Thank you for explaining Christmas and New Years in Russia. It seems like Russia is backwards with these two holidays. The rest of the western world goes all out for Christmas and looks at New Years as just the start of the New Year. We celebrate New Years Eve. But not really New Year’s Day. With Russia under Soviet rule for so long, it’s hard to change completely. I love the Orthodox Church in Russia. Each church is so beautiful.

At 2:47 I obviously meant 1918 👀 Merry Christmas to you, guys, and Happy New Year!💛🎄

Im russian and I’m glad to see how Vika describe over society and traditions, I think she help whole world understand that Russians are not Russian government and many Russians shame about over government. Guys, we are normal, not stupid crazy war lovers! We can be tolerance and peaceful.

In Mexico gifts are given on the 7th of January as a sort of Christmas part 2. Officially it’s “día de tres reyes” or day of the three kings that brought gifts Jesus the night of his birth. I’m USA born, so I get presents on both days!

As a Protestant Christian in the US, I would much prefer if Christmas was strictly a religious celebration rather than the secular season it has become. I feel like it is so easy to lose the meaning of what we're actually celebrating when it's cluttered with all the other add-ons. This video was very easy to understand and super interesting! Thank you!

I live in Wales and we celebrate Christmas and New Year at the same time as most of the rest of the world but there is a valley in West Wales called the Gwaun Valley where people continue to celebrate the old new year according to the Julian calendar on 13th January. It is called ‘Hen Galan’ in Welsh. Children go from house to house singing traditional songs and being given sweets or money.

I live in US. January 7th is referred to where I live as Old Christmas and is still celebrated by some, especially churches, who may have special services on all 3 dates. As a little girl I was told that at midnight on January 7th all the animals bow down. I always thought that was a lovely story.

I used to live in Moscow! I was born in California, but my family moved to Russia and I grew up in Moscow. I lived there from when I was 4 til I was 14. My family and I moved back to the US when I was 14, I’m 24 now and have been living in the US for 10 years. Watching your videos makes me nostalgic. I love living in the US but sometimes I miss Moscow!

I absolutely loved this video. My grandfather on my mother’s side was a Russian Orthodox priest and he died on Jan. 6th when I was a little kid so ever since then my mother and I always make sure to celebrate Russian Christmas in any way we can in memory of him.

'Assistance Horse' is so cute! I am Canadian, but my family is Serbian, so we also celebrate Christmas on January 7th, as well as on December 25th. Love your videos!

Changing everything to New Year is the same thing the Church did with all the old pagen holidays. The tree and the yule log and all the Winter celebrations were for Winter Solstice.😂 The people get to have their usual celebrations, it's just called something else🤪 It gets confusing, doesn't it?! Thanks for the great info and insight into Russian culture.💕

This is fascinating!!! Your explanation of the different calendars was actually very easy to understand, it makes a lot of sense! I would LOVE to see you make a video about what Christmas foods you make/eat. I just love food, those are some of my favorite videos of yours, hahahha. I hope you make one!

Your explanation of the different calendars and how the dates of New Year and Christmas are celebrated in Russia was very clear to understand Vika and very interesting to hear. In the European and UK countries it is sad to see that most people are so busy with chaotic shopping sprees and hunting for the new popular toy or the most up to date cell phone etc that they do not recognise the real 'reason for the season' which was the miracle birth of the Christ child. We thank and praise our Heavenly Father for this tiny baby born in such humble circumstances. Back then there was no room in any nice warm Inn for Him to be born and sadly today there is still no room for Him in the hearts of many people.

I am an Orthodox Christian in the US and attend a Russian Orthodox Church here (Moscow Patriarchate - USA) and we also go by the Julian calendar so The Feast of Nativity is on January 7 which means I’m already back at work (usually most plants/factories start back on the 2nd) so I end up either missing that very important Divine Liturgy or have to try and get time off which no one understands since I’d just had a week and a half off prior to this. So I’d love to be there in Russia and know that I always had that day off. As far as December 25, we in our family refer to it as Christmas and give gifts to our Protestant family members and usually go to a movie. We refer to January 7 as The Nativity Feast as this is what it actually is (“Christmas” is a term with Western historical roots) and we end our Nativity fasting and eat and worship and celebrate the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus. New Years is not really much of a big deal in the USA. Thanksgiving Day in the US would be more equivalent to how Russia celebrates New Years I’m guessing. Anyway as I write this it is December 19 (Julian/Church calendar: Dec 6 Feast of St. Nicholas) and we are celebrating the 6 year anniversary of our Baptism into the Holy Orthodox Church. I thank Christ God for this channel and ask Him to continue to bless you and your family. Thank you for this video.

