Russian Holidays

     The Russian government recognizes about 9 official holidays, and by official holidays I mean that all government offices and most stores are closed. New Years day (January 1st)  is probably the most celebrated and anticipated holiday in Russia. It is usually celebrated with friends, lots of traditional food, champagne, beer and vodka. It is common to exchange gifts and put up a tree for this holiday, so I suppose it is very similar to the American Christmas. Russians do also celebrate Christmas, but not on the 25th of December. They celebrate on January 7th. Also, Christmas is seen as much more of a sacred Christian holiday, filled with church services and other religious activities. 

Russians celebrate the New Year in 2012- Moscow


Other popular holidays include День защитника Отечества (defender of the fatherland day), Flag day, Spring and Labor day, International Woman's day, Unity day, Russia day, and Victory day. 

Operas of Mikhail Glinka

     Russian composer Mikhail Glinka is widely known as the father of Russian music. His compositions   are often considered to be the first to really display traditional Russian song to the rest of the world. He was also apart of the Russian Five (a group of composers in the mid 1800's  known for their original Eastern European style of writing). Glinka wrote two specifically great operas, A Life for a Tsar, and Ruslan and Lyudmila. A Life for a Tsar's plot involved a typical heroic Russian character named Ivan Susanin. This character gives his life for his country when the Polish invade. I find that often Russian operas have this ongoing theme of Patriotism and "This is my country!" kind of business.  His other popular opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila, is an opera in 5 acts based off of a poem by Alexander Pushkin. This opera received most of it's fame and glory by it's extremely popular Overture. 

Народные Русские Сказки

Народные Русские Сказки, or Russian Folk tales, is a collection of various Russian fairy tales put together by Russian folklorist, Alexander Afanasyev. Afanasyev is sort of the Russian equivalent to the German Brother's Grimm. Some of these fairy tales have been retold and adapted into our culture... for example The Princess and the Frog. The Russian style of the story usually differs quite a bit. In these stories, there are some reoccurring characters like Koschei the immortal, Baba Yaga, and Vasilisa the Beautiful. I could not figure out after reading them, however, if these are really reoccurring characters throughout the stories, or if these names like Vasilisa are just common names that are used in several stories. Either way, the set of stories is an interesting read, as are most European folklore. Also, there is a ton of Russian art work dedicated to some of these stories that are really very cool. 








Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (1878—1942)
This is a painting of Koschei the immortal. He is risen from the dead by wizards on a mission to save Marya Morevna.




                                                 




  Viktor Vasnetsov (1848-1926)
"The Princess who never smiled" was about a shallow princess that could be pleased by nothing. Her father promised her suiters that whoever could make her laugh or smile would be her husband.