Elder & Sister Noel: From Russia With Love: Interesting Russian Holidays

Before I mention the Russian Holidays let me give you the good news. Pavel was baptized this week. He is a young man that was taught by Elders Topham and Batson. We are so looking forward to having him in the branch. The missionaries are working hard. Elder Topham and Harrison go home this week and we will miss them a lot. But we will get some new missionaries who we will learn to love just as much.

Elder Topham on the left, Pavel and Elder Batson

During the Soviet era May 1st was International Worker's Day and was a big holiday in Russia and other countries. Since the end of the Soviet era the name was eventually changed to "Spring and Labor Day." It marks the coming of spring and is in honor of the worker. There are parades and speeches etc. You see balloons and fruit tree branches with spring blossoms being held by a lot of the people. The fruit tree branches with blossoms are in celebration of the coming of spring. The problem is the fruit tree blossoms are not generally out here in Siberia by May 1st so all those we see are fake blossoms. The parade generally consists of workers unions or political parties. But before all that starts they let the Communist party have their rally and speeches at the foot of Lenin's statue and when they have finished they leave and everyone else parades and have their speeches at the same location. The first few pictures are the communist rally and the rest of them are everyone else.

During the Soviet era the flag was red with a hammer and sickle. Since the Soviet era the flag has been changed to a flag with three large horizontal bars, a white, a blue and a red. You can see it in the background behind Lenin.

The banner reads "Communist Party! With her to the end. We will bring victory"

A little girl approached Karen on the street and gave her a balloon.

"Victory Day" is on May 9th and is one of the biggest holidays in Russia. It celebrates the Russian Victory in World War II. Banks, government offices, schools and some of the stores are closed for a couple of days. This year it fell on Thursday so Prime Minister Medvedev signed a proclamation allowing the holiday to extend through Sunday the 12th. You may have seen in the news the big celebration in Red Square in Moscow where President Putin spoke and their were lots of military equipment rolling through the square as well as many many soldiers, sailors etc. marching in review. That was Victory Day. They have a similar but much smaller parade here in Krasnoyarsk. Here are a few photos.

This is some kind of a youth political or military group. Notice the high heels ladies. These are very typical here in Russia but a little unusual in a parade.

The black and orange ribbons are part of the celebration and you see them everywhere, on clothing, cars, bicycles etc.

This is Maria (Masha) Shishmarova who we ran into at the parade. She is one of our faithful young single adults.

And of course there are horses for the little kids. There are horses at almost every public event winter spring and summer.

This is the front of the Russian Orthodox Church right next to our apartment building. These young people standing guard are members of a group called "Pioneers." During the Soviet era they were called "Scouts." And in fact they are similar to our Boy Scouts. They are a very good organization and try to build leadership qualities in these youth. This is part of the Victory Day celebration.

Red carnations are traditional at Victory Day. It is common for the youth to carry them around and then give them to veterans of the war who they run into on the streets. One young man came up to me and handed me 3 or 4 thinking I was a veteran. I was touched until it occurred to me that I would have to be about 88 to 90 to be a veteran. I guess the mission has taken its toll on me. I couldn't take the carnations of course (I purchased two from a street vendor) but I was touched by this sweet tradition in honor of the veterans. I think the Russians lost about 27 million lives in that war including both civilian and military. Total military lives lost they estimate to be about 8.7 million.