Posts tagged w/ Russian holidays

«С праздником!» or: How to Congratulate Russian Style

Posted by Josefina
Nov
5
2009

Yesterday was the 4th of November and «выходной день в России» [a day of rest, day off, holiday in Russia]. Yes once again it was time to celebrate the mysterious «День народного единства» [(People's) Unity Day]. There’s no need to pretend that Russians don’t look at this strange holiday in pretty much the same way, since they don’t and in this confusion we can finally meet and truly understand each other. Most Russians don’t even know «почему» [why] this day is celebrated in the country today. Some people - including me since it was during my first year in Russia and humans have a tendency to remember the first year much more than we remember what happened in the following five - have a fuzzy memory of that the day off used to be called something like «день примирения» [Reconciliation Day]. The first time I celebrated this Russian holiday was «в Санкт-Петербурге» [in Saint Petersburg] in 2004 and back then it was still celebrated on the 7th of November and since then I have commented on this experience by using the following words: «я примирилась так, что голова после этого болела три дня» [I reconciled so much that my head hurt for three days afterwards]. In the Soviet Union the 7th of November marked the «годовщина Октябрской революции» [anniversary of the October Revolution]. Some Russians claim that they as a people have just got too used to having a day off in November, and that’s why they had to come up with any kind of excuse to keep it. The 4th of November is today known as «день освобождения от польско-литовских и шведских оккупантов» [the day of liberation from Polish, Lithuanian and Swedish occupants]. Perhaps because of this I have no real reason to celebrate this day (I am, after all, Swedish), even though I tried very hard to make it a special day last year.

No Russian «праздник» [day of celebration, holiday] without «шампанское» [champagne]! If you’re unsure as to what to do with your bottle after you’ve drunk it all together with your best friend «Ваня» [short for «Иван»] out on the street in minus 30, then here’s a tip…

Let’s take today to focus on not HOW to celebrate holidays with Russians (since I’m fully sure everyone already has expertise in this area), but HOW to congratulate Russian with their holidays! We’ll start with the simplest way:

«С праздником!» - Happy Holiday!

Usually you don’t say the whole phrase in Russian when congratulating someone: «Поздравляю вас/тебя с праздником!» - [I congratulate you with the holiday!]

«поздравлять» (impfv.) and «поздравить» (pfv.) - [to congratulate, felicitate; compliment, hail] is always combined with a direct object in accusative: «кого?» [whom?] and an indirect object in the instrumental case: «с чем?» [with what?]. Here are a few examples:

«Надо поздравить Фёдора Михайловича с защитой докторской диссертации!» - [(We) must congratulate Fyodor Mikhailovich with having defended his doctoral dissertation!]

«Я уже поздравила маму с Международным женским днём» - [I have already congratulated my mom with International Women's Day (8th of March)].

«Поздравляю вас с Новым Годом!» - [(lit.: 'I congratulate you with the New Year!') Happy New Year!]

«Поздравляют ли друг друга с Рождеством в России?» - [Do people in Russia wish each other Merry Christmas?]

«Конечно, поздравляют! Но только седьмое января, а не двадцатпятое декабря» - [Of course they congratulate! But on the 7th of January, not on the 25th of December].

Among other important words to know in the same context are the noun «праздник» [holiday, day of celebration] and the verb «праздновать» [celebrate, feast; keep; rejoice; solemnize]. This verb is combined with a direct object in accusative: «праздновать что?» [to celebrate what?] and «праздновать кого?» [to celebrate whom?].

«Как ты обычно празднуешь свой день рождения?» - [How do you usually celebrate your birthday?]

«Завтра будем праздновать Лену, поздравим её с рождением ребёнка!» - [Tomorrow we will celebrate Lena; we'll congratulate her with the birth of her baby!]

From this verb and this noun two very different adjectives exist, and it is important that you try to keep them apart as their meaning is not the same. Though they may look and sound very similar:

«праздничный» means festive, merry, like a feast or festival, while

«праздный» means idle, unoccupied; indolent; vacuous.

That’s all from the Ural Mountains for now. «С праздником всех!» [Happy Holiday everyone!]

 
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Russian Easter: «Христос воскресе!» [Christ Is Risen!]

