Kindo » Natalia Beinenson http://kindo.com/blog Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:31:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 en Family Day in Russia and Beyond http://kindo.com/blog/2008/05/16/family-day/en/ http://kindo.com/blog/2008/05/16/family-day/en/#comments Fri, 16 May 2008 19:13:04 +0000 Natalia Beinenson http://kindo.com/blog/?p=1570
Yesterday we celebrated family day here in Russia. The history of the holiday goes back to 1993, when United Nations Organization pronounced May 15th to become an international family day. The main reason for creating the holiday was the desire of the members of UNO to attract attention of the society to the family matters. Each year UNO publishes messages on various important themes, such as in 2007 the theme was “Families and disabled people”.

In the Russian Federation the international family day was celebrated in 1995 for the first time. 2008 was announced as family year by the president of Russia.
This year lots of family events were planned, more than 100 only in Moscow. On the main square (Red square) members of families, with more than 3 children, formed a “live heart”, which is shown on the picture. In various parts of Russia a lot of fundrasing events were held in support of low income families or families which have more than 3 kids.
The members of our team also would love to wish your family all the best and we hope that our service helps you to stay connected and close to the members of your family.

]]> http://kindo.com/blog/2008/05/16/family-day/en/feed/en/ Christmas Blogging: Russia http://kindo.com/blog/2008/01/05/russian-christmas/en/ http://kindo.com/blog/2008/01/05/russian-christmas/en/#comments Sat, 05 Jan 2008 20:06:05 +0000 Natalia Beinenson http://kindo.com/blog/2008/01/05/russian-christmas/ Thirteen days after many countries in the world have celebrated Christmas, on January 7th, it comes the time for Russia to observe this great holiday. I am sure some of you wonder why Russian Christmas is in January. The reason is that Russian Orthodox Church still uses the old Julian calendar.
After the 1917 Revolution and during the reign of communism, Russian people were forced to stop celebrating Christmas. Only in 1992 the holiday was openly observed. Therefore a lot of traditions, which existed many years ago, were lost. Nowadays, on Christmas eve family member get together for a “Holy meatless supper” which include 12 different foods symbolic of the 12 Apostles: borsch (soup made of beets), Lenten bread, garlic, honey, cod, oranges, apricots, nuts, kidney beans, pears, parsley potatoes and red wine. The main course of the dinner is porridge called kutja. It is made of berries, wheat or other grains that symbolize hope and immortality, and honey and poppy seeds that ensure happiness, success, and untroubled rest.

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After dinner people go to the church for the service, which lasts till 2 or 3 in the morning.
Since the celebration of Christmas was banned for many years, such traditions as presents’ giving, Ded Moroz (Russian Santa Claus) and decorating of the tree became the traditions of the New Year’s Eve. Therefore, even though Christmas is back and nowadays people freely celebrate it, New Year’s is the biggest winter event in Russia!
Happy New Year and Merry Christmas!!! May this year bring all of us joy, happiness and health!

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