Christmas

Just as the spring solstice is greeted with celebration, so winter, too, brings festivities. Like Easter, the Russian Orthodox Christmas ends a period of fasting, which is broken on Christmas Eve; and like Easter, Christmas has elaborate customs. Before sitting down to the ritual meal, the head of the household goes out into the street, seeking any wayfarers who might not have a home for Christmas and inviting them inside to share in the breaking of the fast. On Christmas morning young girls bring boughs of cherry blossoms to the church to place before the icons. The boughs are cut on St. Catherine’s Day (December 7) and kept in water so they will bloom at Christmas. Other gifts are offered as well, such as homemade ledentsy, fruit-flavored hard candies wrapped in brightly colored paper. Amusements include kolyadovanie, when groups of young people go from house to house singing in exchange for small gifts. Another favorite custom is mummery (wonderfully described in Volume 2 of Tolstoy’s War and Peace), for which the young people dress in exotic costumes and travel by sleigh from house to house, spreading mirth and good cheer.