This was so interesting to know!! I am from Romania and we celebreate Christmas on th 25th but Easter whenever it is for the Orthodox church 😂 We combine both catholic and orthodox religious holiday dates 😂

My Grandfather came to the US from Russia in 1914 . He married my Grandmother, a Slovak Lutheran, in the Orthodox Church . My father was raised Orthodox and celebrated Christmas in January . All his family converted to Protestantism in the 1930’s . All of my life we celebrated on Dec. 25 but always left our tree and decorations up until after Russian Christmas . Of course we all were taught that neither day is actually accurate because Biblically there is no day stated for Christ’s Birth and he was likely born in the fall according to historical references . We can thank the Emperor Constantine for taking the Pagan rituals of winter and blending it with Christianity . Thank you for filling in the history for us as to what was happening with the celebrations in the USSR between the revolution and current times . Most of all thank you for sharing your beautiful family and lives with all of us . The importance is not in the day we celebrate but that we know who and why we celebrate ! Blessings for a prosperous New Year and a very Merry Christmas .

Thank you for your explanation of these differences. In a world where knowledge can be clouded by "disinformation" your simple honest well researched description is music to the ears of people who have grown sadly accustomed to fashionable "spin". Your videos give many old people like me great faith in the young, and a much better understanding of what modern Russia is like.

I'm an historian and I just loved everything about this video

Thank you so much for this! My daughter-in-law is from Kazakhstan and her family are Russian Orthodox. As a result, my granddaughter enjoys 2 Christmases and of course, the adults celebrate New Year’s with gusto. On an aside, going to my granddaughter’s christening last year was quite an experience for me. Your customs are again very different; could this be a topic for a future video? Love your channel and your beautiful family. Thank you for helping your audience to learn about your culture in a world that desperately needs more compassion. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Canada 🇨🇦

I had a neighbor many years ago that came from Russia. She was always a little sad between Christmas and new year’s here because of the differences in celebrating she said that was the one thing she really missed about living in Russia was the excitement of the new year season.

In Spain since it's a traditionally catholic country we celebrate the 25th, some areas the 26th (I belive Italy does too ), then NYE, and the 6th of January the 3 kings day as we call it here

I saw an old Soviet-era film recently entitled "Carneval Night" which depicted a New Year's Eve celebration by the inhabitants of a local house of culture. I was surprised to see how the Russian tradition of a masquerade party dominated the story. It was very lively and colorful, complete with a huge decorated tree and Father Frost. The production values of the film were outstanding, though admittedly not as good as your excellent presentations, Vika. I look forward to many more of your great videos in 2022!

My family immigrated to the USA from Latvia (former USSR) in the 80s so we have a lot of soviet family traditions. People get very confused why I celebrate the New Year the way i do! Especially because I am not Christian, people don't understand why we get a tree and presents and all that 😅 so thank you for your video! С наступающим!

We have a lot of Russians where I live so I knew all you said already :) . But I understand a lot of local Russians have started to celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December like we estonians do. Although New Year is still a massive thing. In Soviet times we continued to celebrate Christmas, it was done quietly and curtins closed but communists couldn't take our Christmas' away :)

Finally! Someone explains this!! New Year tree is NOT a Christmas tree 😏😏

My parents and family were refugees from Latvia after World War II...they came first to Germany then America. I was their only child born in America. My father was Russian Orthodox priest..we lived in Bay Area next to our church so we spent ALOT of time in church. We would finally get a tree around December 23rd or so and no gift giving until January 7th..very strict..but when an older sister got married and had children, then the gift giving switched to December 25th. I was around 13 when this happened so until then, when my friends asked me what I presents I got for Christmas, they just didn't understand the different dates and would make fun of me, so I would tell a little bit of a lie about things I never got on the 25th of December...it was just easier back then in the 1950's to do that because American kids just didn't understand other cultures...

Very interesting . I did not know any of this and Thank You for the history lesson!

