Passion For Russian

Carol of the (Ukrainian) Bells

My husband and I live in Washington, DC, but we’re originally from Ohio. That’s a 5 to 6 hour drive, and we do it every month or two. Danny always drives and I always do my best to keep him entertained.

For the trip  home for Christmas, we ended up looking up the lyrics and histories to common Christmas carols. I was surprised to find out the Carol of the Bells is originally Ukrainian. Here’s what we found out:

The Carol of the Bells lyrics were added to the original folk music from Ukraine by Peter Wilhousky… The song was originally entitled Shchedryk meaning bountiful and   sang to celebrate the New Year.

Check out Carols.org for information on other Christmast Carols!

Don’t worry - Christmas isn’t over!

In case you are experiencing a let down after Christmas, I wanted to remind you that Russians haven’t even begun to celebrate their holidays!!! So let’s join our Russian brothers and sisters and keep the celebration going… 

Here are the dates to keep in mind:

• December 31 - New Year’s Eve. New Year’s celebrations begin and last through the night.
• January 1 - New Year’s Day. Same day as in America, but in Russia the celebration is more like our Christmas. Дед Мороз (Russian Santa) leaves presents under the Новогодняя ёлка (New Year’s Tree). New Year’s Day became the most important holiday in Russia when Christmas was banned under communism.
• January 2 - Most Russians get the day off of work. New Year’s celebrations continue.
• January 6 - Christmas Eve. Christmas celebrations begin.
• January 7 - Russian Orthodox Christmas. Celebrated later than ours because it follows the Julian calendar.
• January 14 - Old New Year’s. New Year’s Day according to the Julian calendar. This is a smaller, quieter celebration.

Any Russians out there? Feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong!