a snow maiden said to be his granddaughter. On new year s eve he places presents for children under the new year tree as opposed to a christmas tree. However given the early christian community kievan rus celebration may have a longer history.

It began regaining popularity only recently partially because russian leaders starting with vladimir putin annually attend a christmas liturgy. The russian santa claus is named ded moroz or father frost. Christmas became an official holiday and a non labor day in russia in 1991. Russian christmas religious traditions.

Often russian christmas and russian new years are combined into a long winter celebration. During the early mid soviet period religious celebrations were discouraged by the official state policy of atheism until 1936 but despite this.