Russia Christmas is here soon for 2011. On January 7th 2011. Orthodox Christmas will happen. I was sipping my cup of coffee this morning and thinking about that very happening and happening’s…

It has always been strange to me that the country (Russia) literally shuts down this time of the year. Everyone in Russia is on a break. Now some work (Sveta has to spend a few days working at her IBM Servers  in Gazprombank.) and some play but the play is by far the predominant. You still have to have cops, border patrols, food and etc to function. But the government, major corporations, many markets and most stores are simply closed from basically the first of January to around the 11th of January…

Now we are not done yet: The 14th of January is the Orthodox New Year. Yes another New Year holiday. Russians love their holidays and January is a month of holidays for them…

So for half a month. Russia just does very little. I love it and enjoy the down time. Sveta always says to make sure that we stock up on groceries, because everything is closed. We have found a real problem with bread. The bakers are closed. So we have found little shops that bake their own bread and enjoy fresh home made. You have to be fast though because, all Russians know the spots also and will beat us to the bread. Yesterday, I found one last loaf left in our favorite little store. We grabbed it as three more people came in looking for bread… (That was good bread! Yummy…)

We have a saying in the Western world, that I apply to Russia: “When in Rome do as the Romans do!” other words, It is polite, and possibly also beneficial, to follow the customs of a society when one is a visitor to that society…

Also it means grab the bread if you find it first…

You will not hear me argue… :)

Windows to Russia!

• Don’t Pack Your Christmas Tree Yet – Its Russian New Year… (windowstorussia.com)
• Presidents New Year Speech… (for 2011) (windowstorussia.com)
• The Christmas Eve, Sochivo recipe… (windowstorussia.com)
• Coffee and Gone is 2010 and Hello 2011… (windowstorussia.com)
• Russia: Is There A Santa Claus in Russia? (windowstorussia.com)
• Merry Christmas From Windows to Russia! (windowstorussia.com)
• A Bulgarian Christmas… (windowstorussia.com)
• Jolly Christmas descends on Russian capital (rt.com)