vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #159 / Social life / Reading article...

What a relief! We have only one winter holiday left to celebrate. It is Feb. 1 — the Chinese New Year, when the Year of the Tiger actually begins.

Few Russians won’t be exhausted by the holiday ordeal; few will be celebrating it with the same zeal as at the beginning of the season. The difficult period starts Dec. 25 with Western Christmas. This date is new in our calendar. The Soviet government worked hard to erase even the name of Jesus from our memory. We don’t even know how to celebrate it — it seems like a New Year, but different. So the easiest solution is to throw a Russian party with vodka, pelmeni, and pickled mushrooms — and then drink to Jesus.

The New Year’s celebration is the highlight of the series. People drink harder and eat more, to the extent that they can’t move.Then again comes vodka, pelmeni, and pickled mushrooms. Some sing “Oi, moroz, moroz!” (Hey, frost, frost!), some simply watch TV until they fall asleep. The most enthusiastic go outdoors and shoot off Chinese firecrackers.

However, the most enjoyable way to celebrate the New Year is in a sauna: There you can sweat your alcohol off and stay awake through the night. The next day family and friends sleep until noon, eat leftovers and drink pickle juice — the best remedy for a hangover.

Children are on vacation. This is the worse time for their teeth and stomachs: They eat tons of candies and mandarins from Dedushka Moroz (Grandfather Frost). For some reason mandarins were only imported to the Soviet Union in late December. This tropical fruit became a symbol of the coldest time of the year.

Russian Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7 brings more confusion. If the holiday is in the middle of the week, some companies have workers come in on Sunday and give them a second day off in the middle of the week (no doubt one day is for recovering from the celebration). Finally, everybody loses track of the working rhythm, and the whole month feels like you’re riding on an old car on a bumpy Russian road.

The Old New Year is another strange date that has to be celebrated. It shows how difficult it is to forget old habits. After the Revolution, Russia adopted the Gregorian calendar in use in the West, but people remembered the old holiday, now on Jan. 13.

If a foreigner makes it through this month without serious damage to his health, he can be proud of himself. He is as tough as a Russian.