Ledger

Issue date: 12/4/03 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Carmela Amador

Monotonous days pass by until the Northwest weather takes a nibble on your cold ears.

Icicle lights from nearby seafood restaurants illuminate puffs of warm breath against the cold.

Handfuls of snrain, snow mixed with a hint of rain, make frozen polka dots on your shivering skin, waking you up to realize, "Oh no, I can't believe the Christmas season snuck up on me again!"

That's right, it's here and so are the traditions that threaten hours in long lines to buy the same things most people in the United States are groveling over.

Yet across the big blue ocean there are other unique traditions that cost less, allowing us to throw out the $75 ham along with the $20 fruitcake.

These traditions carry the same sentimental meaning, and can spice up your holiday with some disheveled tradition. In Russia there is no celebration of Christmas.

Shocking as that may be to us, catch you breath, there is instead a celebration of the winter season, which is more like a winter festival.

Russian children spend their Christmas day singing carols and hanging hand-painted santas on Christmas tree branches.

Afterwards, they sit down together with extended family to a meal of fried chicken, potato stew and olivie salad.

"It is common to shoot fireworks on Christmas evening after dinner," said Anton Manyashin, a University of Moscow student.

Why not shoot off some bottle rockets after dinner? It creates more of a celebration out of the day.

After the fireworks wake you up from your traditional turkey stupor, you can attend a night church service.

"Usually it's quite popular to attend the Christmas service at church, but lots of people watch it on the television set. This ceremony starts around 10:30 p.m. and goes until early morning according to Orthodox customs," says Manyashin.

So if they go to church after this day of fried chicken and exploding gunpowder, where are the presents?

"My parents wrap presents for me and my brother and put them under the tree to be opened on New Years Day," said Galia Tischenko, a journalism student at the University of Moscow."

Russian families save the exchanging of presents for New Years Day and the celebration of family for the actual Christmas Day.

Trying out a different routine like this throws a new sense of tradition into family holidays.

It also creates an appreciation for other cultures on an international holiday.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools