How the New Year was celebrated in the Soviet Union: the best traditions and unexpected stories

For a Russian, New Year is definitely the best holiday. It seems that no country knows how to celebrate like we do. The main attributes of the New Year in Russia are various New Year’s dishes, noisy feasts and a huge living Christmas tree, around which each child dances in a round dance in childhood.

It seems like a big celebration of the main night of the year is in our blood. However, few people know that in the USSR until 1935 the celebration of the New Year was prohibited. And the first traditions of New Year’s festivities began to appear much later.

At first, this holiday was considered a children’s holiday, and from solemn thematic events there were only performances organized for kindergarteners and primary school students. The author of the text about this story knows firsthand. A long time ago, my grandmother told me that in high school she and her classmates held children’s performances, not wearing the traditional costumes of Santa Claus and Snow Maiden, but wearing full pioneer uniforms.

But over time, the New Year officially became a holiday on the calendar. Meanwhile, at the same time, January 1 was declared a holiday. More than 80 years have passed since then.

During this time we formed our own special traditions that are still loved and honored. A few days before the New Year, we decided to remember each of them.

Lively Christmas tree with candies

Buying a Christmas tree in the Soviet Union was as much of a hassle as any other purchase. On the eve of the holiday, bazaars were held in the cities, where real coniferous trees were presented, although not the most beautiful and clean. And the main symbol of the New Year at home was placed in a bucket filled with sand. This was necessary so that the tree stood as long as possible and did not crumble.

Desserts were the best decoration. This was also confirmed by our fashion editor’s mom. “My father always hung various packages of tangerines and sweets on the Christmas tree. And then he arranged a game for us: he thought of any letter and we had to find the thing that began with it, on or under the Christmas tree.

But the beauty editor’s grandmother remembers that the mandatory attributes on the Christmas tree were a red star at the top and real candles hung on clothespins before bright garlands were invented.

Mornings and postcards

What is the New Year without children’s morning performances! On December 30, traditional performances for children were held in kindergartens and schools. Santa Claus and Snow Maiden, who were invited to the Christmas tree, congratulated the little ones on the upcoming holidays and gave gifts. True, you can get a long-awaited New Year’s surprise only after telling the verse and answering the question of how you behaved this year.

Traditionally dressed as bunnies, kittens and kittens, the children danced around the Christmas tree and sang New Year’s carols.

But the older ones were busy sending postcards with the adults. So he congratulated his relatives living in other cities. The Soviet people bought beautiful postcards, wrote congratulations by hand, pasted stamps and sent them by mail. Many of them collected these messages, exchanged them and made whole albums for them.

Family (and not only) holidays

Of course, New Year is a family holiday. However, on New Year’s Eve, all people who were close to each other, whether they were relatives or not, gathered at the table. Soviet families began to prepare in advance for the holiday. The main thing that took precedence was the purchase of sausages, champagne and scarce canned food.

The men in the house were responsible for moving the kitchen table to the living room where the television was. And women – for serving and cooking. Each guest must bring a dish to the common table. It was believed that the host had cooked jelly. And the guests were already responsible for the festive salads and desserts. This was explained by the fact that carrying bowls with them is much easier than carrying a bucket of meat jelly.

The guests gathered in a room turned on the television on which the Blue Light was lit on New Year’s Eve and had fun until three or four in the morning. But the next day it was customary to visit the guests and celebrate the New Year, which had already begun.