The Day Dreams Come True

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New Year‘s is a time when the most secret of dreams come true and miracles occur. It’s up to the adults to see to it that their kids’ dreams come true. So they did a few days ago, when hundreds of children from all over Russia arrived in Moscow to get presents from Ded Moroz (Grandpa Frost) and see Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre. For more than one hundred years, kids across the globe have been mesmerised by this lovely fairytale. All dream that, one day, Drosselmeyer will walk in, bring the toys on the Christmas tree to life, and present the toy Nutcracker, the brave prince, who fearlessly fights evil. The children who came to watch The Nutcracker at the Moscow Bolshoi were orphans or disabled. For them, it’s particularly important to believe that good will take the upper hand at last and defeat evil. Madina is a school student who underwent a serious operation recently. “It was my long-time dream to visit the Moscow Bolshoi, and, now, this dream came true. I want to get well and live a normal life. This fairytale, The Nutcracker, I liked it so much because it took my mind off my problems and I forgot all about my illness for some time. When you know you’re going to a concert, you anticipate it, and you get so emotional that you forget about the bad things”.

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Volodya Kondratiev, who is seriously ill too, liked the Prince, the Nutcracker, for his audacity and wants to be like the character. “New Year’s is one of my favourite holidays and I’m happy I came to see the ballet. I liked it so much. The dancers are superb and the costumes and settings are out of this world. Tchaikovsky’s music is divine; it pumps up your spirits”. Volodya’s mother, Natalia, said, “The organisers did a good deed and The Nutcracker has turned into the most ‘delicious’ of remedies. The kids are smiling, and that makes us adults happy. The doctors too, notice that shows of this kind leave the kids in better health. Back in hospital, their condition improves radically, which, the doctors say, is due to psychological, not medical, factors. A child sees something captivating and this elevates his mood and improves his condition”. Thousands of children who need help will be surrounded by particular care and attention this New Year. Moscow alone will hold hundreds of charity concerts and shows with presents and all cities across Russia will donate what best they have to these children.

25 December 2008

Svetlana Andreyeva

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=37246&cid=62&p=25.12.2008

Russia Celebrates Western European Christmas

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Catholic Cathedral in Moscow

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Not only western confessions such as Catholicism and Protestantism, but, also, some Local Churches in Orthodoxy are anticipating Christmas celebrations on 25 December. When the first star appears in the sky, thousands of churches worldwide will hold solemn prayer services. Then, believers will greet one other on the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. In Russia, there are about 500,000 Christians who follow the western usage, and everything is almost ready for Christmas celebrations. The last decoration has been placed on the tree, and the last figurine has been placed in the Christmas cave. As in previous years, Catholic churches in Russia shall tell their believers the wonderful story of Christ’s appearance in the world. There’s only one reference in the Gospel on the generation of Christ. From the Gospel according to Luke, we know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem at sunset, after the appearance of the first star. According to the Gospel of Matthew, by following a star the magi found a cave where the new-born Jesus was placed… since then, more than two millennia have passed, and Christians of all confessions from all over the world still repeat the story. Christmas celebrations rely on the legend of the birth of Jesus. The New Testament does not give an exact date for the birth of Jesus, and it was not until the fifth century that a date for the feast was indicated. In 431, the Third Ecumenical Council agreed to celebrate Christmas on 25 December. Evil tongues say the first Christian clergy set this date to fight pagan practises that were very popular in ancient Rome. Indeed, at that time, the people celebrated the heathen Saturnalia, a merry feast commemorating the dedication of the temple of Saturn, the god of agriculture, fertility, and time.

