They Fought for Their Land Posted by yelena on May 9, 2012
Today Russia celebrates День Победы (Victory Day) celebration is right around the corner. На кануне Дня Победы по телевизору показывают много старых фильмов про войну (On the eve of the Victory Day a lot of old war movies are shown on TV). With fewer and fewer ветераны (veterans) left, much of what we know…
TGIF Posted by yelena on May 4, 2012
TGIF! Are you ready for выходные (weekend)? But first, if you are curious, Thanks God It’s Friday translates into Russian as слава богу, уже пятница. (The poster above explains that nighttime is not the reason to stop work) How was your work week? Are you устал, как собака (dog-tired)? It’s probably because you пахал…
It is Time to Celebrate майские праздники Posted by yelena on May 1, 2012
May 1st starts a calendar period commonly referred to as майские праздники (May holidays). Первое мая (May 1st), also known as Первомай, used to be a one of those propaganda-driven Soviet holidays, День международной солидарности трудящихся (International Workers’ Day). Back then the schedule was pretty set – a government-organized демонстрация (political demonstration) or, in larger cities, парад (parade) followed by застолье (a holiday meal) with a centerpiece being миска салата «Оливье» (a bowl of Olivier salad)…
Лениниана Posted by yelena on Apr 24, 2012
Guess whose birthday is celebrated on April 22? Well, lots of famous and important people were born on this day, for example, Alexander Kerensky and Vladimir Nabokov. And, of course, Владимир Ильич Ульянов (Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov) was born on this day back in 1870. He is usually better known by his alias, Ленин (Lenin). So let’s talk about Lenin’s influence…
Примета такая есть – There is an Omen Like That Posted by yelena on Apr 16, 2012
I was so busy last week that I completely forgot about April 13. Тринадцатое апреля (April 13) this year fell on пятница (Friday). Since the next one will be в июле (in July), let’s get ready and talk a bit about Russian суеверия (superstitions). You might’ve noticed that the –верие part in the word суеверие…
Even More About Russian Easter Posted by yelena on Apr 12, 2012
As promised, here’s the rest of the story about Russian Easter. The first week after Easter Sunday is known as Пасхальная неделя (Easter Week). The biggest day of this week and the peak of the Easter celebration is Красная Горка (Low Sunday). And here we have the word красный in its meaning of “beautiful” instead…
Celebrating Russian Easter Posted by yelena on Apr 11, 2012
Let’s hope that all of us are done with taxes. This leaves us with just one problem to solve – what to do with hundreds of plastic eggs we have left over from Easter. So let’s tackle this problem and learn a bit about Easter in the process (and if you don’t celebrate Easter, you…