New Year's Eve for Decades
Today it is difficult to imagine that the New Year was celebrated in ancient Russia, in the days of paganism. Only then the revered holiday was celebrated not in winter, but in spring. And associated with the rebirth of nature, respectively, with the beginning of life. Then people worshipped the pagan gods. New Year It was associated with the name of the god Perun, the supreme god in ancient Russian pagan mythology. People made offerings to the idol, made bonfires, had fun, danced, joked, sang songs.
And now go back to the twenty-first century – a huge amount of time has passed, and the holiday remains! He's different. You don’t even need a time machine to experience this abyss of time. And now we move to the era that everyone knew and felt - the twentieth century. How have traditions changed since then? Everyone managed to feel a fragment of the most difficult era, everyone, even according to textbooks, feels the specifics of times, respectively, the specifics of the holiday.
Remember the events:
1917 – Russia switches from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian, which transfers the New Year holiday to the Christmas fast. The Bolsheviks were enthusiastic about this fact.
1935 – the priorities were set: the Christmas tree became an attribute not of Christmas, but of the New Year holiday. This year also marked the first children’s New Year’s Eve.
In 1938, a “detachment of Santa Claus” was formed, designed to provide New Year’s gifts to children in the most remote parts of the country.
1945 – a 26-meter tree was installed in the center of the Column Hall.
1947 – “tipping year”, New Year acquired “official status”. January 1 is declared a holiday and a non-working day.
1954 – Christmas trees were opened in the St. George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace. And the atmosphere of the holiday in the 80s is remembered and known by many – not because they caught this time, but because the echoes of those celebrations in our time are very strong. This is not about melancholy, the desire to return to that era, but, indeed, in a completely different atmosphere of the New Year. The majority of respondents come to the following conclusions: before there was a holiday, and now - just a milestone; before the holiday was real, not artificial; now there is no anticipation of the holiday. What could be the reason for this? It is unlikely that longing for total scarcity. Remember what created the festive mood in the 80s.
Of course. decoration! Now in abundance are all kinds of decorations for the Christmas tree and interior - garlands, balls, tinsel. Artificial Christmas trees look so presentable that most prefer to replace them with live ones. But now you will not see the “rain”, which, with the help of wet cotton, was safely sent to hang on the ceiling. On the glass, through household soap, sculpted snowflakes of paper and foil. Artificial Christmas trees were a skeleton with a limited number of “spruce paws”, so much more often in the houses there was a live Christmas tree, giving the holiday the most homely and cozy atmosphere. And every Christmas toy was a masterpiece – on the Christmas tree you could see Red Riding Hood, the Cat in Boots, elegant tiny houses with a pipe and a snow cap on the roof, glass beads, all kinds of representatives of the animal world. And I took it at the thought that they can be broken, because each toy was unique and unique, an analogue was almost impossible to find. Now let's look under the tree! Now the traditions of the Catholic Christmas have a great influence on our New Year - even Santa Claus can be seen under the lush green branches. And earlier, a couple of Santa Claus and Snow Maiden did not abound in colors - pale from cardboard, cotton candy, plastics. But here was Santa Claus real - solid, bearded, frosty! If you look at what Santa Claus was like in the view of the ancient Slavs, you can see that he is very similar to these plastic and cardboard: an old man with a long gray beard, who, with his wife Winter and Treskun assistants, bypasses his possessions and knocks a staff, from which rivers, streams, puddles of ice are fettered. Frost does not like those who do not like cold, but cheerful and cheerful favors, bestows bright blush.
What else was under the tree? Of course, presents! I remember that the child was impressed not so much by the materiality of the gift, but by what it was placed in – whether it was a boot, a boot or just a box with a gift set, which was consistently issued at enterprises. The joy was even from a set of candy and nuts. I think all the kids were auditing the candies for "tasty" and "tasty", determining the order of their eating. There were a lot of tears shed that Grandpa Moroz did not have time to receive the wish, and gave well, the wrong gift! We gave our parents a hand made – either a rag symbol of the year or a drawing, although the idea crept in that the hare with a leather nose – a little impractical and immaterial, but the parents were happy. Now the child can order any desired gift, there would be financial opportunities for the parents.
