Russian Christmas (Рождество)

Many of you probably know that Russians have always been big on celebrating the New Year rather than Christmas.

After the 1917 Revolution, Christmas was banned throughout Russia, along with other religious celebrations. It wasn't until 75 years later, in 1992, that the holiday was openly observed.

Today, it's once again celebrated in grand fashion, with the faithful participating in an all-night Mass in incense-filled Cathedrals amidst the company of fellow believers and the painted icons of the Saints of old.

The Russian Orthodox Church still uses the old Julian calendar; therefore, its Christmas celebration falls on January 7th. It's a day of both solemn ritual and joyous celebration. Before this date, Orthodox Russians fast for 40 days. The Lent period ends with the first star in the night sky on January 6 -- a symbol of Jesus Christ's birth. Many Orthodox Christians go to the church to attend a Christmas liturgy that evening.

So today It would be more than appropriate to teach you how to say Merry Christmas in Russian.

'Merry Christmas' will be 'С Рождеством Христовым' 

(S Rozh-deh-stvom Khris-to-vym)

Most Common Russian Drinking Toasts

Most Common Russian Drinking Toasts. There are more, but these will get you started:)

Little Fir Tree (В Лесу Родилась Ёлочка) Happy New 2014!

Little Fir Tree (В Лесу Родилась Ёлочка).  

This is the most popular Russian New Year's song. Every Russian knows it. It's something that no winter holiday can do without. The song was born in 1903 and since then it brings joy and excitement to Russian kids just like that little fir tree from the song.

Автор текста (слов): Кудашева Раиса Адамовна
Композитор (музыка): Бекман Леонид Карлович


"В лесу родилась елочка"

В лесу родилась елочка,
В лесу она росла,
Зимой и летом стройная,
Зеленая была.
Зимой и летом стройная,
Зеленая была.

Метель ей пела песенку:
"Спи, елочка, бай-бай!"
Мороз снежком укутывал:
"Смотри, не замерзай!"
Мороз снежком укутывал:
"Смотри, не замерзай!"

Трусишка - зайка серенький
Под елочкой скакал.
Порою волк, сердитый волк,
Рысцою пробегал.
Порою волк, сердитый волк,
Рысцою пробегал.

Чу! Снег по лесу частому
Под полозом скрипит;
Лошадка мохноногая
Торопится, бежит.
Лошадка мохноногая
Торопится, бежит.

Везет лошадка дровеньки,
А в дровнях старичок,
Срубил он нашу елочку
Под самый корешок.
Срубил он нашу елочку
Под самый корешок.

Теперь ты здесь нарядная,
На праздник к нам пришла,
И много, много радости
Детишкам принесла.
И много, много радости
Детишкам принесла
------------------------------------------------------

(the English Translation)

In the woods a spruce was born,
It was growing in the wood
In summer and winter
it was straight and green.

The blizzard sang it a lullaby:
Sleep dear spruce, sleep tight!
The frost put snow around it saying:
Don't freeze!

The timid grey rabbit
hopped under the tree,
From time to time
The angry wolf just trotted by.

Hush, listen! Deep in the woods
Snow scratches under a sleigh.
A heavy horse
Runs smoothly.

The sleigh carries firewood,
and in it was an old man
He chopped it down
at the very roots.

And here it is,
all dressed up,
it's come to us for the holiday
And lots and lots of happiness
it brought to the children.

Russian Vocabulary - Borrowed Words in Modern Russian

Borrowing:

The best way to think about the borrowed words in Russian is from a historical perspective. The influx of foreign words came in waves depending on what country or culture had influence in Russia:

• Byzantine influence and conversion to Christianity: influx of Greek words

• The reign of Peter the Great: influx of German and Dutch words (e.g. шлагбаум,  гастарбайтер, бутерброд and so on)

• End of 20th century, perestroyka (перестройка) and post-soviet Russia, globalization: influx of English words

• There are many words of French origin (because Russians have been fascinated with French culture, especially in 18-19 centuries), for example шансон, авангард and many others

• There are a few of Japanese words in Russian, such as самурай, банзай, хокку, каратэ, цунами, etc.

• Some Chinese words - женьшень, тайфун, чай, шарпей, фэншуй etc

• Some Turkic words - башка, сундук, казна, утюг, чугун, шашлык, алыча, амбар, сарай, халат etc.


In this video I mention just a few borrowed words. Knowing them will give you confidence to go on learning.

Песенка Крокодила Гены. Урок и Караоке (Gena Birthday Song. Tutorial and...

Russian Vocabulary - Antonyms (Антонимы)

A fun way to learn Russian is by learning the words with opposite meanings. Here are some antonyms for you.


Stay in touch:



- site: http://speakrussian.blogspot.com
- voicemail: 209-980-7877 (209-980-RUSS)
- email: spoonfulofrussian@gmail.com
- twitter: @russianspoonful

UPDATE: "Houston, we have a problem!" Moving feeds in Feedburner.

UPDATE: to cut the long story short iTunes /Mac app support basically told me I was 'out of luck'. I did a bit more thinking. My head must have been exceptionally clear today, because I came up with a solution! Now all 'A Spoonful of Russian' media should show up in your podcatcher app. Now I got my podcast tied to the right gmail address, all the dear old subscribers are kept, and iTunes Store reviews/ratings are intact. That reminds me - I can always use a review or two;)

"Houston, we have a problem!" A couple of days ago I tied the podcast's feed to a different feed burner account, a dedicated gmail email for my podcast. Because I have changed the feed URL without taking steps to redirect the iTunes  Store it's no longer possible to subscribe to the feed in iTunes, and the Store page is stuck with a cached copy of the last time it could read the old feed. I found out about the procedure involving adding a special tag to the old feed a little too late….

I really do not want to lose my dear old subscribers nor the iTunes Store reviews. I hope and pray the Apple iTunes support team could help me out and swap the feed URLs for me. 

I found out the podcatchers like Downcast (#Downcastapp) are able to get all of my media with no problem. Get the iPhone app  or the iPad app and watch the tutorial I just made: