Bit of an average New Year’s Eve? Don’t worry – you don’t have to wait till Chinese New Year to make it up – Russia offers the disillusioned party person the ultimate solution… Old New Year!

As the Russian Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar for fixed festivities and Easter instead of the extensively-used Gregorian calendar (it strains my brain whenever I get into this cross-calendar quagmire. For my other attempt to make some sense of it, check out my revolting October post), it pretty much translates as double the fun!

It’s all due to the complexities of religion and twentieth century politics, but I’ll try and sort through it all.

Basically – January 1st is when Ded Moroz (Father Frost) visits from Veliky Ustyug (Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov determined this relocation from Lapland in 1998; hopefully he was on-hand to help pack boxes for the move) with his granddaughter Snegorochka (Snow Maiden) and presents for the kiddies gathered around the New Year’s yolka (fir tree). With no other determinable family tree, it’s a little confusing how Ded Moroz has a granddaughter, but it’s obvious that mythological pagan characters move with the times. This year, apparently, not only could you send letters to Ded Moroz at his Veliky Ustyug address, but also text messages!

Russia celebrates Orthodox Christmas on January 7th. Banned for 75 years, and only reinstated in 1992, the Christmas celebrations involve feasting, an all-night mass, clouds of incense and a parade of icons.

Old New Year is then the celebration of the New Year, just as the headache has cleared from the last hurrah. In a further stretch of logic, I’m going West rather than East to celebrate it… yep, a day like today deserves a weekend in London for the Russian Winter Festival in Trafalgar Square! Along with Slavic, Chechen and Buryat folk song and dance, there will be an artificially-enhanced smattering of ‘Star Factory’ wannabes soaking in the fourteenth minute of their fifteen minutes in the limelight, headlining popstar Dima Bilan, and scabby old rockers who deserve some credit for being at the cutting edge of underground Soviet rock many moons ago…

Speaking of many moons ago, undoubtedly this was Miss Russia 1938, risking the soles of her feet on the Gulf of Finland’s banks of razor-sharp debris at the peak of St. Petersburg summertime. At this time of year, the shallow water will be frozen and used simultaneously for ice-fishing, reckless high-speed stunt driving and pulling rope-holding skiers from the back of cars (water-ski-style).