Novy God: How Russians Celebrate New Year, from Ded Moroz to Midnight

The Russian New Year, Novy God, is the biggest night of the year in Russia, bigger than Christmas, birthdays or any national holiday. Families gather around a table covered with salads, the tree is decorated, Ded Moroz brings the presents, and at midnight the whole country listens to the Kremlin chimes with a glass of champagne in hand. Then the country stops for more than a week. If you are in a relationship with a Russian woman, or hoping to be, this is the date that matters most in her calendar. Here is where these traditions come from, how the night unfolds, and how to take part in it, even from a distance.

Why New Year outshines Christmas

Two reasons explain it, one religious and one political. The Russian Orthodox Church still follows the Julian calendar, 13 days behind ours: its Christmas falls on 7 January, after the New Year, not before it.

Then the Soviet period erased Christmas. From 1929, religious feasts stopped being days off, and the decorated tree was denounced as a religious, bourgeois custom. On 28 December 1935, a letter by the party official Pavel Postyshev in Pravda proposed giving children back their tree, as a New Year tree. It worked: a star replaced the angel, Grandfather Frost replaced Saint Nicholas, and the first great Kremlin tree party took place in 1937.

Christmas has been a public holiday again since 1991, and churches fill on the night of 6 to 7 January. But for most families, the real feast, the one with presents, is still the night of 31 December.

Ded Moroz and Snegurochka

Ded Moroz, Grandfather Frost, is not Santa Claus. He is tall and slim, wears a long coat, blue or red, carries a staff, and never comes down the chimney: he knocks at the door, or leaves the presents under the tree. He travels with his granddaughter Snegurochka, the Snow Maiden, in a white or pale blue coat, a figure from folk tales and from Ostrovsky's 1873 play.

Since the end of the 1990s, Ded Moroz has had an official residence in Veliky Ustyug, a small town in the Vologda region, which receives letters from children all over the country. At children's parties in December, an actor plays Ded Moroz, and a child has to recite a poem to get the present. Many adults still remember theirs.

Key takeaway: in Russia, presents are opened on the night of 31 December or the morning of 1 January. A gift timed for 25 December is a nice thought, but the moment that counts is New Year.

The night of 31 December

The evening follows a script that almost every family knows by heart.

Sources: Russian television schedules; customs observed in Moscow since 2021.

The film The Irony of Fate, first broadcast on 1 January 1976, is shown every year: a Muscovite ends up drunk in Leningrad, in a flat identical to his own, and falls in love with the woman who lives there. Every Russian woman can quote it.

The table always has Olivier salad, herring under a fur coat (layers of herring, beetroot, potato and mayonnaise), mandarins, whose scent alone means New Year to anyone who grew up in the Soviet Union, and sparkling wine. During the twelve strokes of the chimes, some write a wish on a scrap of paper, burn it, drop the ashes into their glass, and drink it before the last stroke.

Key takeaway: New Year is spent with family. Being invited to her parents' table on 31 December means you are already counted as part of it.

Ten days of holiday

From 1 to 8 January, Russia stops: the Labour Code makes these days non-working, Orthodox Christmas on the 7th included. Offices close, administrations slow down, and many Russians leave for the countryside, the mountains or the sun. Then, on the night of 13 to 14 January, comes the Old New Year, the New Year of the Julian calendar, a second and smaller celebration that many families still mark.

A proverb governs the night: "As you see in the New Year, so you will spend it" (Как Новый год встретишь, так его и проведёшь). Hence the care taken over the table, the new clothes and the company: nobody wants to start the year alone or in a quarrel.

The whole calendar of Russian holidays, from Maslenitsa to 9 May, is set out in this guide to Russian holidays and traditions.

New Year as a couple

If your relationship is still at a distance, midnight in Moscow is the moment not to miss.

Sources: Moscow keeps UTC+3 all year; winter time in the other cities.

С Новым годом, "s NO-vym GO-dam", Happy New Year, is said from midnight on. Before midnight, in the last days of December, Russians say С наступающим, "to the one that is coming". A message sent at the right minute, in Cyrillic, counts for more than a long letter the next morning. Our guide to long-distance communication with a Russian woman covers the rest of the routine.

If you are planning a first trip, avoid the first ten days of January: the city is beautiful, but she is with her family and everything is closed. The best time to meet a Russian woman is elsewhere in the year.

What I see in Moscow

I have spent five New Year's Eves in Moscow since 2021. The city is decorated from early December, the boulevards turn into tunnels of light, and by 20 December every woman is asked the same question: "where are you seeing in the New Year?". For the members of the agency the answer says a lot: almost all of them spend the night with their parents or their children, rarely with a man they are only writing to. The place family holds in a Russian woman's life is described in our guide to Slavic women.

That is why I tell the men I accompany:

• send your message at midnight Moscow time, not at your own midnight;
• post any gift in early December: parcels to Russia are slow, and it has to be there by the 31st;
• send your wishes to her family too: a line for her mother, in Russian, will be passed on;
• do not ask to spend the 31st together early in a relationship: it is a family night, and inviting you is a step she takes, not one you request;
• remember the Old New Year: a second message on 13 January shows you have understood how it works.

Frequently asked questions

When do Russians celebrate New Year?

On the night of 31 December to 1 January, like the rest of Europe, then again on the night of 13 to 14 January for the Old New Year of the Julian calendar.

Who is Ded Moroz?

Grandfather Frost, the Russian figure who brings presents on New Year's Eve, with his granddaughter Snegurochka. His official residence is in Veliky Ustyug, in the Vologda region.

Do Russians celebrate Christmas?

Yes, on 7 January for the Orthodox, a public holiday since 1991. But it is above all a religious feast; the presents and the big family dinner belong to New Year.

What do Russians eat on New Year's Eve?

Olivier salad, herring under a fur coat, mandarins, cold cuts, caviar on bread when the budget allows, and sparkling wine at midnight.

How do you say Happy New Year in Russian?

С Новым годом, pronounced "s NO-vym GO-dam". Before midnight, people say С наступающим, "to the one that is coming".

In summary

Novy God is Christmas without the religion: a tree, Ded Moroz, presents, a family table and a wish drunk with the sparkling wine on the last stroke of midnight. The country then takes ten days off before a second, smaller New Year on 13 January. For a man in a relationship with a Russian woman, it is the night when tenderness is expected: a message at midnight Moscow time, a word for her family, and patience if her parents' table is not open to you yet.

If you would like to see in a future New Year in Moscow with a woman who is waiting for you, write to me: I answer personally, and I'll tell you honestly whether your plan is realistic.