Russian Holidays
May 1st, 2007
Here is a short American news clip from 1961 covering the May 1st celebrations in both the Soviet Union and Cuba. While the clip shows little about the actual May Day events, it does provide examples of both American and Soviet Cold War propaganda.
April 9th, 2007
According to the Itar-Tass news agency, more than 6 million Russians took part in Easter celebrations this year. President Putin and other government officials marked the holiday by attending ceremonies in Moscow. Putin also used the occasion to return the long-lost icon “Our Lady of Vladimir” to the Russian Patriarch. Putin declared that the state is determined to return as many stolen relics to the Russian Orthodox Church as possible as well as help rebuild churches and monasteries.
Link: Easter in a Russian Town (Photos)
Link: Putin hands long-lost icon to Orthodox patriarch, pledges to return more
Link: Orthodox and western faiths mark Easter
Link: More than 6 mln Russians taken part in Easter celebrations
March 8th, 2007
Link: International Women’s Day at Wikipedia
Link: UN Website: History of International Women’s Day
March 2nd, 2007
A few weeks ago, Russians celebrated Maslenitsa or âPancake weekâ?. Yuri Timofeyev has published a wonderful series of photos from a Maslenitsa party in the forest near Moscow. Here are a few examples of the photos he took at the event. Make sure to view the entire series at Flickr.
Pancake carnival in a Moscow’s forest. Toboggan
Kitchen
Wall to wall fight
Winter incineration
Winter incineration
Link: Pancake carnival photos
February 23rd, 2007
Defender of the Fatherland Day is a holiday observed in Russia and many former Soviet republics. It is celebrated on February 23.
The holiday marks the date in 1918 during the Russian Civil War when the first mass draft into the Red Army occured in Petrograd and Moscow. It was originally known as Red Army Day. In 1949, it was renamed Soviet Army and Navy Day. Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the holiday was given its current name.
As the name suggests, the holiday celebrates the soldiers of the Russian military, but it has also more recently come to include the celebration of men as a whole, and to act as a counterpart of International Women’s Day on March 8. The holiday is celebrated with parades and processions in honor of veterans, and women also give small gifts to the men in their lives, especially a boyfriend or husband.
This text of this post is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Defender of the Fatherland Day“.
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