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Long before the appearance of the tradition of decorating fir trees for New Year's celebrations, our ancestors treated all trees as living creatures, believing they could do good and evil. Believing that good spirits hibernate in the evergreen branches of firs, people brought them offerings and decorated the furry branches with gifts. This led to the custom of decorating the New Year's tree. Germans were the first nation to observe this custom. They regarded the fir as a holy tree and home to the good spirit of forests, the spirit that was believed to protect truth. Green in all seasons, the fir embodied immortality, eternal youth, courage, faithfulness, longevity, and dignity. The tree and its cones symbolized the fire of life and the recovery from an illness. Pagan peoples used to decorate their dwellings with branches of evergreen trees. Later in Europe, people brought branches of apple trees, cherry trees and plum trees into their homes a few weeks before Christmas, which was celebrated almost simultaneously with New Year's Day, and put these branches into water so that they began to blossom just before the holidays. The 16th century brought firs into European homes. Legend has it that the leader of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, was the first to bring a fir into his home. On Christmas Eve he was returning home late at night and, glancing at the sky shining with stars he discerned a sort of silvery ringing noise. This made him imagine that the firs around were also bespattered with brightly shining stars. So he took a small fir home and decorated it with candles and sparkling little stars. Since then Christmas and New Year's trees have been common in millions of homes, delighting children and grownups alike. The first Christmas firs were decorated only with nuts and apples. Gradually decorations became more and more diverse. By the mid-19th century the fir tree had won over the whole of Europe and moved on to the Americas. It was Peter I the Great who ruled that Russia count years from the Nativity of Christ, like all European nations did, not from the creation of the world according to which Russia lived in the year 7207 while in Europe it was 1699. By this resolute move he eliminated the calendar discrepancy and January 1, 1700, saw the first popular New Year's merrymaking. Festivities acquired a secular character and were fixed in the Russian calendar. The tsar's decree recommended all residents to fire three salvos and several rockets from small cannons or rifles, and, from January 1st till the 7th, to make bonfires from logs, brushwood and straw. The first festivities were arranged in white-stone Moscow and started with a rocket launched by Peter I. Twisting in the air like a snake; the rocket announced the advent of the New Year. There was cannon fire, public merrymaking, singing and dancing, and in the evening people admired the display of multicolored fireworks, a spectacle they had never seen before. People greeted each other and gave each other gifts. Peter I saw to it that the festivities equaled those in other European countries. Following the Tsar's orders that New Year's be celebrated according to European tradition, the fir came to symbolize New Year's celebrations in Russia too. The first firs appeared in the homes of Moscow (the capital city until St. Petersburg was founded) on the eve of the year 1700. Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine the Great were both fond of arranging luxurious New Year's celebrations in the palace. In St. Petersburg the new tradition to celebrate Christmas with decorated firs began to be observed by German Lutheran artisans resident in the city. Gradually Russian families began to follow this European custom. In 1852 the authorities arranged the first public merrymaking around a New Year's tree, and by the end of the 19th century this picturesque custom had spread to many peasant homes too. Since then Russians have been celebrating New Year's Day with decorated fir trees, lights, the crunch of crisp snow underfoot, children's amusements, Father Frost and gifts. After the 1917 October Revolution, the new, atheistic, authorities decided that a decorated tree was related to the religious holiday of Christmas and outlawed it along with religion. Until 1935 decorated trees did not feature at official celebrations of the New Year. Later the tradition was revived. In 1947, January 1 was made an official holiday throughout the country. This noisy and merry holiday is marked by Russians of all faiths. Traditionally it is a family event with friends and relatives gathering around a festive table laid with delicacies of all kinds. Recently, however, most restaurants, cafes and clubs have begun to offer entertainment and banquets for people who don't want to limit the celebrations to just the family circle. On New Year's eve thousands of people go to Red Square, in the heart of the city. People brave the cold and enjoy themselves to the accompaniment of the chimes of the country's main clock — the Kremlin chimes. The Moscow Government prepares an extensive entertainment program for the New Year's celebrations. Public merrymaking takes place in every district. People are entertained by Father Frost and the Snow Maiden, sleigh riding, and folk music performers.
By Natalya Grigorieva (“Moscow today & tomorrow” . December / 2002) |
People are created to
be different. Different nations have invented different holidays.
But one holiday is marked by all. This holiday is New Year's Day,
the most favourite and festive of celebrations, marked by
long-awaited gifts, the magical Father Frost and his Snow Maiden,
and by the smell of fir trees and tangerines. The tradition of
seeing the New Year in has gained such a firm foothold in this
country that it seems to have existed from time immemorial.