First of all, Russian and Ukrainian Christmas is the same. I mean what’s called Ukrainian Christmas here is just called Christmas in Russia. Basically, it’s not Ukrainian or Russian; it’s Orthodox.
Traditions around the celebration in two countries may differ to a point, but in general, this religious holiday is shared by people who belong to the Orthodox Church.
Many Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on or around Jan. 7, the date that works to the Julian calendar that pre-dates the Gregorian calendar. In Russia, we actually celebrate it the night of Jan. 6 to 7.
The general idea is the same as in the Catholic Church: Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. But mixed with some ancient pagan traditions in my childhood Christmas was always a mysterious holiday resonating with Halloween (which we don’t have, by the way).
We never were really religious, so for most of my life, I didn’t know that people go to church for the night service. A couple of days before Christmas we usually went to the cabin, where we would set up a Christmas tree. Unlike the city New Year tree, decorated with toys, sweets and balls, our cabin Christmas tree was less festive and usually just had few pictures from the Bible (sometimes we just decorated a tree growing in our yard).
And unlike the big and loud city celebration of the New Year, Christmas at the cabin was always very intimate and quiet.
The days before Christmas were always my favourite, thanks to some traditions either widespread in Russia or just adopted in my family.
I feel that the first tradition is quite rural. Days leading to Christmas are the time when people in Russian villages dress up, go from house to house and sing carols (kolyadki in Russian culture) in groups in exchange for treats. And while traditional carols are festive, kids quite often instead would come up with something fun and a bit prankish.
Days before Christmas were also the time of fortune telling. The list of techniques was endless, but for me, my girlfriends and probably all other young girls fascinated with this long-rooted tradition, the common point was the main question we all asked the spirits. Most divinations were centred around a betrothed.
To find answers we would throw left shoes through the gates: the way the nose of the shoe shows will be the direction from which he will come (once we spent Christmas in the city and didn’t have gates, so shoes flew off the balcony surprising midnight bypassers). We also painted corridors on the mirrors and with the help of candles tried to see who was coming through them. We put hairbrushes under pillows hoping to see a gorgeous prince brushing our hair in our dreams. (Weird, right? But it wasn’t me who made them up, I just followed the traditions).
For fortune telling, we would gather at midnight. We had to take all the jewellery off, turn off all the electric light and ensure there were no animals in the room. We would pour hot candle wax into a plate with water to see the face or use decks of cards. I don’t remember ever seeing anything, but the atmosphere was so mysterious that when we would wake up the next morning we would all feel that we witnessed some magic there.
For a number of years, every Christmas we would also read a book by Ukrainian writer Nikolay Gogol called Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka. If you ever feel like setting a macabre tone that’s the book to read. It’s a collection of short stories about Ukrainian country life of the early 19th century, laced with folklore and thus populated with the mermaids, devil, witch, enchanter and other evil spirits. It’s a very alive piece of literature, and with very realistic descriptions of daily routine, evil spirits appearing in it also become more realistic. Especially when auntie reads about them aloud in a room filled with vibrating candlelight in a small wooden cabin in total quietness, where you sometimes can hear a wolf hauling in the forest.
So with all the dressing up for kolyadki-singing, talking to spirits and fantastic scary readings, now you can see why for me Russian Christmas was a very mysterious holiday. It was very different from a festive and cozy family Christmas here, but it was an amazing experience for a kid with a rich imagination.
