Thread: Russian Traditions that You Love!?

Юрка

Я бы на твоём месте не затыкал мне рот.

Когда будешь на моем месте, тогда и вякай.

Originally Posted by Medved

Юрка
Когда будешь на моем месте, тогда и вякай.

Вот так уже гораздо лучше. И чеснее. А то втирал что-то про Пасху, якобы этот христианский праздник является твоей любимой традицией. Нашей настоящей русской традицией является хамство несусветное. А христианство мы восприняли как поедание куличей и формальное выполнение ритуалов. Такое восприятие веры Лев Гумилёв называл лицемерным. С чем тебя и поздравляю, Медвед.

I just can't help but notice that threads started by a certain OP tend to end with a fight.

Originally Posted by Eric C.

I just can't help but notice that threads started by a certain OP tend to end with a fight.

Чушь! Подходяшая поговорка пока не приходит в голову. Ну может, в своём глазу бревна не замечаем...
Давайте заканчивайте базар, а? (Кстати, тоже традиция ).
Не хочется закрывать хорошую тему.

Originally Posted by Lampada

Чушь! Подходяшая поговорка пока не приходит в голову. Ну может, в своём глазу бревна не замечаем...

Вспомнилась украинская поговорка. За моє жито ще й мене побито.

В Христианстве, Юрка, мне не нравится одна-единственная заповедь.
Подставлять вторую щеку, когда получил по одной.
Поэтому на хамство я отвечаю хамством, а на удар - ударом, независимо от моих взглядов.

Originally Posted by Medved

В Христианстве, Юрка, мне не нравится одна-единственная заповедь.
Подставлять вторую щеку, когда получил по одной. Поэтому на хамство я отвечаю хамством, а на удар - ударом, независимо от моих взглядов.

Тогда ты не Медвед, а Мухаммед.
Потому что такой менталитет характерен для мусульман.
Кстати, сейчас кавказские террористы довольно успешно вербуют русскую молодёжь (Ханна интересовалась этим вопросом в теме про Царнаевых). А почему? А потому, что они потеряли корни. Это ещё один признак разложения крестьянской культуры в нашей стране. В результате люди не умеют противостоять чужой идеологии и даже не замечают этого.

Давайте заканчивайте базар, а?

Ок!

Russian tradition that I love (I'm not sure it is an only Russian habit): when you wish somebody "happy birthday" you always wish him someting special, personal (in Russian you not only "поздравляешь", but also "желаешь" smth). Somehow I got the idea that in Western culture you just say the words typical for the situaton (e.g. Happy birthday! Bon anniversaire!) just like when you wish "happy new year". Correct me if I'm wrong.
Russian tradition that I don't like: when you're having dinner at friends/relatives (especially relatives!) and you like some food they give it to you when you leave!

As for traditions changing I think it's normal for any country. We were once agricultural country, but we are no more (thanks to USSR industrialization). Personally I don't think it's bad. We had old traditions but we have new ones now ( New Year instead of Christmas, for example). I have no desire to be a farmer/peasant/what you call it, so I'm glad that I have the possibility to get PhD and work as a scientist

Btw, I make pancakes every Масленница and I bake пирожки about once in a month. Also I love to make квашенная капуста, and that's a nice Russian tradition too!

What are the exact reasons people visit a Banya, now that everybody has shower/bath at home?

Okay, let's compare.

Shower:
- You wash away the contaminants and get your body clean.
- You turn it hot then cold and back to hot to make a contrast shower, which is quite positive for your health, particularly for your cardiovascular system.
- You have a kind of massage with the streams of water.

Bath:
- You wash away the contaminants and get your body clean.
- You can lie in the water for an hour and soak your skin so the old dead skin particles get peeled away when you rub the body with a sponge.

