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January 13-14: How Russians celebrate the nostalgic traditional Old New Year

According to the Russian tradition:

Happy Old New Year, and wishing everyone much prosperity & abundance in 2017!

ded-moroz-troika

The nostalgic and fun holiday, called The Old New Year, is celebrated on January 13-14 in all of the Russian World.

The traditions for this cool holiday include a very generous table, brimming with traditional Russian foods, such as large, round Russian bliny served with butter, honey, various preserves and caviar, as well as sweets, fruits and Russian tea from the colorful samovar. Groups of well-wishers, dressed in traditional Russian outfits, walk around their village or neighborhood and throw seeds, beans or grains mixed with money, to wish their neighbors and friends prosperity and abundance. This is called ‘Schedrikha’ : the abundance sharing ritual.

It’s also traditional to have sled snow rides, the pinnacle of which are the Russian troika rides: troika means three horses riding as one. People also have snow fights, build snow men and snow or ice terema (castles).

After the Schedrikha ritual another ritual would be performed: burning a stack of hay, which symbolizes burning away any old and hamful energy. As the hay burns, Russians join hands and dance around the fire in the traditional Russian Khorovod. Then, the bravest leap over the burning hay. This seals the ritual, symbolizing the surmounting of any life’s difficulties.

This video is from Tiraspol, Pridnestrovie, where traditions are alive and well. Some of the customs, table and Russian attire start at 0:10 and continue at 0:40.

Pridnestrovie (often referred to in the West as Transnistria) is the breakaway republic of the former Moldavia (Moldova), which proclaimed its intention to join Russia.

I explain a lot about Moldova and Pridnestrovie in this 2014 video on my YT channel: