Just kidding.It is true though, that when the Bolsheviks took power after the 1917 revolution, they made any religious holiday illegal. And so Christmas morphed into New Years, which is by far the biggest holiday in Russia. Since the fall of communism, Christmas has been making a comeback, but it has no where near the same materialistic hold on the country that it has in the United States.
The reason for the later celebration is that, for the last 1000 years or so, Russia has been predominantly Orthodox. The Orthodox church still uses the Julian calendar, which is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar that the rest of the world uses. So Russia celebrates Christmas on January 7th, which translates into December 25th for the rest of us. The Russian Baptists do celebrate Christmas with the rest of the world on December 25th, and then again with all of Russia on January 7th, which is why we celebrated it twice.
Our Russian Christmas went fairly smoothly with only a moderate amount of fireworks and one church service/party. Early in the evening Rachel baked a loaf of cinnamon bread and took it over to our neighbors, wrapped in a red bow with 1 John 4:9 written in Russian on a note. Lyuda (our neighbor) was very excited to receive the bread (as was her husband in the background), and wouldn't let Rachel leave without giving her a bag of candy for the girls. Rachel was very encouraged to have had the entire conversation only in Russian, and to have understood every word! Please pray that the verse speaks to the hearts of Lyuda and her family. God's words never return void!
Later that evening we bundled up the girls and set off to our church's Christmas service/party. Since Rachel has been slowly feeling better, we took the trolleybus to the closest stop and walked the rest of the way to the church building. We have a sled, but we keep forgetting to take it when we go places, so Havah had to walk. It was very slippery out, and so after about 2 steps her little feet slid out from under her and she landed on her bottom. Sitting on the ground, she laughed and said, "I swinged!" After a few more steps she slipped again and said seriously, "I need to be careful." But she didn't take her own advice. For the next half-hour she slipped about every 3 or 4 steps, laughing hysterically every time she fell. By the time Jason handed Mercy to Rachel and picked up Havah, we had only gone a little over a block.
Needless to say, we reached the service in time to hear the two last songs, and then our pastor pray in closing! We didn't have to worry though, because after the service the fun began! In the back of the sanctuary there was a long table set up with all sorts of sweets and hot tea. We were glad to see a few of the kids from the orphan camp had come for the service. When the food was gone the "old people" left and all the younger people gathered around in the front of the room for games. Jason joined in while Rachel sat with the girls and watched. Jason won the second game and received a little bag of tea for a prize.
We made it home just in time for the girls' bedtime and went to bed early ourselves due to Jason's exhaustion from having to listen to game instructions in Russian. :o)
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