Saturday Dave and I went shopping for a Christmas tree. Last year we didn’t have one and since we’ll be around Donestk for Western Christmas this year, we thought we should invest in one. We were looking for a small artificial tree, small enough to fit on our living room windowsill next to Petey and his cage. In Ukraine, it’s a little early for such activities. Though I feel like it’s time to play Christmas CDs and decorate the house, I’m in the minority. The main winter holiday celebrated here is New Years, and Christmas follows on Jan. 7, according to the Eastern Orthodox calendar. Also, although the Western glitz and commercialism is making its way here, it’s not as prominent as at home. So whereas at home by the day after Thanksgiving stores are full of Christmas products, houses and buildings are decorated with lights, and Christmas music plays on the radio, here there’s not much to indicate that Christmas is coming until later in December. Because it’s so early, real Christmas trees aren’t on sale yet. However, after searching three big stores, we found our fake tree, plus lights and decorations to go with it.
Yesterday night it was interesting to see the various reactions of our prayer group students to our decorations. Most were surprised and a little confused that we seemed to be excited about decorating so early. One student in our group wished us a Happy New Year, so it gave us the opportunity to explain that to us, the decorations were Christmas decorations, and Christmas was less than a month away. To them, they were New Years decorations, a New Years tree, etc. It’s still hard for me to grasp that holiday traditions originally associated with Christmas were transferred by the Soviets from a religious holiday (Christmas) to a secular holiday (New Years), and that they stuck, even after communism is gone. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising, Soviet cultural influences still exist here in virtually every other area of life as well.
Laura
