Holiday history New Year and New Year traditions

Many of us are wondering - how to celebrate the New Year? Despite the fact that the holiday is considered a home holiday, thousands and thousands of Russians will leave the country during the New Year holidays and fly around the world - in every direction, thinking thereby to get more impressions and celebrate the New Year as vividly as possible.

Today we will not consider options, and offer our own scenarios, it's too early, it's far from the New Year and mystylex.techinfus.com/en/ will definitely offer scenarios of the holiday and original ideas for gifts. And today let's take a look at the history and traditions of the holiday.

How New Year was celebrated in Russia
New Year's traditions have evolved over the centuries, so today, thinking about how to celebrate the New Year, we can remember the history of the holiday and borrow the ideas that were present at the holiday from our ancestors.

In Ancient Russia, the celebration of the New Year was divided into two periods - holy evenings and terrible evenings. Evenings before January 1 were considered holy, after January 1 - terrible. Our ancestors believed that in the first days of the New Year, evil spirits acquire special power, create atrocities, and harm everyone. In order to somehow protect oneself from evil forces, a sign in the form of a cross was placed above the doors and windows. Therefore, the New Year caused not so much joy as awe. "Holidays are scary," said the peasants. On such evenings, they were afraid not only to go on a visit - to stick their nose out of the hut.

Then our ancestors apparently got tired of celebrating the New Year in winter. They began to celebrate it on March 1. True, many expressed dissatisfaction and tried to celebrate the winter New Year in parallel with the spring New Year - in January, because the more holidays, the more fun life! Only the March New Year did not last long. Soon the beginning of the year was postponed to September 1. According to one version, this is due to the decision of the Orthodox Church, because September is a very important month for believers. So they decided that there was no better time of the year to celebrate the holiday.

Only from the 18th century, the New Year was postponed to January 1. Tsar Peter I, by his decrees, ordered the introduction of the chronology from the Nativity of Christ, and the year from January 1. He commanded to celebrate the New Year with a solemn prayer service, bell ringing, the roar of shots and fireworks, "... to amuse children, not to commit massacre." It was especially stipulated that everyone should congratulate each other on the holiday, give gifts - until that time, gifts were not an obligatory attribute of the New Year.

The people and boyars did not argue with the Tsar about the celebration of the New Year.

People began to prepare more diligently for this holiday, decorate houses with green branches. And most importantly, they began to give each other New Year's gifts. By the way, when Peter I celebrated the New Year with his courtiers, he did not forget about the people either - he exhibited various dishes and vats of beer and wine in front of the palace.

Christmas tree
The festive tree was mainly child's play. Having chosen a strong beautiful spruce, they hung it with children's toys, and danced around the tree. It was even allowed to climb the tree in order to get the desired toys and sweets. After the celebration was over, the remaining toys were removed from the tree and distributed to the children.

Later, the decoration of the Christmas tree became more sophisticated, certain rules for decorating the Christmas tree appeared. The top is crowned with the "Star of Bethlehem". The balls (previously they were apples) represent the forbidden fruit that our first parents Adam and Eve ate. All kinds of curly gingerbread and biscuits, which replaced waffles that were obligatory in the Middle Ages, remind of unleavened bread used in the sacrament rite. Over time, everything became easier, they began to hang colorful toys, lanterns, baskets on the spruce branches.And then came the fashion for toys made of papier-mâché, porcelain, embossed cardboard, bugles and glued beads, transparent and frosted glass.

It is not surprising that children immediately fell in love with the holiday. Simultaneously with children's joy of toys and sweets, adults also delighted each other - they made different gifts, along the way made small presents to servants, governesses and the poor. Therefore, many were looking forward to celebrating the New Year, because this holiday became the most cheerful and joyful for everyone, from the smallest to the gray-haired elders.

New Year's table
The pinnacle of the festive festivities, a long-awaited delicacy, was considered to be a pie. It is an echo of the fact that bread was the main dish and the source of all life.

Before the New Year's dinner, seeds of rye, wheat, oats were poured on the table. Then the table was covered with a clean tablecloth.

The Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians also had sweet porridge-kutia and pancakes as an important New Year's dish. Porridge was cooked from whole grains, several types of cereals. It was believed that there will be a plentiful meal for the New Year, which means that there will be a full bowl at home all year round.

In addition, figures of domestic animals - goats, cows, calves, horses - were sculpted and baked from the dough. Then, when they came to the house to carol, the guests were presented with these figurines and other sweets.

Some customs and beliefs
Usually, before the New Year, they tried to pay off all debts, forgave all offenses, those who were in a quarrel were obliged to make peace, so they asked each other for forgiveness.

People tried to enter the New Year in everything new, for which they put on a new dress and new shoes on the holiday. People believed that this would contribute to the growth of wealth.

The first day of the New Year was also important. Attention was paid to how the day would go. After all, the whole coming year depended on this.