Christmas

We have many New Years’ photos in our family album, but the most interesting, without question, belong to our mother, Tatiana. She and her two sisters grew up in an orphanage in Verchneviljusk a small village in Yakutia, in the very north of Russia. Every winter in a courtyard between the orphanage’s three buildings, a whole “town” was built of snow.

This is how she has described it to us:

Photo 1Photo 1 „Long ahead of the holidays, we put up wooden frames which we filled with snow. Before the New Year, we then removed the boards and one of our caretakers, Illarion Omučkanov, carved figures out of the frozen snow. There was a wall in the garden featuring the Kremlin, there were hares, bears, a stag – also of snow but with real antlers – and decorations representing the reins (see photo 1). He pulled a sleigh, with Grandfather Frost and Sněgoročka, the Snow Maiden or Snow Princess (also a character in Russian fairy tales) inside. Finally, there was even a big carriage where we children were allowed to sit.

Photo 2Photo 2 Our caretakers also decorated the Christmas tree every year and gave us presents, but my nicest memories are of the snow figures. We were always thrilled when work began on the snow village and when figures began to appear “unexpectedly” out of the snow. It was a child’s paradise to run among the snow sculptures, to lie in the snow, even though temperatures in Yakutia were ordinarily around -50 degrees Celsius. We had such a fairy tale village each year and I still often think about it.“

Photo 3Photo 3 Back then – and even today – people from more than 200 different cultures lived in the area. In the orphanage we were brought up to behave in a friendly manner to all, and skin colour or the shape of one’s eyes were not to play a role. We often had children’s evenings dedicated to different cultures and we ourselves sewed national costumes (photo 2).

When the first photograph was taken, in 1966, our Mum was 8 years old. In 1975, she was already in the 10th grade and organised events for the younger children and played the role of the Snow Maiden (photo 3).

Photo 4Photo 4 Since then, many years have passed, but New Year’s traditions remain. Mum, as always, built snowmen for the kids (photo 4) though now the maiden is played only by her children and nieces.

Photo 5Photo 5 The New Year’s costume was sewn by my mother in 1987 (photo 5), at a time when materials were scarce and it was impossible to buy such a costume ready-made. The brocade was taken from an older dress belonging to my mother, and the white collar complete with a hare’s fur, was the work of our grandfather, a hunter. Ten years later the dress was inherited by my sister (photo 6) and now it belongs to my younger cousin.

The window is pale as if someone had spilled milk on the pane: -40 degrees and thick fog. We’ll go with mum now to decorate the tree and the first decoration we’ll place will be a glass bauble older than my parents, which we inherited from our grandma.

Šťastné vánoce a Nový rok!

Galina Majcheva, Russia



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