Happy Defenders of the Fatherland Day, a.k.a. Men’s Day!

Since the holiday began a many year ago when, of course, men defended the country and women stayed home to have babies and cook, I’ll save the discourse on sexist discrimination for another day. The abbreviated history: the day was started under Lenin to honor those in the Red army, but once “the Fatherland”/USSR fell [...]

Holiday: Maslenitsa, for one

Last weekend, a festive craze swept Irkutsk into a mid-winter’s frenzy that would have been hard to produce any other way. Skies beautiful and clear, the winds calm, and the temperatures nothing too extraordinary at this point, there was plenty to be happy about, the first of which might very well have been the fact [...]

Holiday: Christmas and Y2K+10

Wrapping up the end of a semester, year, and decade in Russia came with a few idiosyncrasies, challenges, and definite high points. Hardest of all was being away from family and friends in the comfort of my grandparents’ living rooms, wishing that my Christmas and New Year’s could be white. But, the trade-off turned out [...]

Happy Christmas to all

From Russia on Christmas Eve, wishing everyone and their families the very best for a blessed and happy Christmas. “Behold, the star they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.” -Matthew 2.9

Tradition: ‘It’s Happy Thanksgiving’

“. . . Thanksgiving, hooray! / We’re going to dinner / at Grandma’s today,” is the little stanza from Jack Prelutsky’s collection of Thanksgiving-related children’s poetry that I end up recalling every year about this time. Obviously, I’m in Russia, and obviously, in Russia, American national holidays are not observed. So this year was a [...]