Daniel is ten, and the question that governs his December is why the tree in his family’s house near Chicago is kept standing well past the day on which his friends at school have taken theirs down. In his house, the presents are not opened on the twenty-fifth. They are opened on New Year’s Eve, brought by a figure called Ded Moroz, and then, on the seventh of January, a quieter day arrives on which Baba calls from Russia to say Merry Christmas. Two winter holidays are observed rather than one, and the reason that they fall where they fall is a matter of two calendars and one century of history.
January 7
Russian Christmas is celebrated on January seventh, and the reason for this date lies in the calendar that the Russian Orthodox Church continues to follow. The Gregorian calendar was adopted for everyday purposes in most of the world, but the Church continued to use the older Julian calendar for its feasts. This has resulted in a thirteen-day difference between the two calendars in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Therefore, December twenty-fifth on the Julian calendar corresponds to January seventh on the Gregorian calendar, which is the day Russians observe the Nativity and on which Baba calls Daniel. This same gap is why "Russian Orthodox Christmas" is a separate search term, as people are looking for the Orthodox date, not the Western one.
Why New Year is the bigger Russian holiday
The holiday by which the season is carried in most Russian homes is not Christmas but New Year, and the reason for it is one of history. With the revolution of 1917, the public observance of Christmas came to be suppressed by the Soviet state, which closed churches and moved the season's festivities to the first of January, when they were kept as a secular event. The tree was not abandoned but was remade into a New Year tree, the *yolka*, and gifts were not abandoned but were placed in the hands of Ded Moroz, Grandfather Frost, and his granddaughter Snegurochka, the Snow Maiden, by whom they were brought on New Year's Eve and not at Christmas. It is for this reason that presents in Daniel's home are opened on the thirty-first of December, and the greeting by which the season is most filled is not the Christmas one but *S Novym godom*, said «s NOH vym GOH dam,» which means "Happy New Year." Christmas, when it arrives on the seventh, is considered by many to be the quieter and more religious of the two.
С Рождеством
Merry Christmas in Russian is given as С Рождеством, said «s razh dyest VOM,» and the fuller form, by which a card or a church is served, is С Рождеством Христовым, said «s razh dyest VOM khrees TOH vym,» in which the sense of the Nativity of Christ is held. As was the case with the birthday greeting, no word for merry is to be found within it, for what is said, word for word, is «with the Nativity,» and the wish is taken from the form itself. When the call of his grandmother is answered by Daniel on the seventh, these are the two words by which he is expected to answer, and beside them the New Year greeting С Новым годом is the one by which the week before will have been marked. The two are not to be exchanged for each other, since the one is held to the first of January and the other to the seventh.
Na zdorovie
At the New Year's table, where adults raise a glass and Daniel raises a glass of something else, the words offered are «Za zdaróvye,» pronounced «za zda ROH vye,» which mean "to health" and are the closest Russian equivalent to "cheers." It's worth noting a correction here, as the phrase "Na zdaróvye," often heard in English films as a Russian toast, is not one. It's what's said in response to a thank you for a meal, closer to "you're welcome." The toast is the other phrase, "Za zdaróvye," where "Za" carries the sense of "to," while "Na" does not. A shorter form heard among friends is "Budem," pronounced "BOO dyem," which means "let us be." In Russia, a glass is generally not drunk from until something has been said over it, even if that something is just a single word.
Where a child picks up the words of the season
The greetings of the season are more easily grasped by a child when they are tied to the day on which they are used, rather than learned from a list. At our school, groups are kept small, a couple of meetings are held each week, and the words of the calendar, including "Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year," are encountered during the seasons to which they belong. The first two lessons are free and come one after the other. The child is first met by a methodologist, who determines the child's current level. Afterward, the child participates in a full group lesson with a teacher, ensuring that the greeting a child gives a grandmother on January 7th is one that has been practiced rather than one being read for the first time from a screen.
