When is it christmas in russia
Russian Christmas is DIFFERENT to Western Christmas
hey guys welcome to another video today
I'm in the center of Moscow and LaBianca
square here you can see the 2019
Christmas decorations in front of the
old KGB building here in the center and
today I'm going to walk through some of
the main streets of Moscow into Red
Square and I'm going to tell you all
about Christmas Russia the differences
between Christmas in the West in the UK
and Christmases here in Russia as you
can see I'm in really cold sea the
temperature is feels like minus 17 15
minus 12 this is probably the coldest
I've ever felt in my life so I'm not
gonna be out here for long I'm gonna
walk down the road I'm gonna walk to Red
Square I'm gonna show you all the lights
and I'm gonna tell you eight differences
between Russian and Western Christmas I
hope you enjoy I hope you enjoy my
sacrifice it's really really really cold
enjoy the video so the first real
difference I'd like to point out is that
Russians don't really care about
Christmas
unlike in Western Europe in the US
Russia sees Christmas as primarily a
religious holiday which doesn't have any
secular traditions associated with it
state atheism in the Soviet Union moved
all celebrations from Christmas to New
Year and this persists until today and
for the vast majority of Russians it's
just a day off that can be used at one's
discretion so most of stuff I'll talk
about in terms of Russia is actually
more about New Year celebrations rather
than Christmas the second thing I'd like
to mention is that Western churches
celebrate Christmas on December 25th
whereas in Russia it's on January 7th
when the rest of the world changed it
calendar the Russian Orthodox Church
refused to and because of that all
Christian celebrations in the Russian
Orthodox Church are a few days behind
those in West Christmas is no exception
in the West most countries give very few
days off around Christmas a new year in
Russia the exact dates vary based on
when the weekend is but Russians can get
up to ten days off this year Russians
will be off work until the 9th of
January which is a really great break
from real life the Christmas tree in
Russia is actually called a New Year
tree while some people are content
decorating it with modern ornaments lots
of other people prefer a more classical
Soviet style the star on the top of the
tree is actually red in Russia instead
of the Western golden FM star or as some
people prefer an angel jade morose or
grandfather Frost is the Russian
equivalent of Santa Claus but there are
some significant differences between
Santa Claus father Christmas and the
Russian da tomorrow's general was
actually has a granddaughter who goes
around with him called Snegurochka
Snow Maiden and what strange is generous
actually lives in one village great a
stroke and his granddaughter
snegurotchka lives around a 600
kilometers away in a different village
customer but on New Year's night they go
around Russia giving presents to all
great little kids the sixth thing I'd
like to talk about is well it's little
bit difficult because every country in
the world has its own traditions so it's
hard to talk about the West as a whole
in this situation I'd like to talk about
food in the UK Christmas meal normally
includes turkey roast potatoes stuffing
eggs in blankets or some sprouts gravy
cranberry sauce and a Yorkshire pudding
in the u.s. they are less strict about
meat because they eat turkey on
Thanksgiving in many European countries
families mainly eat duck
in Germany the main dish is goose or
Chico it's carp so yeah it's really hard
to say what is Western but it's actually
really easy to say what's Russian the
most important issues to have our
Russian New Year's Eve dinner table are
salads and to a called herring and the
fur and Olivia herring on the fur is a
layered salad where the herring Filat
layer is followed by both potatoes and
green apples it's weird as hell but it's
super popular Olivier is a salad eaten
throughout the year but it's actually
mandatory on New Year's Eve and
throughout the world it's often known as
Russian salad
it's a finely mixed chopped bunch of
different things including oiled eggs
sausages and marinated cucumbers often
no actually always season with a
mayonnaise sauce
other things you might find include
tangerines or mandarin oranges which are
also popular in North America this time
of year caviar on the new year table is
a symbol of wealth and brings Russians
hope that the next year will be a year
of abundance so that's often there
you'll also often find pickled cucumbers
mainly for an accompaniment with vodka
another side salad often found is a
beetroot salad known as a vinaigrette
which is from France something else you
might find is Halle Jets Halle Jets is
jellied meat otherwise known as a speck
in English I personally think it's
disgusting but it's really popular here
and basically it's meat said into
jellied fat and is often eaten with
mustard
these foods are of course accompanied
with a drink in most cases champagne
which is almost compulsorily served to
be drunk at midnight when the clock
strikes 12:00 seventh difference between
Western and Russian Christmas is what
exactly happens a new year and I just
referred to it in the previous one in
the West it's very very common at New
Year you find someone close to you or
you picked someone before to make sure
you stand next to them midnight and you
give them a kiss in Russia that's not
really a thing people crack open a
bottle of champagne and enjoy a glass
so yeah the kissing is definitely a
Western thing and the final difference
between Russia and the West is Christmas
movies and that well in the UK and the
USA people tend to watch movies from a
broad selection of classics gremlins The
Grinch The Nightmare Before Christmas
elf Love Actually home alone diehard etc
in Russia there's also a bunch of movies
which are incredibly popular such as the
carnival night Mara and magicians
however there's one Christmas movie
which stands out above them all and
that's called the irony of fate the
irony of fate is almost compulsory
watching on New Year's Eve the film is
widely regarded as a classic piece of
Russian popular culture and is
traditionally broadcast in Russia and
almost all former Soviet republics every
New Year's Eve the popularity of this
movie is similar to It's a Wonderful
Life in the USA
the compulsory nature of this film is
shown in a common joke in Russia and
I'll tell you this joke in Russian with
English subtitles the joke goes it was
called Elliot listen are you asked
acara's this material film Irenaeus
would beYOU know asteroids it is not yet
a bit radical it ok guys I hope you
found that funny thanks for watching
this video if you did like it please
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please subscribe I really appreciate it
thank you very very much and goodbye
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