The Russian Orthodox Church remains faithful to the Julian calendar and celebrates it on January 14. The Koryaks of Kamchatka begin the year with the winter solstice, on December 21 or 22. So do the Chukchi, on the border with Alaska. In the Urals, the Khanty and Mansi await the arrival of crows in the spring.
Moscow () – The Russian Orthodox Church celebrated the “old new year” on January 14, proudly remaining faithful to the Julian calendar, and awaits Baptism on January 19 to conclude the Christmas cycle. In reality, the first official date in Kievan Rus was March 1, which was changed to September 1 only in 1492, according to the provisions of the Orthodox liturgical year. It was not until the early 1700s, with the “westernist” Tsar Peter the Great, that January 1 began to be celebrated.
The dates of the new year, on the other hand, vary greatly between peoples of all latitudes, and even in Russia various ancestral traditions are proposed again, especially among the small towns of the north of the Arctic. The Koryaks, an ethnic group originating from the upper area of Kamchatka, begin the year on the winter solstice, December 21 or 22, and call the holiday “Tuygivin” (Fire Day).
As Tatjana Ikavav, a native of Korjaka, tells it, “here without fire you cannot survive for more than a few hours”; fire provides heat and food, because it allows cooking fish and reindeer, whale or walrus meat, as well as bread. A piece is thrown into the fire and a wish is made. “This year I asked that all peoples, Russians, Koryaks, Chukchi, Zveny, Ukrainians and all the rest, could live in friendship, respecting each other.” The elders of the town light the bonfire and thank the “spirit of fire” that purifies the soul of man.
In Čukotka, on the border with Alaska, the new year is called “Pegytti”, and it is also celebrated on the winter solstice. As a local woman, Aleksandra Sleptsova, recounts in a conversation with Sibir.Realii, “The old people say that the reindeer know when the day starts to get longer again, they turn 180 degrees and head north.” That day the star Pegytti rises, the čukčo name of Altair, from the constellation Aquila. The čukči also light the fire, with a special “tinder stone” that is passed down from generation to generation.
The Khanty and the Mansi, two Finno-Ugric groups from the high areas of the Urals, instead celebrate the new year in spring, between the end of March and the beginning of April, without a precise date. It all depends on the flight of the ravens, the first migratory birds to reach the far north when the snow has not yet melted. The Ugrians of the Ob, the great river that rises in the Urals, believe that the cries of crows awaken nature and that is why they call the festival “Vurna Khatl”, “Day of the Crow”.
A woman from the Khanty-Mansijskaja Autonomous Region, Galina Andreeva, recalls the mythological tales her grandmother told about the time of the great frosts, when food reserves ran out and trees turned to stalactites. Then a raven came to the tundra, which, finding itself alone in the frost, began to shriek so loudly that the trees shook off the snow, the animals began to move, and men came out of their houses. The sun rose over the horizon and the flocks of crows came, and everything came alive again.
With the arrival of Russian Christianity, the beginning of the year had been fixed on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, with a happy correspondence between the cry of the raven and the announcement of the Angel. Both point to the life that is being born, and ravens and crows are considered protectors of mothers and children. They also believe that the first woman to see a crow will soon become the first pregnant woman of the year, something like the stork in other countries.
In 2011 the regional government set a new date, the second Saturday of April, to get closer to the hot season and promote popular traditions. The result, as with double dates in Christian calendars, is that the Khanty and Mansi double the winter festivals and greet the rebirth of life by uniting cultures and religions.
