RUSSIAN CHRISTMAS.

Evening Star, Issue 13002, 22 December 1906, Page 13

RUSSIAN CHRISTMAS.

SACKED MEATS AND MYSTERY PLAYS. THE CHOICE”OF WIVES. Thirteen days after Western Europd Russia rejoices over the birth of Christ, and it will,do so this year, even if the \ Empire were rent by rebellion and tha Czars throne tottering to its fall. For the custom of the centuries is stronger far than the wave of national feeling, and Russia will make merry and hold hig& festival, though it bo on the edge of © volcano. The national appetite for the annual orgo of pork must be satisfied. A« old legend tells us that when the messengers from Bethlehem were carrying tha glad tidings through Europe they were thirteen days longer in petting to Moscow than to Rome. Hence the lateness of the Russian celebration. Any change in the calendar is unlikely in view of the many feast days observed with pious exactness by the Russian peasant and the monjik’s horror at the idea of any interference with the name-day of his patron saint. The celebration of the Russian Christmas, second only to that of Easter, begins on Christmas Eve. 'For three weeks before a solemn fast has been observed by ord “r of the Church, but the appetite of the peasant has been sharpened by the sight of thousands of sucking pigs killed and dressed for the festive board. —An Offering to the Ikon.— On the eve of the great day the family partake of a kind of gruel composed of penny seeds, oats, currants, and sugar. The dish is first placed beneath the ikon, and left there till the first star appears in the heavens. After a hearty meal off this delicacy father, mother, and children —particularly if they belong to Southern Russia—attend a mystery play, in which the principal characters arc the Devil and Herod, who is invariably attired as a Polish noble and addicted to copious draughts of vodka. All night long the band of actors tramp from one great house to another, carrying their show with them, and eating pork and cake at every stopping place, until tie dawn appears and the early bell calls them to mass. Then the nobility, clad in sumptuous uniforms, and tbs peasants, in their national garb, and young women, robed ia white, attend and add a splendor to a scene which is only equalled, if excelled, at Eastertide. Service over, the remainder of the day is devoted to the spirit of enjoyment. —Matchmaking at Haphazard. In some of the districts the songs and games and fcastings form the background only to what is to many the most serious business of the year—the choice of husbands by “eligible” young ladies and of wives by “eligible” young men. It ia said that elderly spinsters are wont to sit by a hole in the ice, honing for a glimpse of their future husband’s face in the black waters benwith, but this may be or.!-.* a libel invented_ by the young Russia which scorns superstition. The more genera! custom ia for a number of young maidens to retire to a room, where they are muffled in long strips of cloth until their features are entirely concealed, and they appear as so many Egyptian mummies. The young men are then admitted. ; Speaking IS net allowed, but they are permitted to feel the muffled hands and faces of the girls through the bandages, and so select, if they can, the damsel of their hearts. If . a mistake is sometimes made, for the game is not always conducted with the certainty of the blind man’s party at Scrooge’s nephew’s Christmas party, there is. a code of honor among the youth, of both sexes to abide by the choice.