As we wrap up our Christmas Season here in the US, our Russian Child could be anxiously awaiting a visit from Grandfather Frost. The Russian culture that celebrates the Russian Orthodox religion run on a bit different calender and actually celebrate Christmas on Jan 7th! They Celebrate the New Year first then prepare for their Christmas Celebrations which is richly embedded with Christian heritage.
Here is a few of the traditions we have researched about Russian traditions.
Santa Claus is dressed in a Blue outfit and called Grandfather Frost. He is accompanied by his granddaughter the Snow maiden to deliver gifts to the children on New Years Day, because of the history of the Communist ban on religion. The Russian's found a way to Celebrate the Season. Today they Russians have a large New Years Celebration and then the Holy Christmas Day is celebrated on Jan 7th.
Russian Orthodox fast on Christmas Eve until the first star appears in the sky.
The families celebrate with a HOLY SUPPER - with a white table cloth, a single white candle in the center of the table representing the "light of the world". This meal consist of 12 different food items to represent the 12 Apostles. This is typically a meatless meal.
On Christmas day families visit each other eating, drinking, and singing Christmas Carols all day long.
Many of the same traditions are carried out in the Western world, so we shouldn't have a hard time incorporating some Russian traditions into our home. We are excited to celebrate the heritage of our child and always have some Hatfield family traditions that reflect where she came from.
Our Prayer today is that if our Little Angel is born, that she is warm and safe. We pray that someone is holding her and that she gets to celebrate the season. If she is not born we pray that her mother is taking care of her and that with the Holidays upon them that she restrains from the use of alcohol or drugs, which unfortunately is a large problem in this part of the world.
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