Posted by Josefina
Apr
19
2009

Today is «Пасха» in Russia, thus Orthodox Easter. On this day it is traditional to eat not only lots and lots of eggs, but to treat your friends and family to this delicious desert also called «пасха», made mainly out of «творог» with nuts and raisins. (If you can’t see the picture here, you can see it on my personal blog here.) Its shape and color is supposed to remind of Christ’s tomb, out of which he was ressurected on this very day - «гроб христовий». It is super yummy, but also very sweet and thus you can’t eat more than a little slice at a time. But I bet those who’ve been on Orthodox lent - «Великий Пост» - for forty days before today won’t let their sweet-tooth be satisfied that easily…

In the Russian Orthodox Church the biggest holiday isn’t Christmas, but Easter - «Пасха», also known as «светлий праздник» [the light; bright; lucid; happy holiday] because it is followed by a week called «светлая неделя» [the bright week]. Unfortunaly Easter is still not an official red day in the calendar in the Russian Federation, but it is celebrated by many Russians, though not by all. It is traditional to greet people you know today with the words «Христос воскресе (воскрес)!» [Christ is risen!], to which they answer you «Воистину воскресе (воскрес)!» [Truly risen!] and you kiss each other on the cheek three times. Usually this greeting is accompanied by giving each other colored eggs (real eggs, not eggs made out of chocolate). You can also send out text messages from your phone with the same words to everyone you know, and within a couple of minutes you’ll get the very same answer from each and everyone of them. It is a very nice, kind and bright holiday in Russia, filled with hope and joy. It is my favorite Russian holiday, because it celebrates something really awesome - Jesus Christ winning over death and bringing us eternal life! I celebrated it at first during the day with my friend who came over with a «кулич» [special Easter cake] and had coffee with me, then in the evening by having dinner with my friend Katya and her sister Daria. Their mother is a «монахиня» [nun] and lives «в монастыре» [in a monastery] a few miles outside of Yekaterinburg. I celebrated Easter with this family two years ago, before their mother joined the monastery, and we went to the six hour long service in that same monastery that year. It was a great experience. This year Daria had invited over her close friend Zhenia, who’s a Catholic, since she knows I’m a protestant, and the whole evening became one long, deep, friendly and even beautiful discussion around the differences in each of our «вероисповедание» [faith; religion; creed; denomination]. Even though we have different points of view on many things, and do things differently, we all read one and the same Bible and believe in one and the same God, and on a day like this we can gather and agree on the main point - Jesus Christ’s «воскресение» resurection (not to be confused with «воскресенье» which means Sunday) from the dead.

«Со светлим праздником всех!»

 
Posted under Culture, The Russian Emotion, Traditions
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Russian Holiday: «С международным женским днём!» [Happy International Women’s Day!]

Posted by Josefina
Mar
8
2009

On this beautiful holiday, also called «праздник весны» [‘spring holiday'] in Russia, there are two ways you could congratulate the fairer sex: «Поздравляем всех женщин с 8 (восьмым) марта!» [(We) congratulate all women with the 8th of March!] or «С международным женским днём вас/тебя!» [Happy International Women's day to you!]. 

Once again it is that time of the year in Russia - the time to give flowers to all of the women in your life and wish for them to remain as beautiful and wonderful and sweet as they are today forever! (That’s usually what is said when you hand over a splendid, colorful bouquet to a woman in Russia on this day.) One can say whatever one might want to say about the fact that International Women’s Day is a public holiday in Russia (with Monday off for everyone this year as it falls on a Sunday) but the longer I live here, the more I’ve come to like it. At first it seemed a little bit odd to me, but at least it is more justified than ‘Man Day’ the 23rd of February, since celebrating women can never be done enough in any country in the world today. This year I had classes at the university on the Saturday before, and I must say that it was a very pleasant experience to watch how students kept walking around the university to give big bouquets of bright flowers to their female professors, wishing them to ‘remain as beautiful, wonder and sweet’ as they are today forever. As there is only one male student in our group of 21 Master’s students, he celebrated all of ‘his’ girls with cake on the lunch break (chivalry is not dead indeed!). Many of the girls gave out chocolate during class to us and wished each other many kind things and the «настроение» [mood] of us all in the classroom was raised to an all-time high. In Russia «женский день» [‘women's day' or ‘the female day'] is closely related to the concept of «весна» [spring], which is always highly anticipated in this country of a «зима» that seems to last for an eternity of four or even five months… I know this day is a political day in many countries, and a day on which feminists are supposed the march the streets demanding equality, but living in Russia has somewhat twisted my views on that. In my mind, after celebrating this day for the fifth time here, I’ve come to see giving flowers to women in your life today as a symbol of greeting the ‘life-giving’ force of spring to nature, as women give life to human beings.