A special stage in the preparation for the holiday was the creation of costumes. Every mother dreamed that her child was in the best suit, everything was done by hand, so every costume was original. Now any suit can be bought in stores, maybe this loses the exclusivity of the product. The same masks of bunnies, wolves, foxes were modified, but not transformed. Obviously, the manufacturer focuses not on the originality of the form, but on the quantity, thereby missing the quality. Masks of animals do not cause affection. And earlier, the child could become, thanks to the efforts of his mother, anyone - Mukhomor, Ryaba Chicken, often Snowflake, Winter itself, Firebird. Everything went in the process of cooking - snowflake gauze for skirts, starched shirts for "hares", Watman and paints for hats. And the beauty was the inaccessibility of all this luxury in the shops. The process of coming out of nothing in itself was exciting, unpredictable. Now we simply do not even have time to think about the fact that it is more interesting to make a costume for a child with your own hands, where he will take an active part.
The New Year's table now pleases us with its abundance, but it is this circumstance that gives us the right to choose and allows us to abandon the mood for the future..jpeg)
gluttony, limited to light snacks, but it turns out just the opposite - people begin to buy months before the celebration, the table is bursting with food. But still traditional dishes are Olivier salads, Herring under a fur coat, Mimosa. What was on the table in the 80s? The same salads, plus homemade cutlets, sandwiches with sprats, chill, necessarily tangerines, baked chicken, homemade marinades. One of the most important dishes was cake, which was very difficult to buy. Most often baked home "Napoleon". Now in stores you can see candy, which was then one of the most consumed on New Year's Eve - "Bear in the North". The list of drinks is also not different: Soviet champagne, vodka "Capital", lemonade "Buratino", Morse and compote. There was no variety, but despite this minimum, people prepared the festive table all day, and also had to have time to put the whole house in order, dress up in evening costumes, even if the guests were not waiting, and the celebration was held in the family circle! Don’t let God be in time for a solemn greeting and a chime fight. Because all these preparations were waiting for something wonderful. Today, in the rhythm of time, we do not really expect miracles from the New Year, probably, rather strive in a short time to buy gifts, set the table, celebrate and forget.
Rarely anyone in the 80s would agree to spend New Year’s Eve not with family – it was a family holiday. And now we prefer to stay with family, but only we have a lot of opportunities to go somewhere, spend the New Year more exotic. This is not always possible with family. Traditional New Year’s struggle channels for the rating does not attract a sophisticated and tired viewer, and opportunities to watch not traditional, from time immemorial formed list of programs and films, a huge variety. And few people now, as before, live all New Year’s Eve “from and to” in anticipation of a miracle, gifts from Santa Claus in boots or under the Christmas tree. And before the whole family was at the TV to watch comedies, “Blue light”, “Melodies and rhythms of foreign pop”. Trivial? Maybe. Only here the atmosphere of comfort, homeliness was, and even what!
As now, people on New Year's Eve, went outside - only then, instead of firecrackers and fireworks, Bengali lights, pops with surprises, confetti were more popular. Of all the above, the modern celebration left only Bengali lights in use.
It turns out that in the USSR the New Year holiday was different, the ceremony was more interesting? Not only children but also adults think so. What is it: melancholy, stereotype, memories? But I would not like to praise one of the most difficult and ambiguous eras of our country. Probably, it is in our modern capabilities, needs, peculiarities of the rhythm of life. The time of great opportunities requires great dynamics, and we do not even notice that the New Year, a holiday that has existed for centuries, is undergoing cardinal changes. What will it be like 30 years from now?
Ksenia Kolchanova
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