Happy Christmas to all my Readers!!!This photo is from the site "Visit the motherland of Ded Moroz (Old Frost)"
You are great,Angela,I didn't know those things you write about in your comment and wanted to investigate those traditions,because I think they are very interesting and very near to our nature,our soul.I know,here in the zone I live, there are very ancestral uses bound to the day when people remember their dead relatives (Halloween today) for example.Interesting is,this uses survive in all nations even there are Religions and Modern view on the world ecc.
I write my answer here because I want to add pictures to my story.
In Soviet Union the ufficial feast was New Year with tree,"Old Frost(Ded Mor'oz)"(to respect,because can do bad things if treated in mistaken way - in ancestral folclore) and his grand-doughter "Born from snow(Sneg'urotchka)" (seems to be doughter of Spring,father unknown -modern story,eh?).There is a fable about a girl that was made from snow by parents that could not have children, and the girl become alive.In spring she dies when jamps with friends over the bale-fire (spring feast of Kup'ala -when everything -all spirits and creations of Winter- have to die in the fire of spring). This story was used by A.N.Ostr'ovskij in 1867 and N.A.R'imskij-K'orsakov in 1881 composed opera "Sneg'urotchka"(born from snow).
The officials of communist party when had to create a new popular holiday (middle 20-th) used these characters.Together Ded Mor'oz and Sneg'urotchka appear for the first time in 1937
This is the picture of Vasnetsov V.M.
Holydays start with New Year (31/12-1/01),continue with orthodoxal Christmas (6/01-7/01),than Old New Year (13-14/01).Somebody begins with catolical Christmas and continue after Old N.Y. with other feasts, of pagan origins, like "farewell,winter" ecc.But New Year is most romantic.It's a mix of "normal" holiday and Carneval and is common for all population,when others somebody likes them,somebody not.
Holydays start with New Year (31/12-1/01),continue with orthodoxal Christmas (6/01-7/01),than Old New Year (13-14/01).Somebody begins with catolical Christmas and continue after Old N.Y. with other feasts, of pagan origins, like "farewell,winter" ecc.But New Year is most romantic.It's a mix of "normal" holiday and Carneval and is common for all population,when others somebody likes them,somebody not.