The traditional flower given today is the yellow, soft-smelling «мимоза» [mimosa], as seen on this picture behind the ingredients of «глинтвейн» [‘glintwein' or hot wine]: «апельсиновый сок» [orange juice], «приправа для глинтвейна» [seasoning for hot wine (sold in most stores in Russia all year around; what a glorious country this is!) and «красное полусладкое вино» [red semisweet wine]. I decided to have my closest girlfriends over and treat them to this my specialty, as it’s still cold and the snow has only just begun to melt away…. 

Traditionally today is the day when you celebrate the women close to you - be it your wife, your girlfriend, your mother, grandmother or just women you study/work with. What I especially like about Russia is that women congratulate each other on this day, which makes it feel like such a warm and loving holiday. In a way, one could say that it fills the function of Mother’s Day in most countries (for some countries ‘Parents’ Day’). One of my classmates yesterday, when I asked her what she thought of this day, said that: «Меня бесит то, что только один день в году носят женщинам цветы!» [What drives me crazy is that women are only given flowers one day a year!]. That’s true, and got me thinking that it is strange that I only send my mother a card telling her how much I love her and how thankful I am for her giving birth to me ONE day a year, when I should really do it more often, and remind her of how important she is to me on any given day of the year. Just as we should give flowers and chocolate to each other and tell people in our lives how much they mean to us more often. And not only when there’s a red day in the calendar…

Two of my closest friends, «Ксения и Марина» [Xenia and Marina] preparing «фруктовый салат» [fruit salad] «на коммунальной кухне в общаге» [in the communal kitchen in the dorm («общага» is the colloquial word for «общежитие»: dormitory, lit. ‘communal living’) earlier today.

 But since today is after all marked in the calendar I would like to whish all of you a beautiful International Women’s Day and to remind you all of the following - if nobody brings you flowers there’s nothing wrong with buying a bouquet for yourself!

 
Posted under Culture, The Russian Emotion, Traditions
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С днём защитника Отечества! [Happy Defender of the Fatherland Day!]

Posted by Josefina
Feb
23
2009

It is THE holiday season in Russia right now: On the 14th of February it’s «День всех влюблённых» [The Day of Everybody in Love], then on the 23rd it’s «День защитника Отечества» [Defender of the Fatherland Day], wrapping up on the 8th of March with «Международный женский день» [International Women's Day]. Out of these three holidays - on all of which it is custom to give «подарки для любимых» [presents to your loved ones] - the two last ones are also holidays in the sense that you get the day off from work/studies!

Where I come from we don’t have the holidays that are colloquially known as ‘Man Day’ and ‘Women’s Day’ in the same sense that Russia does, but there are ‘Father’s Day’ (in the spring) and ‘Mother’s Day’ (in the fall). My mother used to frown whenever Father’s Day came around, always commenting the occasion with the following words: “Every day of the year is Man Day!”. Growing up as I did, I can blame my doubtful view of today’s Russian public holiday on my liberal, gender-aware, slightly feministic and rebelliously progressive Swedish upbringing. In Russia, however, things are a little bit different - especially in the way that there is a bigger difference between the sexes. One could boil it all down to Russian men being ‘real men’ who drink, smoke, open doors, carry grocery bags, bring home the dough and put their foot down whenever something is displeasing to their point of view, thus making Russian women ‘real women’ who cook, clean, stay at home with the kids, dress in overly feminine clothes even when it isn’t practical, listen rather than speak and have an incessant need to be protected by one of the Fatherland’s Protectors, i.e. Russian real men. Or Russia is a country, at least away from Moscow and St. Petersburg, that hasn’t been as influenced by feminism and equality as most Western countries. In some cases I actually like it. I like it when men hold up the door, when men give up their seats on the buses for women and old babushkas alike or get off the bus first so that they can give you their hand to hold when you’re getting off. That part I have come to like, even though it was shocking - yes, shocking! - to me at first. Now I think going on a date with a man who wasn’t Russian would be disappointing in a way - with no guarantee of flowers, and the possibility of splitting the check…

Right now I’m studying at a Master’s program in Russian literature at Ural State University. Not surprisingly, perhaps, out of the 22 students in my class there is only one boy. And I think that the case of our one male student can clearly show how different a society Russia can be for men and women respectively. Our fellow «студент» [student] or «магистрант»  [Master's student] (as we are «студентки» [female students] or «магистрантки» [female Master's students], the plural female form from the singular: «студентка» and «магистрантка») is the one who’s always asked to do anything. We’re 22 people in the group, all of whom are young, strong and healthy, and yet he’s always the one who’s opening windows when the room is too hot, or closing them when it gets too cold. Whenever we need extra chairs, he has to get them on his own, no matter how many. When a professor needs help with anything, he or she will always ask him first, no matter what it is about, and never mind that another girl is the «староста» of our group. I find it funny sometimes, at other times I realize that living your whole life here and only seeing that - I mean, that men are in charge of anything or everything - can make any girl come to believe she is really the ‘weaker half’ of humanity.