I am a nurse and I used to be very lucky to work with some members of a russian immigrant family. There were 4 of them who worked in my department and they were happy to work on our Christmas (Dec.25) so they could get their Russian Christmas(Jan 7) off work because they were orthodox and wanted to spend that day at church. So , that meant 4 less American nurses had to work on our holiday.The Russians would automatically get New Years eve off because that was policy - if you work Christmas you get New Years off. We all learned a lot about russian culture working with them over the years, especially food as they would sometimes bring foods in for us to try out.More people like them would make the relationships between USA & Russia much better as they were a lovely family.

I learned so much. Thank you!

Nice video. In Serbia we also celebrate Christmas on 7th of January. New Year is a big deal as well, but it's not so family oriented. It's more towards going on parties and stuff. On the other hand Christmas is all about family spanding time together. There are so many customs around Christmas mostly amoung ortodox christians. Here protestant churches also celebrate both dates. С Рождеством! ❤️

Yes I never knew that you all celebrate at different times. I love learning about the differences in our countries and culture. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. ❤️❤️

Learned so much! Thank you for sharing!

This was so interesting! Loved it! Thanks for sharing!

This was really fascinating! Thanks for explaining this - and I agree, it's always good to understand each other more, it fosters more peace in the world.

This video was very interesting! I think you did a great job explaining everything. It’s always fun to learn about different cultures. Thank you for sharing this! 😀✨❤️

that was totally fascinating!! thanks for sharing!

Thank you for sharing all of this with us. I have learned so many things !

What a beautiful explanation! What a service you are performing to share your culture with those who have no idea. I am American, but for many years have been turned off by the commercialism of Christmas in the US. I lived in Belgium where gifts were exchanged on St. Nicholas day, celebrated on the 5 or 6 December in Western Christain countries. 25 December was mainly a religious celebration. I like the Santa Claus/Saint Nickolas tradition and the magical time for children, but I dislike it being connected with the Christain celebration of the birth of Jesus. Obviously, living in the US I am sorta swimming upstream with this attitude.🤣 I am enjoying your sharing. Russian literature has been an interest of mine since college. I spent a week in St. Petersburg on a concert tour years ago. It was a dream trip! I wish you a Happy New Year! 🎉🎉

Very very interesting! Love finding out about other cultures and traditions. ❤️😊

Thank you for all these explanations!

So interesting! Thank you! 🎄

Thank you Vika. You help us to learn more about a part of the world that most of us know very little about.

This is a completely interesting video! I had no idea that you celebrated these holidays on different dates! Especially the whole emphasis on New Year's. Thank you for sharing your traditions!! I wish a very happy holiday no matter what the date is to you and your family! Looking forward to see more of your new City in the New Year!

Thank you for explaining!

Thanks for sharing!

This was so fascinating! I had picked up somewhere else that the prominence of New year was due to discouraging religious celebrations after the revolution but I never knew the bigger picture especially the different calendar! Wild! Thank you for sharing 😁

Merry Christmas from Germany. Really like your chancel, with a lot of interesting information

Thanks for sharing 😊✌️

Im so excited for your vlog ❤️

Very interesting videos Vika, I never new Russia celebrated Christmas in January. Have a lovely New Year and a merry Christmas to you and your lovely family.

Thank you for doing this video. You look good, the green shirt with the scarf is perfect! And so creative how you got the horse to assist you! The change in calendar dates happened in many countries. A lot of countries kept the same date, soms countries kept their own dates. Thank you for explaining how Russia got to a different christmas/new years celebration than what "we" are used to and explaining to us why that happened Your videos are such fun to watch. Entertaining and also educational. I love seeing you , Tolya and Agatha (I hope I got the correct spelling) cook, live, travel and giving us a sneak peek into your lives. The love in your family is heartwarming!

I learn so much with you!! Thank you Vica!!!

Thanks for all the info on christmas and new year

This vlog was FASCINATING! Thank you so much for explaining everything. It was very informative and helps me, an American, understand more of the differences in Russia. I really appreciate it!!! Teresa (Nashville, Tennessee)

Another great insight into Russian culture, always really interesting to see how things compare to here in the UK, hopefully you and your family will have a great Christmas (whatever date you celebrate it on) and a vey happy New Year. Keep the vlogs coming, as always look forward to learning more about your experiences and life in Russia. Thanks Vika!

That was so intresting. Thank you so much.

Thank you for sharing, so interesting to hear!

