Long-standing Russian Christmas customs include caroling, fortune-telling, and following a strict Nativity Fast for forty days leading up to Christmas Eve.
For centuries, Russians observed Christmas in the traditions of the Eastern Orthodox Church, celebrating the holiday on January 7th instead of December 25th in accordance with the traditional Julian calendar.
The difference in dates has got to do with the difference between the 'Gregorian' and 'Julian' calendars. The Russian Orthodox Church follows the Julian calendar, in which Christmas is celebrated on January 7.
White is used by most churches as the color of Christmas, when the altar is covered with a white cloth (in the Russian Orthodox Church Gold is used for Christmas).
During the celebration, we can still observe such ancient elements of Russian holiday as fortune-telling on Christmas Eve, koliada, and singing carols (kalyadki), while worshipers follow a strict fast, which ends when the first star appears in the sky on the night of Christmas Eve.
Long-standing Russian Christmas customs include caroling, fortune-telling, and following a strict Nativity Fast for forty days leading up to Christmas Eve.
On Christmas Eve (6 January), there are several long church services, including the Royal Hours and Vespers combined with the Divine Liturgy. The family will then return home for the traditional Christmas Eve (Holy Supper), which consists of 12 dishes, one to honour each of the Twelve Apostles.
Kutya (sometimes called sochivo) is a ceremonial sweet grain dish that symbolizes unity and is often eaten around the Christmas holiday in Russia. Kutya is a pudding-like dessert made with wheat berries, poppy seeds, nuts, and dried fruit, which is then sweetened with honey.
Christmas Eve is called “sochelnik” after “sochivo”, the name of the ritual meal to be eaten on that day. Sochivo or kutya is a kind of kasha of wheat or barley, rye, buckwheat, peas, lentils, mixed with honey. The number of meals was ritual too, 12 (the number of apostles).
The common symbols of Orthodox Christmas are a decorated fir tree, a star (such as the first star in the sky or the star on top of the Christmas tree) and baby Jesus.
Christmas in Russia is normally celebrated on January 7th (only a few Catholics might celebrate it on the 25th December). The date is different because the Russian Orthodox Church uses the old 'Julian' calendar for religious celebration days. The Orthodox Church also celebrates Advent.
In Russia, the festive fir known to the world as the Christmas tree goes by another name: the New Year yolka. The history behind this tradition encompasses pagan rituals, tsars and tsarinas and Soviet anti-religious propaganda.
Russian Christmas traditions evoke part of the traditional and part of the modern contemporary, including intricately hand-carved and hand-painted Grandfather Frost figurines; wondrous Russian Christmas ornaments, hand-made Russian nativities, one-of-a-kind Russian nutcrackers, and especially Russian Christmas themed ...
In Russia the Gregorian calendar was adopted only in 1918 by the decree of the Soviet Government. January 31 that year was followed by February 14. The Russian church didn't accept the changes and continue to celebrate Christmas on 25 December in the Julian calendar, which is 7 January in the Gregorian calendar.
Olivier salad (also known as Russian salad) is a mayonnaise-based potato salad distinguished by its diced texture and the contrasting flavors of pickles, hard-boiled eggs, boiled carrots, boiled potatoes, meat, and peas. This dish is one of the main features of New Year buffets.
Christmas itself was reinstated 25 years ago, in 1991. And it is indeed celebrated by religious (and even pseudo-religious) Russians. But the big celebrations are still reserved for New Year's Eve.
In the past, Russia's President Vladimir Putin has celebrated Christmas at crowded gatherings outside Moscow.
Russian is the primary language of the overwhelming majority of people in Russia and is also used as a second language in other former republics of the Soviet Union.
Russian Orthodoxy holds, just as other Christian sects, that God sent Jesus Christ, his son and an aspect of himself, to promulgate a new covenant to the people of the world. Jesus Christ was crucified but resurrected and ascended to heaven.