I guess the old saying «всё в меру» could be applied to a case like this. Happy holiday everyone!

 
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Introducing: «Единый день народных сметанников» [United Day of People’s Smetanniki]

Posted by Josefina
Nov
4
2008

Hello gorgeous! Шесть свежевыпеченных сметанников (из магазина) [six freshly baked 'smetannikis' (from the store)] and the celebration of November 4th can begin!

This morning when I woke up late there was but one question on my unglossed lips - how should I celebrate today’s beautiful holiday? «Сегодня всё-таки “День народного единства”!» [Today is after all The Day of (People's) Unity!] It used to be something else before, having to do with agreement and reconciliation, but as the Russians reconciled with the fact that it was just another name for the Day of the October Revolution, they agreed to find another day in November to commemorate instead. They didn’t have to look far - the victory from back in 1612 on this very same day was a clear as 70 years of Soviet Power to most citizens. (Forgive me my extremely dry Swedish sarcasm.) As drinking can sometimes, even in a land like this, become more of a tiring process with less than desirable results than leisure with pleasure, I have come up with suggestion of how to celebrate it differently. This suggestion will be not only liked, it will certainly be loved by each and everyone, people of all ages and nationalities. I suggest that we name the 4th of November «Единый день народных сметанников» [United Day of People's Smetanniki]. This day can be celebrated where ever these heavenly baked goods are sold or made or just found, which is, coincidentally, mainly within the borders of Russian Federation. No one is surprised, I assume, as «сметана» [sour crème; in it's Slavic version] is first and foremost a Russian thing.

Few things are as lovely as what’s pictured above: «Чёрный кофе со сметанником» [Black coffee with a smetannik]. It might not be better than sex, but it is a strong and worthy runner up…

Of all the tasty pastries offered by the wonderful Russian kitchen (and there’s a lot of those!), nothing has ever hypnotized me in quite the same way as the Smetannik did. I first met the Smetannik when I moved to the Urals. I don’t know how popular it is in other regions, partly because I am not far too experienced in the area of «сладкое» [sweets], though I’ve tried my best. In Omsk I never saw any smetannikis. In Yekaterinburg I met my first Smetannik and ever since then all other sorts of sweets became… bleak. Tasteless. Uninteresting. Boring. Nothing could match the joy I experienced when I put my teeth in a soft Smetannik, which is basically two big cookies stuck together by a layer of sweet and sugary smetana. Sometimes it is covered in coconut, which is not really kosher, and that’s why I call those kinds Exotic Smetannikis. This Exotic kind is sold in the «столовая» [dining hall] at Ural State. They’re okay, but far from the best in town. The best kinds of smetannikis to be found in Yekaterinburg are sold by a little bakery located in the house of the local government. There they bake «для своих» [for ‘their own'] but if you walk in pretending like you’ve got some important business there and just happened to be in need of 8 smetannikis, it’s alright. There they have one woman who does them, when she’s not there - no smetannikis. She doesn’t work on the weekend. And she’s got almost a whole month off during the summer. Such things must be kept in mind.

There was a time when I could eat two or even three smetannikis per day. This was not very good. A smetannik contains almost only sugar and fat, and if you don’t count protein from the smetana, it almost completely useless to the human body as nutrition. That’s why I had to stop for a while, even though it made the world… colorless. Since today is the Holiday of Smetannikis (I’m writing a long letter with this suggestion to the president as we speak, mind you!) I think I will splurge and treat myself to two smetannikis. Three smetannikis often lead to all of them ending up in… you know where. Which is identical to the result of celebrating with alcohol, and that is, after all, not my intention when I suggest an alternative.

If you’re not in Russia, and nowhere near a Russian store or bakery, you could make them yourselves. I’ve never done it (I can’t cook and I’m very ashamed of this fact), but I’m sure they’ll be great - the beauty of the Smetannik is that you can never go wrong with it! It’s what is called something for eternity; one of the few things in human life made to last forever :)

 
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