Traditional Russian Transport
If they ask you which of the inventions of mankind is the most ancient, what will be your first thought? You’ll definitely think about a wheel. But sledge appeared much earlier! And indeed – just tie two front ends of poles to your dog or horse and let the rear ones drag – and you get a primitive sledge. There were so many of them created in different times – sledge without skids (Russian volokushy and Canadian toboggan) and with skids (Siberian and European), sledge with a closed body and even with a sail.
About Windows, Not “Windows”
What comes to your mind when you hear the word “windows”? Of course, you recollect Bill Gates, his Microsoft guys and their perpetration. Only after that you might remember some wood-and-glass, PVC or fiberglass hole in the wall behind your back. Or might not. Anyway, today I want to mull over these, traditional windows, or as they are called sometimes, “the eyes of the house”.
Russian Brides: Before and After
In some parts of Russia there is a tradition to take your bride to the sauna before wedding. Some think that’s being done on some filthy purpose, but elders explain this in different way:
“When you go with your chosen one to the banya (Russian word for sauna), you can see the real person, without all the cloths and all the cosmetics that can decieve you greatly and affect your choice.”
Seeing those photos of Russian brides before the visit to the stylist and after prove that this tradition might be really wise to follow.
Old Russian Traditions as the English Saw It
Samuel Collins, an Englishman, who was a doctor of tsar Alexis of Russia (the 17th century) and spent nine years at his court, wrote a letter to his friend, describing in what environment he lived and what weird traditions Russians had back then.
Neither men, nor women dare forget to wear a belt under pains and penalties of heaven.
They do not whistle using their lips (it’s considered to be inappropriate), but do this with their teeth, and that is very strange.
Happy Ticket Cookies
In Russia there is a belief that if you get a ticket while on public transportation or just in movies, and the sum of the first half of the digits of the ticket number match to the sum of the second half, then you are holding a happy ticket, which, if to be eaten promptly, can bring luck to your life. During Soviet times, it was a must to check the ticket when you are in bus and to calculate in mind automatically if it’s good to be considered magical or not, if yes - then to put it in the mouth in one sneaky move so that nobody around could see you doing this, then chew thoroughly and swallow. Thousands of people did this, not just little kids, though the kids were probably the champions by the amount of eaten tickets.
Probably in order to refresh this tradition, Russian Department of Transport has ordered cookies from Russian designers at artlebedev.ru that were made in a form of a Russian bus ticket, they have numbers on them too, and all the numbers are “lucky”. It has many chances to become popular among people giving them sweet nostalgie feeling about their youth times when they were checking each and every ticket in hope of getting one lucky piece, and to tell their children or grand-children about this during the evening tea.
Falcon Hunt of Kazakhstan Nation
While in the North of Russia they have deer racing in the South of ex-USSR, now independent (and glorious, remember what Borat has said!) country of Kazakhstan they practice in falcon hunt.
Special trained falcons find the victims, chase, catch and bring the bodies to the hunters.
The best hunter gets TV and DVD as a present.
Deer Racing
These days is a great day for the dwellers of Northern regions of Russia. The polar night lasting many days before when the Sun didn’t come above the horizon and the land was covered with the darkness ends. People come from all the regions to celebrate.
The main fun during celebration is the deer race. People bring their best deers and race, race, race. The looser deers are being eaten then, like, they did not satisfy the expectations, giving the big meals to everyone.
The Baptism Day
In Russia there are a few traditions for a Jesus Baptism Day. This day is celebrated in 19th of January and the night before the main tradition is to go bathing in some natural source of water.
So at this day usually the local rivers and lakes are full of the people wishing to commit this ritual, not minding the temperature of the air and of the water, which is usually just a half degree up the freezing point at this time of the year.
Also, many people in Russia believe that the water being picked up at Baptism Day has some sort of magic. It can be kept next 365 days without getting any smell or become rotten. So many collect the water at that night and keep it at home, drinking it from time to time during all the year.
Russian Banya
Russian people are fond of “the banya”. This is a usually wooden structure, somewhere in the village like in the picture below. This is a whole ritual to visit banya and it’s not only about washing but mainly for fun, especially in winter when it’s a must to go bathing in the snow or in the nearest frozen river or lake. Children from early age are getting used to go to the banya and hit each other with special brooms made of leafy branches. Those brooms add more sensory feelings while in the banya process and especially are useful to warm up one quickly after some good snow jumping.
Yesterday it was a New Year Eve - the most widely recognized holiday in Russia. Millions of people wait for it and starting getting ready many months before. Christmas trees as a matter of the fact in Russia are called New Year trees just because the Christmas in Russia is almost ignored by people - during the Soviet Era it was a banned holiday as all other sides of Christian religion so all the holiday trees and decorations were devoted to the secular holiday of New Year Change. So it’s also a widely common tradition right before the New Year comes to visit the banya, and then after this procedure sit all together in a big room at the big table with a lot of traditional Russian dishes and wait for 11.55pm with a TV turned on with the First National Channel - the place where at 11.55pm the president begins his New Year Speech, he is speaking untill 11.59 and 30 seconds before the New Year to arrive the main Kremlin chimes start ringing - and everyone stands up with the goblets full of sparkling wine and when the last sound of the Kremlin chimes is being heard the New Year comes to Russian family.
But banya is a must.
Happy New Year all the readers, thanks for visiting!
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Russian Woodcutters Celebrate
Thirty eight years ago, in 1970 there was a hundred year anniversary of Vladimir Lenin, the guy who inspired Russian people to overthrow the previous Tsar government in Russia in 1917. He was a real icon for many Russians and so in one Siberian town some woodcutters decided to celebrate this anniversary by cutting all the trees on a big field leaving only those that would form a really huge message “100 Years to Lenin”. There were no Google Earth back there, no satellite photos on Internet, no Internet itself, so they didn’t do it for some Internet trick, like “See what we have down pointing your sat pictures browser to …..”. The real reasons are not clear and forgotten now, maybe they got an order from Moscow to make such a big message for American spy satellites, maybe it was their own wish to create something that cannot be observed from the Earth by a regular person. Anyways now, 30 years later we can see it. You can see it from Google yourself following this link.
You can see it on google earth yourself.
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