Thanks for the explanation, Vika. It's really interesting to know more things about Russian culture, history and traditions. In my country, Spain, we celebrate practically everything 😅. The Christmas eve, the 25th of december, the new year's eve and the 6th of january. Traditionally the most celebrated day is the 6th of january -when children receive lots of presents-. But, in the last years, people prefers to celebrate (with more presents, family/friends meals…) the 25th of december (as we have many becoming days off to enjoy). Anyway we use to give and recieve presents in all these three main days (Christmas, new year’s eve and the Epifany day in january). Merry Christmas!

Hello there! Thank you, Vika, for your very interesting explanation of the difference between your country's and the Western calendar. It wasn't difficult to understand. I had no idea. Your work with your channel is so important, dispelling stereotypes and myths, showing us life in Russia - bringing us closer together in appreciation and respect of each other.

I definitely learned something new today. Thank you, very much!!

I really enjoyed this video. I learned a lot and you did great at explaining everything.

I actually think the way you celebrate Christmas in Russia makes more sense for Christians. Instead of it being such a commercialized holiday the focus is on Jesus and family.

I'm from Turin, Piedmont, north Italy (a mostly Catholic nation) and I must affirm tha in our country, like many other European ones, even Protestant, Christmas day (the 25th of December) is as important as the New Year's eve, but with two distinct and different connotations: Christmas is a religious festivity to celebrate Christ's nativity, a day where families gather and have lunch togheter. We usually decorate our houses with lights and Christmas trees, but also with a nativity scene made up by small statues which represents the nativity of Christ and generally we end up the day going to church for midnight mass (less frequent in this sad moment of pandemic).The New Year Eve is rather different, but also important and we celebrate it having a lot of parties at home or at the restaurant, mainly with friends. At Christmas both Baby Jesus and Santa Claus bring the gifts for our children. We also celebrate Epiphany on the 6th of January (the last Cristmas festivity when the Three Kings brings gifts to the Nativity hut. In this day children are also very happy because a ugly and old woman, called Befana, riding her flying broom, brings a lot sweets to good children and a sweet coal to the "bad" ones. In Russia is rather different, but not less nice. Thank you for your information. I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

This was very interesting! Thank you!

Brilliant. Thank you

I didn't know any of this! You are super informative, and your explanation was all super clear! :) Thank you Vika! :)

Thank you for explaining this!! I have spent quite a bit of time looking into this because I have 2 adopted sons that are Russian, and I was hoping to implement some of their culture into our holiday celebrations, but it's SO CONFUSING! A lot of the information that I found was either folklore or long explanations that didn't actually explain, so I really appreciate you breaking it down in simple terms! Happy Holidays!!!

Very interesting, thank you!

You have explained everything well!💖

Hello. I’m from USA 🇺🇸 and really enjoyed your video. Thank you for sharing with us. I really enjoyed how you celebrate New Years and Christmas. It’s wonderful to learn different cultures and to understand how others do things. Have a Happy New Year 2022 and Merry Christmas ❤️☃️⛄️❄️

Vika, you handled this topic beautifully! I'm so grateful you felt the need to discuss it and rose to the challenge. I knew these things as separate facts, but had never put it all together and gained the perspective you just gave us in less than 15 minutes. Well done! Very pretty pictures and postcards, too. I come from a Christian family, so Christmas was always very important to us as a major religious and family holiday. Also a national holiday, since the US primary religion is Christian. My favorite part about Russian winter holidays in this video was your personal concern for it, as a woman of faith, and the younger generation seeking to unite with the rest of the world, even if it's just about changing a date of celebration, a simple little detail, but it means something to them. I hope they accomplish their goal. Bright blessings!

Really interesting…thank you for sharing 🤗

I really enjoy your vlog! In 2009, my husband and I went to Voronezh and adopted two sisters and a brother. They are very precious to me. For a few years, they tried to convince us that they should receive presents both on Christmas and New Years. 😂 Christmas is very religious for us, too, though.

Thank you for this. Everything you mentioned was something about which I was not aware. I knew the soviets were anti religion but I didn’t know about the calendars or this interest from young people in celebrating Christmas on the 25th, so as to give it a renewed place of honor in the holidays. Learning so much and you explained the calendars perfectly, no problems there. Well done and appreciated 😊 Seasons greetings to you and your family.

Always look forward to your channel. Thank you for the info.

