Christmas in Russia

Christmas in Russia

     Perhaps the best way to look at the Russian Christmas is to go back to the customs of 
pre-Revolutionary Russia, when Christianity flourished. Father Frost was a staple of the old tradition, and presents were brought by Babushka, Russia's version of the old woman who was supposed to have declined to join the Wise Men. There was also a girl dressed in white called Kolyada who would visit homes, singing carols and giving treats. Christmas trees were decorated.
     Members of the Russian Orthodox Church would fast until after church services on Christmas Eve. Some communities engaged in the Blessing of the Water; sometimes a priest would go through the village with his water to bless the houses.
     In the years following the revolution, many of the customs of Christmas were hard to track down, as they were for all intents and purposes illegal - or at least counter to the official pronouncements of the Party. Now that the Communist regime has passed, it is a good bet that many of those traditions have come back into prominence.

About the Author...
Born and raised in the state of New York, R.M. Villoria began his writing career as a prolific songwriter. After two back-to-back tours as a Marine in Vietnam, Villoria spent the next few years owning and operating a myriad of businesses and in 1992 returned to writing, this time appeasing his appetite for suspense and horror fiction.

 

Years in the making, his ghostly tales touching on the underpinnings of quantum physics and the paranormal are now ready for the public. As his first published work, Villoria presents readers with Volume One of his series “Tales From the Mind Field.”

 

Villoria has a son and daughter and lives in Las Vegas with his Wife.