Russian Blog
This is a blog by JustRussian about learning Russian. You will find useful tips for learning Russian, Russian courses available in London, information about Russian culture and links to websites with information for students of Russian.
Russian holidays and celebrations Part 2
By Vlada 30 November 09
More country info from a Russian tutor, or something you might find interesting but may not learn in a Russian course
In the previous blog post, I described Russian public holidays of the first half of the year. After the New Year celebration marathon, the next long holiday “spree” is in May – from May Day to Victory Day. But before that, one little cheeky informal celebration creeps in:
April’s Fools Day – the 1st of April
This is not an official public holiday and not a day off but Russians love it. It’s a chance to be foolish and tell silly lies trying to shock and surprise people. The motto of the day is “Pervoye Aprelya – Nikomu Ne Ver’!” (It’s the 1st of April, don’t believe anyone!”) Practical jokes are played and ingenious lies are told among friends, colleagues and families. In newspapers and on the telly there are fictitious stories about all sorts of things, with pictures and video footage: hairy fish are caught in the Moskva river (I saw that particular news item myself, with quite convincing footage of a furry carp being caught), Big Ben in London will be rebuilt from scratch because it’s falling down, there is a dog in a remote village that can talk, etc. Sometimes the jokes are so plausible that it’s impossible to tell them apart from the other news items, so the next day the papers admit which stories were the April Fools. On the 1st of April people tell each other that they are changing jobs, getting divorced, moving out of the country – you name it! You are supposed to be on alert all day and stop the pranksters with the phrase “Pervoye Aprelya – Nikomu Ne Ver’!” I used to do it a lot in my jollier and younger days, and foreign friends proved to be especially gullible: one seriously believed that I was going to give up teaching to become a dog trainer in a circus…
So if you happen to be in Russia on the 1st of April and someone tells you that your house is on fire or your boss has fired you (or, even better, or maybe worse, has fallen in love with you) you know what to say!
May Day – the 1st of May
The 1st of May is a traditional Soviet holiday, still very much loved. Originally, it was called “The International Day of Worker Solidarity” in Soviet times and celebrated the workers’ liberation from the capitalist regime. Because of the bulky name, it is best known as simply the 1st of May.
The 1st of May was first celebrated on the territory of the Russian empire as early as 1890 in Warsaw, and in 1891 the celebration came to the capital – St Petersburg. Obviously, before the revolution of 1917 it was celebrated secretly, in the Bolshevik “underground”, persecuted by the authorities.
During the Soviet period it was a big celebration with a traditional parade in Red Square, televised for the whole country: not the famous November military parade, but the “workers’” one, with people from different state enterprises with a lot of flags and huge fake flowers walking past the Lenin Mausoleum where the leaders of the country stood and greeted them. I took part in one or two with my father when I was a kid and of course loved it! I was given an enormous bunch of some red paper flowers unknown to botanists, which was much taller than me, and I had fun running around with it, singing and shouting “Hurray” all the way across Red Square. I would assume now that the grown ups around me who were doing the same were all drunk, but I couldn’t tell at the time. And then in the evening there were (and still are) huge fireworks all over the cities fired high up into the sky by the famous military “Katyusha” machines, multiple barrel rocket launchers. I must say, when I first saw the Guy Fawkes Day fireworks in the UK, I was surprised with how small and tame they were in comparison to Russian ones!
At present, the official name of this holiday is “The holiday of Spring and Labour”, and people get 2 days off work, using them mostly to do some gardening (it’s that time of the year!). So most city dwellers who have dachas go there for a long weekend to clear up the post-winter mess and plant some crops and flowers for the new season. The streets of Moscow are usually quite empty on those days because everyone has gone to the country.
Whatever it is called, this day is associated with Spring and the awakening of Nature from the winter gloom (after all, in most of Russia proper spring doesn’t start until May), and that’s why people love it: it’s the grand opening of the season of picnics, dachas, and outdoor living.
Victory Day – the 9th of May
This public holiday is very close to the previous one, May Day, so predictably lots of people take a couple of days off in between and have a whole spring holiday season, going to the country – whether to have fun or plant potatoes. The 9th of May is associated with spring, good weather and beautiful flowers: daffodils, tulips, lilacs and lily of the valley which people bring from their dachas.
Victory Day is dedicated to the Soviet victory over the Nazis in 1945 and the end of the Great Patriotic War – the part of the Second World War that took place on Soviet territory and directly involved the Soviet Union. It was the bloodiest war in Russian history (rich in wars and revolutions!) that claimed the lives of over 20 million Soviet people. On this day in 1945 two ordinary Red army soldiers, a Russian and a Georgian, put up a red flag on top of the Reichstag in Berlin, symbolising the end of Hitler and his empire. Every Russian family, including my own, has a member or a relative who was killed in that war, so this celebration has always been a slightly sad one. However, as time goes by and generations change, there are fewer and fewer people who remember the war, so it’s now a less emotional occasion than it used to be.
As ever, there used to be a parade in Red Square – this time a military one, but without any heavy missiles to scare the world, just different regiments of the Army marching along, with music, slogans and the ever present members of the government on the Mausoleum. This tradition continues up to the present day, with the recent big celebration of the 60th anniversary of the victory in 2005 when lots of world leaders came to Red Square to take part.
The festive atmosphere is brought into the evening with huge fireworks, just like on the 1st of May.
My personal recollection of Victory day (Soviet style) is great weather, people sporting summer outfits and enjoying it after the long winter, and some old pensioner veteran always sitting on a bench near the block of flats playing the accordion, a very Russian instrument, badly but enthusiastically, war movies on the telly all day and concerts of the Red Army choir at night. It is still reassuringly the same, apart from the war veterans being seen around because there are fewer and fewer of them left…
To be continued.