LIFT

Merry Christmas! May your days be merry, your hearts lights and your stockings full of surprises!

Happy Easter! Христос Воскрес! (Christ is risen!) That’s how people in Russia great each other on this holy day.
The holiday of Orthodox Christian Easter lasts seven days and is called Holy Week or Week.
Easter is a day of plentiful food. After Lent, which lasts 40 days with strict elimination of animal food, a variety of delicious dishes are put on the table on this day. And among them the first place is occupied by ritual dishes: Easter pudding, Easter cakes and coloured eggs.
Easter eggs symbolize new life. Each shade has its own meaning. As a rule, the colours are different, the main ones are blue, green, purple and brown. Green symbolizes spring, yellow - the sun. The main colour remains red, which means the suffering and blood of Christ.
There is an Easter tradition of breaking eggs at the festive table. At this moment, one person must hold the egg with the apex up, the second should break it with the apex of the egg, which will be in their hands.
A strong egg means the strong character of the one in whose hands it ends up. It is believed that the person whose egg remains intact will have good luck all year, until next Easter.
Painted eggs and Easter cakes are usually given to each other for Easter. This is the best gift that will be remembered for a long time.

Happy International Women's Day!

In Russia, 8 March or International Women's Day was established as a day of solidarity for women and emancipation in 1917.

Today, the holiday is still celebrated, however, it has lost its original meaning, nowadays being a day off throughout the country with women being in the centre of attention. Its traditions include giving women flowers, chocolate and other gifts, and according to studies, flowers are the most desired gifts of them all.

Maslenitsa is a festival, marking a farewell to winter and a solemn meeting of the spring. There is no specific date in the calendar for its celebration as it takes place a week before Lent, from 28 February to 6 March this year.

Traditionally, the main attributes of the holiday are a stuffed Maslenitsa, fun, sleigh rides, festivities and, of course, pancakes - round, ruddy, hot, before they had a ritual meaning, as they were seen as a symbol of the sun. Today, on the last day of the Maslenitsa week, Maslenitsa is being seen off by burning its dummy.

23 February (23 февраля)

23 February is the Day of Military Glory of Russia - Defender of the Fatherland Day.

In 1922, this date was officially declared Red Army Day, however, today, for some people, it celebrates men living in the army or men as defenders in the very meaning of the word. For most Russians, this is still a significant date, marked as a national holiday.
An important point to address is that not only men are being congratulated, but also women - veterans of the Great Patriotic War and female military personnel.

Epiphany(Крещение)

From 18 to 19 January the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the Baptism - Epiphany.
Alongside Easter, this is the oldest Christian holiday dedicated to the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist in the Jordan River.

In all Russian cities, there are traditionally arranged "Jordan" or baptismal fonts, and just like in the past, ice-holes are cut down in rivers.

Everyone is invited to participate by entering the fonts as it is believed that Epiphany water cleanses both the body and the soul - washes away all sins from the soul and rids the body of illness.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas in Russia isn’t celebrated on 24 or 25 December like in Europe but on 7 January instead. Why? Because the Russian Orthodox Church(that’s a branch of Christianity) adheres to the Julian calendar, which is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar(which was introduced later).

Orthodox Christians consider Christmas the second most important holiday (after Easter), and instead of opening an advent calendar, the preparation consists of fasting from 28 November to 6 January. On the night from 6 January to 7 people are meant to visit the “nightlong vigil” and pray. If they cannot attend the vigil themselves, they can watch it live on TV.

According to the tradition (which not many Russians follow today), a religious family should also prepare a festive Christmas dinner: kutia (sweet porridge), roasted meat and fish, kulebyaka (a big pie with cabbage or mushrooms), and fruit desserts (like pastila).

Nowadays Christmas is only celebrated by two-thirds of Russians, with just 19 percent actually visiting the church on Christmas night as opposed to New Year almost every family watches the president‘s speech followed by the toll of Kuranty(the big Kremlin clock).

Christmas in Russia isn’t celebrated on 24 or 25 December like in Europe but on 7 January instead. Why? Because the Russian Orthodox Church(that’s a branch of Christianity) adheres to the Julian calendar, which is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar(which was introduced later). Orthodox Christians consider Christmas the second most important holiday (after Easter), and instead of opening an advent calendar the preparation consists of fasting from 28 November to 6 January. On the night from 6 January to 7 people are meant to visit the “nightlong vigil” and pray. If they cannot attend the vigil themselves, they can watch it live on TV. According to the tradition (which not many Russians follow today), a religious family should also prepare a festive Christmas dinner: kutia (sweet porridge), roasted meat and fish, kulebyaka (a big pie with cabbage or mushrooms), and fruit desserts (like pastila). Nowadays Christmas is only celebrated by two thirds of Russians, with just 19 percent actually visiting church on Christmas night as opposed to New Year almost every family watches the president‘s speech followed by the toll of Kuranty(the big Kremlin clock).