Banya:
- You come in and just lie on the bench, wait for a while. The atmosphere in Banya is hot and humid. The humidity is about 50-60 percent which is good for your skin compared to sauna because it doesn't dry it out as sauna does, increasing the tendency for premature ageing. Banya doesn't do that. It moistens your skin with humid air and the aromatic oils or something else (like medicinal herbs, lavender or pine-tree buds) you may add to the boiler. Then you start sweating. Sweating doesn't go as rapidly as in sauna because of the moistened air. Throughout the process your skin pores become clean and "breathing". When you come out of the banya you feel like you're born anew. The temperature of the skin and the muscles raises (the air temperature is also about 50-60 degrees Celcius) as well as the metabolism does. So the fat starts "burning away" because of this metabolism. Also it kinda rinses the skin and the blood vessels. So your vessels become clean washed through with this blood pump. The effect gets to a maximum in the steam area (парная). You lie on another bench, splash some water (additives are recommended) on the hot stones lying near the smoke discharge outlet of the boiler, which raises both the temperature and the humidity. Then you start lashing youself (gently!!!) with this besom made of thin birch twigs with leaves. You should steam it out in advance in order to soften the twigs. Basicaly you just put it in hot water in about 5 minutes before you start lashing. So you're lashing yourself gently (or someone else can help you) -- yes, it's what you thought about, it can be your man or just another woman -- the mechanical action is boosting even further what I said earlier about the effects on the skin and stuff. Then you just relax and lie calm for a while. Then you prepare water for washing, and do the washing, of course. Just like you do it in the shower. Oh I forgot. To achieve a similar effect like #2 for a shower when the lashing ends you can just run out of the banya and jump into a snowbank nearby or just spill a bucket of cold water over yourself. It's like tempering, you know. But the effect is much stronger than a simple contrast shower.
To sum it all up, banya provides you with all the positive stuff you can get from a shower, bath and a sauna at once and adds some more

Oh I forgot another thing. When I think of banya my brain is boiling with ideas and things I've done myself and heard of, so I can talk about it endlessly...

You can splash a mug of kvass on the hot stones instead of plain water so you'll find yourself surrounded with the specific wonderful aroma of fresh bread and something else, it's unforgettable. Of course it should be REAL natural kvass rather than this bottled fake you can find in regular shops. You can also use natural freshly-brewed beer.

Again when you're done washing you want to drink and the best drink is again kvass, slightly chilled.

I reread your post and I found that you've had a negative experience with a sauna. I'm very sory those asses did that to you. One good thing about banya is that I've nenver seen any locks on the inner door. You should go to a banya with someone you definitley trust.

Here are some minor nuances and tricks:
- The boiler has a wooden lid, if you close it the temperature won't raise quickly if at all.
- The temperature in banya is best when it's a bit beyond comfortable. Not very much. Just slightly.
- If it's too hot, just open the door letting the hot air out of the steamroom.
- Or just lie on the floor, it's much colder there. That's why all the benches there are at about a waist hight.
- Don't start lashing right away after you came in. Allow yourself a time of relaxation just lying on the bench motionlessly.
- Raise the temperature slowly and gradually. Your body won't even feel that it's so hot inside.
- Don't touch metal things in the steamroom. They're VERY hot. Even nail caps on the walls, let alone dippers (except for the wooden handle) and other stuff. (And the walls of the boiler!!!)
- If the surface you want to lie down on is very hot (examine it with your palm first), just spill some cold water onto it and spread it with your palm allaround the surface.

Thanks for the interesting info about banyas and about how the sauna works.

I've never really known it. Some of my relatives have saunas at home, but my parents never did.

It was a horrible scare we had in that sauna. We couldn't turn off off the heat, there was no switch, nothing. We had broken into the school swimming pool at night and I don't even know why the sauna was turned on. I think the heating must have been centrally controlled, or controlled from outside. Just a terrible and very bad situation caused by teenage drinking. The guys were drunk and almost forgot to open the door, we could have died. We screamed and eventually they heard.

I've been in a sauna since, but not many times.

Here in the UK, they have something called Roman Baths and which have quite a lot of what you are describing. But there are only a few of them, not thousands. And I went to something quite similar when I was on holiday in Hungary - they were operating right on hot springs in the middle of Budapest.
Otherwise the Banya sounds a bit like a Spa. But spas tend to be super luxurious, whereas Banyas can be anything from luxury to very old and basic, right?

One thing I'd love to do is to sit in the sauna for a while, and then take a quick dip in an ice opening, in the Winter.
Must be fantastic for the body, circulation and all that.

Banyas can be anything from luxury to very old and basic, right?

Right.

One thing I'd love to do is to sit in the sauna for a while, and then take a quick dip in an ice opening, in the Winter.
Must be fantastic for the body, circulation and all that.

This sounds awesome. Unfortunally banyas are located within private gardens or at a particular site of a town or city so they're rarely anywhere near creeks, rivers, etc. So the most you can do near a banya in winter is take snow baths

Personally I like banya better than sauna, even though saunas are usually equipped with swimming pools, entertainment and stuff.
Sauna feels plain and soulless, maybe, I dunno how to describe it.

When Hanna asked about traditions the first thing that came into mind was taking a sit before relatively long travel and such superstitions. Here is the full list of modern ones:

Russian traditions and superstitions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We were introduced to this tradition on our last day in Moscow before leaving for the airport.

Scott

Originally Posted by Basil77

When Hanna asked about traditions the first thing that came into mind was taking a sit before relatively long travel and such superstitions. Here is the full list of modern ones:

Russian traditions and superstitions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia