The tradition of celebrating the New Year with a Christmas tree in Russia appeared thanks to Peter I, who in 1699 issued a decree, with whom he introduced chronology from the Nativity of Christ, and ordered to celebrate the New Year on January 1, as in Europe. And the year 1700 in our country was celebrated on the night of December 31 to January 1 with a Christmas tree, houses decorated with fir, pine and juniper branches, campfires on the street and fireworks. Prior to that, the new year in Russia began in March before 1492 and in September after 1492 according to the Julian calendar, and this holiday was celebrated in a completely different way, without a grand scale.
However, after the death of the autocrat, they stopped erecting Christmas trees in Russia. Only the owners of taverns and taverns continued to decorate their establishments with Christmas trees, installing them on the roof. The trees stood there all year round, losing needles until they turned into sticks. Probably, this is where the expression "tree-stick" came from. There is another expression, now almost forgotten: "to go under the tree." It means "to go to a tavern / tavern."
The tradition of celebrating the New Year with a Christmas tree was revived under Catherine II. They began to decorate green beauties only from the middle of the 19th century, and instead of the now usual Christmas balls, they adorned nuts in a bright wrapper, sweets, wax candles, which were later replaced with garlands. The New Year's spruce was crowned with the Bethlehem star, which later was replaced by the five-pointed familiar to us. By the way, champagne, without which not a single New Year can do now, also became popular in Russia in the 19th century, or rather in its first half.
With the transition to a new style in 1918, by decree of the Bolsheviks, the first New Year, which coincided with the European one, fell on 1919. The Old New Year also appeared (January 13). Then in Russia (USSR - from December 30, 1922) New Year was not widely celebrated, unlike Christmas, which fell on January 7. So the trees were Christmas then, not New Year's. Officially, the New Year's celebration was canceled in 1929. However, on December 28, 1935, the holiday was "rehabilitated" thanks to a letter from the Kiev regional committee of Pavel Postyshev, published in Pravda.
Since 1930, January 1 in the Soviet Union was a simple working day, and the government made it a holiday and a day off on December 23, 1947. January 2 has become a day off since 1992, and since 2005, the New Year holidays in Russia have been extended until January 5. Later, the number of days off increased to ten. In 2015, the Russians will rest until January 11. January 3 and 4 (Saturday and Sunday), which coincide with public holidays, are postponed to January 9 and May 4.
