Christmas in Russia
From the O’Byrne Family
You would think that we would never
have to worry about having a “White Christmas” in Saint Petersburg, since we
are almost on the 60th latitude, up with Anchorage, Alaska, but we
have had our share of brown and green Christmases too! Our family loves winter
and loves the fur hats, the frosty air, the frozen rivers, lakes and puddles,
and all the snow that Russian winters normally bring. During the Christmas Eve
storm of 2005, Priscilla announced it was time and we crawled through the
traffic and made it to the medical clinic, where our daughter Olivia was born
on Christmas Day! “The best Christmas gift ever” according to her brother Liam.
Christmas occurs near the darkest days of the year, when the sun only barely
comes up and skirts along the horizon for about 5 hours. Instead of feeling
depressed from the lack of sunlight, I use the darkness as a reminder of the
Light of the World that shines in the darkness.
When we arrived in Russia just over
20 years ago, we discovered that Russia has and unique issue with Christmas.
Since the Russian Orthodox Church resisted the Soviet Union’s shift to the
western, Gregorian calendar, so the traditional Orthodox Christmas Eve service
is held on the eve of January 6th, ringing in the birth of Jesus at
Midnight January 7th. Not much is done on the Orthodox Christmas
Day, because all of the trappings of trees and gift-giving had long before been
imported by the Tsar in the 18th century an incentive for Russians to
comply with moving New Year’s Day to January 1st (from September 1st)!
Rather than Santa and Elves, it’s Grandfather Frost and the Snow Princess who
bring presents on New Year’s. Long before Communism came to Russia, the “Grinch
Stole Christmas” or it was hijacked by New Year’s.
December 25
(Gregorian, Western)
 |
January 1
(Gregorian, Western)
|
January 7
(Gregorian, Western)
=December 25
(Julian, Orthodox)
On one hand Christmas seems to lack
something without the “present-reminder”; and the gift-giving of New Year’s
seems empty disconnected from the Gift of Christ. On the other hand, after
complaining so long about the commercialization of Christmas, here we actually
get the chance to have the celebration of Christ’s birth completely separated
from the materialistic madness! We usually celebrate Advent using the western
calendar, and have our tradition of a western family, gift-giving Christmas on
December 25th. The churches we have attended celebrate Christmas on
or as near to January 7th as they can, since the school break only
starts a few days before New Year’s, and they have to compete with rented
facilities. That way we have our Christmas pie and eat it too, a quiet family
Christmas in December, and church celebration two weeks later.
Secular western “Countdown to Christmas” above for comparison with the Russian one below
Notice the Russian New Year’s Calendar below shows Jesus’ Birth on the 25th and Grandfather Frost bring presents on the 31st!
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