Holiday Celebrations

Russians are a celebratory people, always eager for an excuse to make merry—and the merrymaking usually revolves around food. When Russians celebrate, it’s a lavish affair; there’s no stinting on ingredients or proportions. A holiday feast is not just for family, it’s a pir na ves’ mir, a “feast for all the world.” (Russians are as given to hyperbole as they are to extravagance.) Under the old Russian Orthodox calendar, there were plenty of holidays, each an excuse to celebrate. And around these excuses developed traditional meals, accruing ritual as the years went by.