From Lent to Christmas – Between Good and Evil: Christmas Stories
Description:
Christmas in Russia is a very special phenomenon. Russian life never appears in such an expanse as on Svyatka: these days all Russians are having fun. (I. Snegirev). Songs of the Russian people
Winter is a time of dark nights, long evenings and the brightest holidays. I invite you to take a walk in Moscow dressed up.
You will see the picturesque alleys between Vozdvizhenka and Tverskaya. You will learn many stories about Moscow Christmas traditions.
They are inherited from our distant ancestors and are understood as the border period between the old and the new year. The barely palpable time gap between the past and the future gives hope for the opportunity to ask fate for a better share, to wrest the mystery of the future.
Hence the special saturation of magical rites, divinations, customs and prohibitions that regulate the behavior of people, which distinguishes saints from the entire calendar year. The time is disturbing, cheerful and dangerous because there were ideas about the arrival of souls of the dead from the other world, about the rampant evil forces in the middle of winter.
You will learn what pagan gods Muscovites appealed to in ancient times, why and what "dressed up" dressed up, how to guess and what Moscow brides hoped, which emperors were great fans of masquerades and how they passed.
How cheerful saints passed into the light Christmas, and where and how Muscovites were “purified”, washed away their sin after Christmas “ugliness”.
You will find many tales, legends and stories. From the dark and mysterious, leading us back centuries to the good and instructive Christmas.