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THE first people in our country to usher in the New Year are those who live in the Far East. When the
clock chimes midnight in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, people in Novosibirsk are still preparing for the New Year party for it is only 7 p.m. there. And in Moscow, it is 3 p.m. and we might well still be at work. The coun try is really vast-one-sixth of the world's land surface.
FEELING LIKE CHILDREN
NEW Year is a favourite holiday because, wherever we may be, we believe that the future will be kind and joyous. We are also fond of this holiday because on New Year's Eve there is always merriment galore and we are all joking, making fun of each other, and feeling like children.
December 31 is a day of surprises. For instance, you may be called on by Grandfather Frost, with his gorgeous cottonwool beard, and the charming Snow Maiden dressed in gold and silver.
Even the grown-ups, to say nothing of children, are at a loss for words when these fairy-tale characters enter their home and begin to hand out New Year gifts. True, the grown-ups-are quick to recognize their workmates behind the beard and the rest of it. This is one of Out. traditions—to choose the merriest colleagues to act as Grandfather Frost and the Snow Maiden. (The gift fund, incidentally, is financed by the trade -union.)
New Year's scenery in Russia is usually as it is on the New Year post cards — snow-laden tree branches, twinkling stars in a clear sky and deep sparkling snow on the ground.
There are bustling crowds of holiday makers in suburban trains on New Year's Eve. It has become popular to see in the New Year in a forest where the fir trees scarcely need dressing up. The young folk picnic around bonfires, listening to music from transistors or portable TV sets. Many prefer going to a skating-rink with, of course, a decorated fir tree in the centre. The so-called "walruses" who favour swimming in ice water start their plunge traditionally at midnight....
MAJORITY PREFERS HOME
SUCH kinds of celebration are certalnly great fun but most people stay at home for the New Year party. If many guests are expected the hostess asks a friend or two to come early to help. There is no traditional New Year meal; every hostess cooks what she is best at—a stuffed duck, a turkey, a goose or a leg of lamb. The most popular meal .ln Siberia and the Urals; are meat dumplings, in Central Asia— mutton pilau, in Georgia — a roasted suckling piglet.
And then comes the last night of the year. The guests begin to arrive. The New Year Tree is all aglow, with gifts .and souvenirs placed beneath it. The table is loaded with delicacies for we are hearty caters.
FOR PEACE AND HAPPINESS
THE clock-stikes-midnigl, cham- pagne is uncorked, there are toasts and congratulations and the party begins to swing. The main toast is to happiness and peace in the world;
Teenagers arrange their own parties. As a rule, the whole crowd gets together after midnight, having wished a Happy New Year to their parents and spent some time with the family. At such parties it is not necessary for everybody to be acqueinted. People may bring the friends, a brother, a sister, a fiance..... Everybody dances
everything, from waltzes and tangos to the latest disco hits.
Those who wish to usher the New Year in at a restaurant have to make reservations a long time in advance. New Year parties are also popular in out-of-town restaurants or in the cafes of the suburban holiday homes. Thousands of town dwellers choose to leave town for the holidays for places where they do not have to worry about cooking and where everything is prepared for them.
If they wish, people go to a New Year party at their office or factory club or at their professional club of, let us say, teachers, scientists, archi tects, journalists, actors or writers. At these clubs the programmes are especially funny as most of the people are professionally acquainted.
Villagers adhere to the old customs of seeing in the New Year. In western Georgia, for instance, where fir trees do not grow, the tree is made of wood shavings making it look like a golden, curly lamb. A Ukrainian custom among young people is to dress up in carnival costumes and go from one home to another singing, thus "earning" a drink or a sweetmeat. In Chukotka one New Year tradition, is a race of dog packs.
FIR TREES EVERYWHERE
THE younger people spend whatever remains of the New. Year night in the street. There is music, laughter and the bangs of fire crackers everywhere and ring dances around fir trees which are decorated and put up for the occa sion in many squares and yards. Where there are no fir trees, synthetic ones are used or any other tree for that matter.
However, it is the children who look forward most eagerly to this holiday. To them it abounds in magic, and wonders. They find bags of gifts under their pillows and then the candles come alight on fir trees where beauti ful toys and other decorations sparkle and tinkle merrily. It is only at New Year that a little boy or girl can have a chat with Grandfather Frost or shake hands with Brother Grey Wolf, or race Brother Rabbit.. The squares and boulevards of our towns are turned into giant concert platforms and every child goes to a New Year matinee festival. These are arranged at all clubs, theatres and stadiums during the whole of the New Year school holidays.
In a word, each of us sees the New Year In In his or her own way. But all of us, big or small, equally expect it to bring us peace which is also happiness.
Natalya KRAMiNOVA - Drawings by C. Kozlov