Russian vs Soviet New Year Tree decoration; what are the difference? In Russia, the festive fir referred to the world as the Christmas tree passes by another name: The New Year Yolka. The history behind this convention incorporates pagan ceremonies, tsars and tsarinas, and the Soviet enemy of anti-religious propaganda.
In this article, we will learn more about the never-ending changes of New Year Tree decoration in Russia throughout history. So, stay tuned.
Pre-Soviet New Year Tree
The pre-Soviet history of the yolka is imparted to a lot of Europe. It starts with an agnostic custom, conceivably a “tree of life” which came to be enhanced with lace and candles in the dead of winter. At the point when Peter the Great declared that the New Year would be commended on January 1st as per the Julian calendar, he additionally articulated that the lanes and corridors of the nation ought to be designed with fir, pine, and juniper branches — the tough evergreens that populated the backwoods. The custom developed and was changed in endless manners until ornamented trees normally remained before the town ward.
In the nineteenth century, Tsar Nicholas I’s Prussian spouse, Alexandra Feodorovna, brought a pine tree into their home at Christmas and presents were given to both imperial and poor kids. Alexandra imported numerous conventions from her local Darmstadt, including the tree, which denoted the start of Christmas festivities in the home. By the late 1800s, sumptuously decorated yolkas were fundamental to the special festivals and gifting kids became common.
Soviet New Year Tree
However, from Lenin to Corncob, New Year’s trees in the Soviet Union advanced relying upon the nation’s political circumstance. Following 18 years of a restriction on Christmas, which the Bolsheviks thought about a middle class and hurtful celebration, the convention of celebrating New Year’s showed up in 1935.
While the winter celebration was restored, every strict reference was expelled. Thereafter, people celebrated New Year’s, and not Christmas, similar to the case in Imperial Russia. The occasion’s primary image, as previously, was the evergreen tree, whose adornment changed impressively contrasted with the tsarist period.
The customary star of Bethlehem, for instance, was supplanted by the Red Army’s five-pointed ruby star. Rather than heavenly attendants and the magi, the tree was enhanced with toys as creatures, plants, Kremlin towers, competitors, and even Politburo people. There are five primary subjects that the Soviet propaganda machine utilized in planning adornments for the New Year’s tree such as Soviet symbolism, sport and space, agriculture, cinema, and ethnic motifs.
Present Russian New Year Tree
Presently, New Year’s Eve turned into the main festival of the year in Russia. The New Year Yolka has been an image of trust in the coming year and open festival, a foundation of network party that spurns religious differences and social partitions. It possesses an especially inquisitive situation for Russian Jewish émigrés who will be discovered pulling home a tree and going all out decorating it with tinsel and knick-knacks around Christmas time. Since the yolka had since a long time ago been isolated from religious occasions, there is nothing conflicting about lighting the menorah for Chanukah one day and finishing a transcending fir the following.
Russian New Year trees are generally decorated like Christmas trees and the custom is not equivalent to simply leaving your tree until New Year. The convention made them figure it could be enjoyable to switch up the stylistic layout on their Christmas trees to commend the New Year. When Christmas is finished, they can undoubtedly change their tree for New Year’s Eve with the expansion of some alluring and glitz frill such as metallics, party caps, and countdowns.
Similarly, as with numerous different things, their decorations are a lot similar to other trees around the nation since they are altogether made on the equivalent ‘Yolochka’, the Russian adornments’ factory. The factory, incidentally, is still open and turning out new adornments.
So, that is the history of New Year Tree and the difference of Russian and Soviet New Year Tree decoration. Which version do you fancy the most?