Thread: Christmas

Truly, what makes people come to Moscow?

Originally Posted by Basil77

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

What's more, the Tatars have their own republic within Russia.

The Caucasians have their own republics within Russia too, but что толку?

That's right. But the Caucasians have much worse living conditions in their republics than the Tatars do. Agree? The bad living conditions make them leave their republics irrespective of how patriotic they are and go live in more developed areas of the country. Though I'm only talking about Russia's Caucasian republics now. As for Georgia and Azerbaijan, we also have floods of people coming from these republics, although the number of illegal immigrants from Georgia has significantly decreased in the past two-three months due to the problematic relations between Russia and Georgia.
Anyhow, this thread is about Christmas. We are supposed to be hotly discussing Christmas at the moment. Really, immigrants from Georgia, Azerbaijan and other CIS countries coming to live in Russia, don't bring along much of their rich culture. At least, the majority of them.

Sanchous, Ramil where are we going??! It's all complete

Originally Posted by Vincent Tailors

Christmas is not celebrated in Russia, almost at all. It is considered a holy day, and it falls on the 7th of January. New Year is celebrated widely, and, let's say, the most anticipated holiday of the year.

About "like the American Way". When you gonna stop thinking you're an example to the rest of the world?

Thats totally not what I meant! I AM TRYING TO LEARN ABOUT ANTOHER CULTURE!!! AND ALL I KNOW IS MY OWN!!! SO STOP GIVING ME CRAP! I AM SORRY THAT I COME ACCROSS AS A STUPID AMERICAN!

I am sorry then, I misunderstood you. I meant no offence. Your words were... khm, ambiguous.

And anyway, you have my answer

Chalk this down as a linguistic misunderstanding!

The great thing about being a foreigner in Russia is to be able to celebrate christmas 3 times!

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Chalk this down as a linguistic misunderstanding!

The great thing about being a foreigner in Russia is to be able to celebrate christmas 3 times!

Why 3 times? Do you take into account New Year? If not, I can't work out what the third Christmas is. The first one's December 25, the second - January 7. Third?

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Chalk this down as a linguistic misunderstanding!

The great thing about being a foreigner in Russia is to be able to celebrate christmas 3 times!

Why 3 times? Do you take into account New Year? If not, I can't work out what the third Christmas is. The first one's December 25, the second - January 7. Third?

4 times! Don't forget about Old New Year!

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Chalk this down as a linguistic misunderstanding!

The great thing about being a foreigner in Russia is to be able to celebrate christmas 3 times!

Why 3 times? Do you take into account New Year? If not, I can't work out what the third Christmas is. The first one's December 25, the second - January 7. Third?

4 times! Don't forget about Old New Year!

Well, having added in Old New Year, we really have 4 different Christmases.
Frankly, Christmas has very little to do with New Year. New Year signifies the end of the year and Christmas is basically a religious holiday which is in hardly any relation to the end of the year.
Even if we take into account the fact that English speakers might refer to New Year in the same way as to Christmas, we're still Russians and have our own traditions and two different words for Christmas and New Year.

Originally Posted by Ramil

Originally Posted by Basil77

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

Caucasians, Chinese, and Jews constitute most of the non-Russian part of the country.

Do you know that the second biggest ethnic group at Russia is Tatars?

Ukrainians. Then go Tatars. But that's beside the point. Don't confuse nationality and religion. I'm half Tatar myself but I am an orthodox christian. There are also ethnic Russians who profess Islam don't forget about that.

Как подчеркнул на пресс-конференции в центральном офисе «Интерфакса» министр по национальной политике Российской Федерации Владимир Зорин, национальный состав населения нашей страны изменился. Министр отметил, что по итогам переписи 1989 года, самыми многочисленными национальностями в России являлись русские, татары, украинцы, чуваши, башкиры, белорусы, мордва, чеченцы, немцы и удмурты. По данным последней переписи наименее многочисленные народы - удины, караимы, дунгане, ижорцы, крымчани, белуджи, талыши, ливы. Сейчас, по мнению Зорина, российских немцев меньше, поскольку представители этой нации были подвержены большой миграции. Это касается и евреев. В то же время, по некоторым оценкам, в десятку самых крупных этнических групп, проживающих в России, вошли армяне.
I, personally, agree that Ukrainians are, but it seems to me, that many people with Ukrainian surnames just count theyself Russian and declared their nationality as Russian at the population census.
Sorry for again , but I just missed this Ramil's post before.

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Chalk this down as a linguistic misunderstanding!

The great thing about being a foreigner in Russia is to be able to celebrate christmas 3 times!

Why 3 times? Do you take into account New Year? If not, I can't work out what the third Christmas is. The first one's December 25, the second - January 7. Third?

Well, in the secular western sense it is all about presents. We receive presents on our christmas, your new year's as well as your christmas! Triple the pleasure!

Don't tell me you don't exchange gifts on your christmas?

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Well, in the secular western sense it is all about presents. We receive presents on our christmas, your new year's as well as your chtistmas! Triple the pleasure!

Don't tell me you don't exchange gifts on your christmas?

Of corse we exchange presents, but mostly on New Year, not on Christmas. Они так и называются "новогодние подарки". Словосочетание "рождественские подарки" попахивает Западом или дореволюционными временами.

I don't celebrate either.I just drink whole the night

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Don't tell me you don't exchange gifts on your christmas?

No!
Maybe a small one. Chocolate candies or smth.

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Chalk this down as a linguistic misunderstanding!

The great thing about being a foreigner in Russia is to be able to celebrate christmas 3 times!

Why 3 times? Do you take into account New Year? If not, I can't work out what the third Christmas is. The first one's December 25, the second - January 7. Third?

4 times! Don't forget about Old New Year!

Well, having added in Old New Year, we really have 4 different Christmases.
Frankly, Christmas has very little to do with New Year. New Year signifies the end of the year and Christmas is basically a religious holiday which is in hardly any relation to the end of the year.
Even if we take into account the fact that English speakers might refer to New Year in the same way as to Christmas, we're still Russians and have our own traditions and two different words for Christmas and New Year.

No there is a huge difference in Xmas and New year.

And what does this mean? :

Your words were... khm, ambiguous.

The khm part

Khm == ahem
Just... transliterated it from Russian.

Originally Posted by iamjames

No there is a huge difference in Xmas and New year.

To Americans probably, but not to Russians.
It is just an excuse to celebrate (usually involving some serious drinking)
And since we have 10 vacation days now (from 1st till 10th of January), the celebration lasts from 25-th of December (Catholic christmas) till Jan 14-th (Old New Year). Then we suffer from a major hang-over for a month
Then comes 23-rd of February (Homeland Defender's day), then comes March 8th (Women's day), then we anticipating May celebrations (May 1st and 9th - the Victory Day), and then - June 12th (Independence day). From then we get back to work and struggling through the rest of the year waiting every moment till we can start celebrating again. To compensate our lack of holidays during that period of the year most of us take vacations in summer and early Autumn.
I think it's a part of our curse We love celebrating everything. Just give us an excuse for not going to work and we'll be happy

Add to this birthdays, weddings ... even funerals... and I'm sure you'll get the picture.

You forgot the Bastille Day!

So don't plan any serious business to do with Russians during January at least

Я ненавижу рождество. Почему купить дары, которые никто не хочет и никому не нужны?