Archive for 'Traditions'
Looking for Russian Holiday to Celebrate? Posted by yelena on Nov 3, 2010
«Какой русский не любит праздновать» [What kind of a Russian doesn’t like to celebrate]! Russians celebrate with «смак» [gusto] both the well-established holidays and the newly adopted ones. Holidays that lose their «блеск» [luster] are never discarded, but instead reinvented. And even the ones that get forgotten or cast aside tend to «возрождаться» [reappear]…
Celebrating the First of September Posted by yelena on Aug 30, 2010
I live 5 houses down from «начальная школа» [an elementary school]. It’s a pretty useless piece of trivia, except that every year since we moved into our house, I have had an acute case of «ностальгия» [nostalgia] at about this time of year. «Моя ностальгия – по Первому сентября» [I am nostalgic for the First…
Same-Same but Different II: Homophones Posted by josefina on Aug 28, 2010
Two days ago we discussed «омонимы» [pl. homonyms] here on our blog. As a part of that process I tried to be funny but was probably only silly when I used the popular phrase «гнать самогон» in a sentence so it wouldn’t mean «гнать самогон» as in ‘to distill moonshine’ – like it usually does…
Reading «Мастер и Маргарита»: Chapter 10 + 11 Posted by josefina on Aug 12, 2010
And this week «мы читаем Булгакова у бассейна» [we’re reading Bulgakov by the pool]. «Да, да, знаю, знаю» [yes, yes, I know, I know] – it has been almost two months since we all started reading «Мастер и Маргарита» [“Master & Margarita”] together and we haven’t made it further than chapter ten. «Честно говоря» [honestly…
Summer Weekends, Russian Style Posted by yelena on Jun 23, 2010
I’m going to let you in on a secret… Move closer to the screen… Closer… Even though we just posted our guest blogger invite, we (Josefina and I) have been mulling over this idea for some time. We just needed a willing test subject (aka a guinea pig). Somehow our choice fell on Vicki, quite…
Victory Day – All You Want to Know Posted by yelena on May 5, 2010
In just a few days Russia will be celebrating one of its most significant days, «День Победы» [Victory Day]. How much do you know about this holiday? Well, I hope after reading this post you will know quite a bit more. So let’s get going with the «День Победы – вопросы и ответы» [Victory Day…
«Христос воскресе!» [Christ is Risen!] Posted by josefina on Apr 4, 2010
Outside of the church closest to where I live in Yekaterinburg they put up the following poster a few days ago: «4 (четвёртого) апреля – светлое Христово Воскресение» [The 4th of April – the Bright Resurrection of Christ]. «Христос воскресе!» [Christ is risen!]. The following quote turned out too small for you to read on…