New Year in St.Petersburg, Russia 

Celebrating the New Year in St.Petersburg means taking a dive into the fantastic atmosphere of the city, walking along its snowy streets, admiring fairy decoration and illumination of the palaces, visiting Christmas markets where one can buy Russian worsted mittens and socks, try Russian traditional food and drinks and also take a sledge ride on the legendary Troika.

There is a wide range of things to do in St.Petersburg on the night of Dec 31: dinners in the city center’s cozy restaurants with New Year entertainment programs, concerts and open air celebrations on the Nevsky Prospect, the mail avenue of St.Petersburg, dancing in numerous night clubs. And if you want to welcome the New Year the way St.Petersburgers do – go to the Palace square opposite the Hermitage, and there under the biggest New Year’s tree in the city you will blend in with the festive crowd, take part in the main New Year’s concert, listen to the president’s congratulatory speech 5 minutes before midnight, make a wish, then a toast and celebrate the New Year with a glass of legendary Soviet Champagne!

And moreover if you decide to celebrate the New Year in St.Petersburg you will get a unique opportunity to avoid notorious long summer lines to the main museums and palaces of the city!

 
New Year twice 

The New Year is one of the most important and anticipated holidays in Russia. While in the whole world the biggest celebration events usually take place not on the New Year but on Christmas still Russians give their preferences to celebrations of the New Year. It is fair to say that the situation with the New Year and Christmas holidays in Russia is so confusing that it is not within everyone’s powers to take in. The winter holidays in Russia linger on for several weeks: first Russians enthusiastically celebrate catholic Christmas, then the New Year, then orthodox Christmas which is on the 7th of January and finally on the 13th of January they celebrate a holiday that is absolutely bizarre for the foreigners – the Old New Year. But the most favourite and respected one in this long line is the New Year’s night of Dec 31-Jan 1.

Interesting Fact

The tradition of the New Year celebration in Russia was introduced by Peter the Great. Before that the New Year in Russia was on the 1st of September. But the tsar interdicted the autumn celebration of the New Year willing to keep step with Europe and having issued a special edict he moved the holiday to the 1st of January. The tradition of celebrating the Christmas on the 7th of January and the New Year on the night of Jan 14 can be explained with the fact that in pre-revolutionary Russia they used the Julian calendar which is actually still the official calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church. That is why the celebration of the second (old) New Year is a great opportunity to extend the holidays though this particular one is not an official holiday.

Beginning from 1704 the main celebration events were moved to the Northern capital of the Russian Empire. The main event was the open air celebrations and not the table as it is now. The St.Petersburg masquerades were organized on the square close to the Peter and Paul fortress, the birthplace of the city, and Peter I used to take part in the open air celebrations not only by himself but he also obliged noblemen to participate. Those who did not show up under the pretence of some kind of a disease were examined by the doctors. If the reason was lame the guilty person was to pay a fine: he had to drink a huge cup of vodka in front of everybody.