KZBlog

Happy New Year!

As many readers may know, New Year’s Eve in the former Soviet Union (and much of the Eastern world) is celebrated much like Westerners celebrate Christmas. Families gather together for a big meal and put up a fir tree with lots of decorations. Presents are given–not by Santa Claus but by Дед Мороз or Father Frost. And Father Frost doesn’t hang out with an old lady. No, he has a niece (or daughter) called Snow Girl or Снегурочка who is young and beautiful!

Of course, on New Year’s Eve people stay up til midnight to greet the New Year–whereas kids have to go to sleep early on Christmas Eve or Santa Claus won’t come. And instead of watching a ball drop, people listen to the President’s speech then set off fireworks (Banned this year–thanks a lot Perm!). But in general New Year’s Eve is a lot like Christmas, whereas Orthodox Christmas (which falls on the 6th of January thanks to the Julian calendar) is pretty much a purely religious holiday celebrated only by Christians.

I got curious about whether Father Frost was just a copy of Santa Claus and also how the Communist Party felt about New Year’s and found that great repository of information, Wikipedia, to be incredibly useful.

First, I was surprised to learn that Ded Moroz originated with the Northern tribes and not with Slavs. Apparently it wasn’t until the 19th century that Ded Moroz became popular among Russians. Also he was apparently an evil winter wizard originally who stole children and demanded ransom to give them back!

What was most interesting was that the Tsar and later the Communist Party greatly politicized New Years:

In 1916, in Imperial Russia the Holy Synod called to boycott Christmas trees as a tradition, originating from Germany (Russia’s enemy during World War I). In the Russian SFSR and the Soviet Union Christmas trees were banned until 1935 because they were considered to be a “bourgeois and religious prejudice”. In 1928 Ded Moroz was declared “an ally of the priest and kulak”. …The color of the coat that Ded Moroz wore was changed several times. So as not to be confused with Santa Claus, it was often blue. Joseph Stalin ordered Palace of Unions’ Ded Morozes to wear only blue coats. During the times of the Soviet Union’s dominance over Eastern Europe, Ded Moroz was officially introduced in many national traditions, despite being alien to them.

So if the Soviet Union called Ded Moroz “an ally of the priest and kulak”, does that mean they affirmed his existence?

In any case, Happy New Years. May you get everything you hope for and may no one get burned by fireworks!!