A difference between the Gregorian and the Julian calendar systems also made it unclear when to celebrate Christmas, a spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate, Fr Sergei Zvonaryov said in an interview with the Voice of Russia. “The difference in the dates for the celebration of Christmas is connected with what calendar is used for the determination of the fixed feasts, there’s the Julian calendar, which is used by most Orthodox Christians, and there’s the Gregorian calendar, which is used by the western churches and by a minority of Orthodox Christians. There’s a 13-day difference between these two calendars. This is the reason why the Gregorian calendar marks Christmas on 25 December and the Julian calendar celebrates it on 7 January. In Russia, Western European Christmas is a quiet family holiday. After solemn mass at church, as a rule, believers go home to lay a festive table. When the first star appears in the sky, the Christmas Lent is over, and people are welcome to eat whatever they will. The table is usually laid with a white cloth and is decorated with fir-tree branches. A separate place at the table is meant for an unexpected guest. It is believed that unexpected guests on Christmas night are sent by Christ. As a rule, in the centre of the table there is a small pillow spread with special Christmas wafers, and each member of the family eats a piece of it, whilst others give their Christmas wishes to a person as they break a piece off the wafer. The rite is finished by a joint recitation of the prayer, ‘Our Father’. There is a beautiful custom arising in modern Russia, for, today, the Orthodox clergy take pains to greet the followers of the western confessions with Christmas good-wishes on 25 December. We have common values and Christianity’s our common faith. That’s why we always greet other Christians when they celebrate Christmas and are glad to see them enjoying their holidays. Indeed, we’re all Christians, and Christmas is a very significant time for all of us since it emphasises the importance of the history of salvation of mankind, which occurred here on earth due to the birth of Jesus Christ”.

24 December 2008

Milena Faustova

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=95119&cid=22&p=24.12.2008

Kremlin Christmas Tree is Lit Up

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The electric bulbs on the biggest Christmas tree in Russia, the one on Cathedral Square in the Moscow Kremlin, will be lit come Wednesday, 24 December. This beauty from the Russian forests will welcome Russian kids from all over the country to the Kremlin New Year’s parties. They had to wait until late on Saturday night, when traffic isn’t so heavy, to deliver the Kremlin tree. A timber tow-truck brought that 33-metre and almost ten-ton tree from a rural area of Moscow Oblast. The tree was suspended to protect its twigs and boughs. The words Kremlevskaya Yolka-2009 (Kremlin Christmas Tree-2009) and s Novym Godom! (To the New Year!) replaced the license plate numbers on the mammoth tow-truck. Inside the cab, two drivers were dressed in full Ded Moroz (Grandpa Frost) finery.

Kremlin Christmas trees have, since the time of Tsar Pyotr Veliki, been felled near the town of Zvenigorod. A three-hundred-year-old tradition demands that dancing, a display of fireworks, and other elements of collective merry-making accompany the felling of the biggest Christmas tree of Russia. It took this year’s tree two hours to cover the fifty kilometres between Zvenigorod and Moscow. Police cars escorted the Christmas tree to Moscow. One of the truck drivers, Yevgeni Lagutkin, said, “The burden of responsibility bears down twice, if not three times, as heavily as it usually does on the drivers’ shoulders because so many people are watching our progress”. The truck convoy moved through Moscow at a snail’s pace. Each turn delayed it for minutes. The highly-qualified drivers, seasoned professionals with much experience at their job, were doing their best. However, when they tried to enter Red Square, it turned out that the Borovitsky Gates were much too narrow for the tree. The Spasskoye Gates, which are opened only on the most special occasions, had to be opened. A “certificate of joy”, not a regular pass, was shown to the Kremlin guards. Then, the Christmas convoy could finally be waved into the old fortress to the ringing of the bells of the Kremlin.

“The certificate said that the 110-year-old fir tree was grown in an ecologically-clean region of Moscow Oblast, and that it was loved and received good care”, according to Viktor Savchenko, a senior staff worker of the presidential management office. “Before the tree could enter the Kremlin, I had to produce this document for the office of the Kommandatura. It had to be inspected by the proper officials to prove that the fir tree was really expected to enter the Kremlin”. Driving through the Spasskoye Gates was the most difficult thing in this operation because the gate is only a few centimetres wider than the truck platform. It took very precise and complicated manoeuvring to enter the gate. Precise and complicated as it was, it cost the fir tree a few of its numerous twigs. Yet, in spite of that, the driving Father Frosts did an “excellent” job.