That was very interesting, thank you for sharing 😁

Great lesson! I learned many new things about how Russia differs from many places worldwide with celebrating Christmas and New Years, both how and when each is celebrated. Thanks for teaching relevant and interesting cultural topics. I love your channel.

Thank you for explaining it so clearly! As a Russian who have been living in the U.S. for the past 10 years I always struggled a bit to explain our Russian traditions to my American and European friends but you did it so wonderfully! I will definitely borrow your explanation from now on :) I now do a mix of Russian and the U.S. traditions, with getting into the holiday spirit earlier in December and doing gifts exchange on the 25th but still celebrating New Year's with some traditional Russian dishes (Olivie salad is a must :) and Skyping with my family in Russia. I often miss the New Year's atmosphere in Russia. My husband is half Dutch half Malawian but I've been trying to get him into more traditional Russian NY celebrations. I love watching your channel especially when I feel homesick, it's like a piece of home. P.S. your English is amazing! Happy Holidays.

That’s so interesting. Thanks for explaining!

Thank you for explaining

Yes Christmas is bigger in the United States, but we celebrate New Year's Eve with heavy partying all night. When the clock strikes 12 fireworks go off and everyone gets a New Year's kiss. I'm from the south and New Year's Day is celebrated with the tradition of eating black eyed peas and cabbage for good luck. It's also good hangover food, hahaha. Most people get Christmas Day and New Year's Day off from work. Kids in school usually get a "winter vacation" during Christmas time lasting about a week or two. Thank you for this video, Vika! You explained it in a very easy and diplomatic way to understand. I also enjoyed looking at all the Russian pictures postcards and other paraphernalia and media. It was beautiful. Happy New Year and Merry Christmas to you and your wonderful family!

The US switched calendars some time in the 18th century. This is why people like George Washington, who was born before the change, had to change his birth date. Happy holidays to you, Tolya, and Agatha, along with the rest of your family. May 2022 be a good year for us all.

Very interesting! Thank you for your videos.

Thank you for sharing, that was very interesting.

да, в сербии то же самое, и мы отмечаем два новых года - новый год и сербский новый год 🇷🇸💪

Christmas is a religious holiday. It is good that in your country it is celebrated in a Spiritual manner. You explained it very well! Also well explained are the perils of government intervention. Many young people in the US have the erroneous assumption that utopia can be obtained through government. Nothing could be further from the truth. Thank you for sharing your insight!

This was so interesting, thank you for sharing this!

Excellent video, thank you!

I celebrate Christmas on the Epiphany, January 6. There are two Christmases here in the states for some of us, the secular Christmas with all the holiday hustle and bustle and the religious Christmas.

Russia is very beautiful around New Years. I have been to Russia about seven times both in summer and in winter. My favorite season there is winter, especially around New Years. You can notice it in the attitude of people. They seem to all be in a more agreeable and happy mood. The cities are decorated beautifully with lights and banners. And the best part is there are less tourists, so prices are generally lower than in summer. I look forward to the next time I can spend New Year Celebrations in Russia. с новым годом !

Very interesting. Thank You.❤️

Very interesting, thank you.

also, have you tried explaining "old new year" (which a lot of people here use as an excuse to party) to foreigners? i was never able to get them to understand :D

In parts of Canada, we do extend our Christmas celebrations until January 7th. There are a majority of us Russian and Ukrainian descendants that carries the tradition so celebrate away 🤗

Thank you. That was very interesting.

Love your channel. Just learnt a something new and shared it with my husband. Thank you😊

yes, the same in serbia ❤ it's because of our religion, like you said and the orthodox church. i kinda feel like new year is 'bigger' because it's for everyone and it's not religious so you can party and everything while christmas is more of a religious holiday to spend in peace of home with family, which kinda is the point. for those who are orthodox/religious. americans and the westerners are more festive and loud, with them it's all about the gifts and decorations - they overhype it and it's also partly due to capitalism. i don't know why we should switch the dates, our christmas is january 7 and that's is that, the young and others can join the rest of the world in celebrations on the 25th in a party way, but we don't have to change our christmas or adapt to others.

With a Russian father and Australian mother we have always had two Christmas celebrations the 25th and the 7th then I married an Armenian orthodox and they celebrate Christmas on the 6th January! My children think it’s great however we have now finally cut the festive eating down to one Christmas and New Year.

That was very interesting topic.thank you .

This was quite interesting. Thank you.