The end of our charming holidays

Good afternoon, friends! My today's post is a bit sad, because when something good is ending, it is a pity to say 'goodbye' to it. When I am talking about the end, I mean that holidays are over; today is probably the last magic holiday – a so-called Old New Year. Frankly saying, I do not know exactly if the other countries are celebrating this holiday, but here in Ukraine and in other ex-USSR republics we have such a one (maybe it distinguishes us from them) and its’ history comes from old ages. The thing is that we have so-called old and new styles. They indicate whether the calendar follows the old or new dates. And so according to this tendency, we see that if we celebrate Happy New Year on the 31th of December, thus we have Happy ‘Old’ Year on the 13th of January (the Julian calendar). The date difference is not so be, but visible.

And as you know now, today, on the 13th of January 2014, we have this last happy-new-year’s holiday. It is the kindest and the most probably adorable day of the year for me. It associates with the great memories about our past: my family, old ages, different times, and another life. To be honest me and my relatives don’t pay a lot of attention to this day, but I feel that everyone remember that this day is special.

When I was a child, I used to have a strong connection between Old New Year and so-called Slavonic holiday ‘Shedriy Vechir’ (a Generous Evening), which came from a folk tradition to walk around different homes, making a huge entertainment. So the main idea is to go from home to home, singing songs (kolyadki and shedrivki), dancing, performing and to sow the grains – it is a ceremony of this holiday. The owners of different houses, where people are coming to make this ceremony happen, thank and treat them with different dishes and sweets. This is a traditional spending time on the Old New Year.

Personally I remember it very well because it is a very important holiday for Ukrainians. This holiday is the last one of a decade of winter holidays and probably one of the most colorful and funny. This is where magic happens.