HOLIDAYS IN BELARUS

There are many national holidays in Belarus, when people all over the country do not work and have special celebrations.

The major holidays are: New Year’s Day, Christmas, Women’s Day, Easter, May Day, Victory Day and Independence Day.

These days are days off, when all the state bodies and institutions, as well as most of the shops are closed.

The first holiday of the year is New Year’s Day. People see the New Year in at midnight on the 31^st of December. They greet the New Year with champagne and listen to the chimes beating 12 o’clock.

There are lots of New Year traditions in Belarus. In every home there is a New Year tree glittering with coloured lights and decorations. Children always wait for Father Frost to come and give them a present. Many people consider New Year’s Day to be a family holiday. But the young prefer to have New Year parties of their own.

A renewed holiday in our country is Christmas. It’s a religious holiday and a lot of people go to church services on that day. Besides, Christmas is traditionally celebrated according to Orthodox and Catholic calendars, the same is about Radunitsa (the 9^th day after the Orthodox Easter) and Dzyady (November 2^nd, working day) – the day of commemorating the perished.

On the 8^th of March we celebrate Women’s Day when men congratulate their women: wives, mothers, daughters, colleagues. They give them flowers and presents. Men are supposed to do everything about the house and cook all the meals.

The greatest national holiday in our country is Victory Day. On the 9^th of May, 1945, the Soviet Army and its allies completely defeated the German fascists and the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War ended.

Independence Day is a new holiday in our country. It is celebrated on the 3^rd of July.

Among the other holidays there are two peculiar ones: February 23^rd – Day of the Defender of Motherland and the Armed Forces of Belarus, which since long has been considered simply “the Men’s Day”, and April 1^st – the day of laughter, jokes and funny tricks. These days business goes as usual.

We also celebrate Day of Knowledge and lots of professional holidays, which are not public holidays and banks, offices and schools do not close.

January 13^th – the old New Year day. Traditionally people celebrate again the New Year on that day, yet this time according to the Old Style (calendar) – on the night from 13^th to 14^th of January. People call that holiday Shchedrets, the Generous night or Kolyada. They get dressed as animals, give themselves out to be fantastic creatures, carry the sun and a goat’s head in their hands and visit all the houses one after another, singing Kolyada songs, and the hosts treat them with food.

In late February – early March there comes Maslenitsa – a ritual of parting with winter. On that day people traditionally bake pancakes, reminding of the sun by their shape, and carry on open–air festivals.

On July 7^th there is Kupalie, which is traditionally celebrated on the night from the 6 to the 7 of July. It’s considered one of the most beautiful holidays filled with pagan traditions. According to popular legends, a flower of a fern unfolds on Kupala midnight and the person who finds it will be eternally young, happy and capable to predict the future. On that night young men set off for the forest hoping to find this miraculous flower. In the mean-time girls pick field flowers, bind wreaths and let them drift down the river trying to find out about their destiny in such a way. On the Kupala night people usually move on a round dance and jump over the fire competing in their deftness. Nowadays this pagan festival is celebrated as the Christian holiday of the John the Baptist birthday.

Annual musical festivals in Belarus are also of great interest. Annually at the end of January there is awarding ceremony “Rock-coronation”. Crystal crowns in various nominations go to those “kings”, who played a great role in the musical world of the Belarusian show business. The prizes are presented by famous Belarusian musicians, artists and journalists.

In July – early August Vitebsk becomes the site of the traditional International Arts festival “Slavonic Bazaar”. The programe of the festival is extremely intense, it includes the contest of young performers, contests of children’s creative work, imposing concerts with the participation of variety stars not only from Belarus, but also from the Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia and other European countries.

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