The fir tree is already been positioned on the Kremlin’s Cathedral Square. Two construction cranes were used in the effort to put it in a standing position inside a steel-and- concrete contraption. More than 2,000 red ribbon bows, crystal balls, and silver bells adorn the tree. So does a 1,500-metre chain of red-white-and-blue festoons and 2,500 multicoloured light-bulbs. The fir tree is crowned with a golden and bright red star. It looks stunningly beautiful… a fairy tale visitor to Moscow! Click here for a link to a multimedia presentation on the Kremlin Christmas tree (click on the picture of the Kremlin tree on the left, the narration is in Russian, it’s the text of the above post. Even if you don’t know Russian, the pictures tell a story all by themselves).

24 December 2008

Maria Domnitskaya

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=94918&cid=22&p=23.12.2008

“Lullaby of Peace” shall be Shown at the Moscow International Film Festival for Children and Young People

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Look at the right-hand side of the You Tube page for more of the “Lullabies of Peace”

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Here’s some more of Ms Skvrotsova’s work… good stuff, no?

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The première of the first two instalments of the animated film cycle Kolybelnye Mira (Lullaby of Peace) by Yelizaveta Skvortsova will be held at the Moscow International Film Festival for Children and Young People on 26 December in the Roland cinema hall, the press service of the festival reported to RIA-Novosti.  Initially, the project was conceived and made as a TV series. But, as the press service release went on to say, such great interest was shown in the project during the previews of the festival that the producers decided to make a special theatrical film cycle entitled Kolybelnye Mira: Samye Sladkie Sny… (Lullaby of Peace: Sweetest Slumbers…) Each cartoon in the programme shows a lullaby from different countries all around the world. At the present moment, there are already 20 complete animations of lullabies from India, Georgia, Spain, Africa, Chukotka, Greece, France, and other countries, as well. According to the creators, despite cultural differences, the theme of all lullabies is identical, in that they embody the wishes of happiness and joy that any mother desires for her child. Each lullaby is a short and interesting commentary about the song itself and the people who sing that particular lullaby.

The project has already received a number of awards, prizes, and certificates at festivals in Russia and abroad. In addition, it has been honoured by international institutions concerned with children’s welfare and ecumenism. In total, the producers intend to release four instalments of the cycle.  The next two instalments shall be released to the public in the spring and summer of 2009, then, it is planned to release a DVD of the complete cycle. On the same day, 26 December, the festival shall show the Russian film Na Mostu (On the Bridge) as part of its competition. Its creators are a father-and-son team, named Razumovsky. The plot of the film concerns a 13-year-old orphan who becomes an accomplice to a murder and runs away from his orphanage. After arriving in Moscow, he finds himself in a centre for troubled adolescents. Here, he meets new friends and meets his first love.

25 December 2008

Natalia Kurova

RIA-Novosti

http://www.rian.ru/culture/20081225/158063900.html

The Archpastoral Council shall probably Propose Three Candidates to Stand for the Patriarchal Election

It is proposed that the Archpastoral Council of the MP, scheduled to meet on 25 and 26 January in Moscow, should advance a list of three candidates to stand for the election of the new patriarch. Probably, this list shall be supplemented by the Local Council, which is slated to convene on 27 to 29 January to actually elect a patriarch. This is an official proposal of the Holy Synod, according to a release on the MP official website.

“Amongst other things, it was proposed that the Archpastoral Council shall advance, through the use of a secret ballot, three candidates to stand for the office of the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia. They should be chosen from those bishops who are over 40-years-old, with higher theological education, and possessing extensive pastoral experience as diocesan hierarchs. Moreover, further candidates can be fielded by the Local Council, and these shall also be selected through the use of a secret ballot”, the posting read.

In addition, the Holy Synod proposed that the actual patriarchal election itself at the Local Council be conducted by secret ballot. The Synod approved the draft documents brought forward by the commission in charge of organising the extraordinary sessions of the Archpastoral Council and the Local Council. In particular, these dealt with the agenda, programme, conciliar regulations, and the procedural standards for the election. It also approved a number of projected working documents. However, these resolutions of the Synod are only provisional, as they must be affirmed by the Archpastoral and Local Councils.

25 December 2008

RIA-Novosti

http://www.rian.ru/society/20081225/158088151.html