Russian immigrants keep holiday traditions thriving

Published 12:01 am Wednesday, December 30, 2009

LYNNWOOD — Every year, come December, Marina Barshchevskaya takes her granddaughter to see a merry old man with a cotton-white beard.

Only it’s not Santa. It’s Grandfather Frost.

Barshchevskaya, 55, of Lynnwood, is one of thousands of Russian immigrants in the United States who keep their childhood customs alive by celebrating the New Year.

Dressed in a long, belted red or blue robe, Grandfather Frost, also called Father Frost, brings children presents just like Santa. He is usually accompanied by his granddaughter Snegurochka, or Snow Maiden.

Both characters originated in centuries-old Russian folklore.

Barshchevskaya got to know the pair well growing up in Soviet-era Ukraine. Each year she looked forward to special New Year’s events hosted for children by schools and parents, where kids sang and danced around the New Year’s spruce and got to meet Grandfather Frost.

Dressed as snow fairies and pirates, kids typically were asked to recite a poem or sing a song to get their gift from Grandfather Frost, usually a colorful bag full of sweets and goodies.

Kids from around Snohomish County and beyond did just that on Saturday at a holiday gathering organized by a local nonprofit Voice of International Parents.

“It’s the most joyful holiday for our children,” said Lyudmila Sokolova of Mill Creek, who started the group. “It’s our childhood.”

Sokolova’s own family and other volunteers put together the performance. The group doesn’t have a home at this time, so it charged for tickets to rent a venue in downtown Everett.

For Barshchevskaya and her family, New Year’s is the most awaited holiday.

This New Year’s Eve, she plans to put presents under a decorated spruce tree and get together with friends for a traditional holiday meal. Her table — and hundreds of other tables in Snohomish County — will be full of Russian holiday food: goose or duck baked with apples, herring dressed with vegetables and Olivier salad, which is similar to potato salad but includes peas, ham, pickles and eggs.

Her family and friends will greet the start of the new year with champagne and games.

Following another tradition, her family will celebrate the beginning of the new year again on Jan. 13. Still enjoyed in several former Soviet countries, the so-called Old New Year marks the beginning of the year according to the Julian calendar.

The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar and was commonly used in the world until the late 1500s, when countries began to switch to the contemporary Gregorian calendar.

Soviet Russia switched to the modern calendar in 1918, but the Russian Orthodox Church remained faithful to the “old” calendar, prompting the tradition.

Some Orthodox churches, including Russia’s, still use the Julian calendar.

Barshchevskaya and her family also celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah. But New Year’s remains the most anticipated winter holiday.

The Soviet government banned religious holidays for many years. Even though New Year’s is a secular holiday, it was banned in the regime’s early years and allowed during the Stalin era in the late 1930s.

For many nonreligious people from former Soviet countries, New Year’s remained the most revered celebration. But for Christians who were not allowed to practice their faith publicly, the holiday somewhat took on the meaning of Christmas, said the Rev. Peter Kulishov, senior pastor at the Slavic Church of Evangelical Christian Baptists in Lynnwood.

Even though they are free to celebrate Christmas now, many of the church’s parishioners also will greet the New Year, only they will do so in prayer, the pastor said.

No matter the religious affiliation, it’s a time for immigrants from former Soviet countries to get together with loved ones and honor family traditions.

“To some extent, it’s a mark of our time,” Kulishov said. “After all, God gave us New Year’s for a reason.”

Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.