13 January is another weird Russian holiday — the Old New Year. How does it sound to you?

The Old New Year holiday in Russia

The origins of the Old New Year are the same as the difference in dates of Russian Orthodox Christmas, which is on 7 January, and the usual date of 25 December for the majority of the western world.

In short, in 1918 Bolsheviks (communists) decided to sync dates with the majority of other European countries, which switched to more astronomically precise Gregorian calendar from the old Julian calendar.

However, because a few days before the same government signed a decree about separation of the Russian Orthodox Church from the state and made it very clear for months after the revolution of October 1917 that they want the new state to be atheist and religion should disappear, this, of course, didn’t make the church a fan of the new order.

So, when the decision to move dates arrived, the clergy point blank refused to change the dates to the ones of the atheist government. So, when the whole country moved to the new dates of Gregorian calendar, the church started to celebrate Christian holidays 13 days later.

You can read the complete story here.

Thus the Old New Year is precisely 13 days later than the regular New Year, on the night from 13 to 14 January.

The Old New Year holiday is not official, but people love it. Most ladies will be happy if you wish them a happy Old New Year!

What Russian people do on this day?

• Some of them just give a nod to the 100-year-old tradition, which has surprisingly survived, but do not join any events.
• Others meet with friends and have a drink, or go to a club for a party (it’s a great reason to relive the joy).
• Some adepts will stay until the midnight to be awake when the timeline certainly crosses into 2019 by both calendars. However, they usually don’t stay up all night long as on the original date.

With the growing influence of the Russian Christian Church, the tradition in a way got a fresh lease on life.

What is for sure, every lady you talk to who lives in the countries of the former USSR is aware of the tradition, even if she doesn’t join in herself. However, she may be one of the adepts, so she could be staying up late in order to celebrate the event properly.

Find out from the ladies how they spent this day! It may be another cultural discovery that you can add to your portfolio of learning about life of people in other countries.

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