"When the Christ was born - the snow disappeared, the trees were decorated with leaves and flowers..."

Ivan Bozheryanov’s book How the Russian People celebrated and celebrate Christmas, New Year, Epiphany and Shrovetide, available on the Presidential Library’s portal, features several holiday meanings: “When the Christ was born - the snow disappeared, the trees were decorated with leaves and flowers, the ground was covered with a carpet of herbs. <...> Christmas was celebrated as the restoration of paradise on earth".

The history of Christmas holidays is illustrated in the electronic collections of the Presidential Library New Year Day and Christmas in Russia. The institution’s portal contains rare secular and church books that spotlight the history of one of the main Christian holidays – Christmas (the Nativity of Christ).

Biblical stories about the birth of Jesus Christ and His Way of the Cross for the atonement of human sins are featured in a variety of books, for example, in one of the fundamental sources - Christmas: Service for the Christmas Day according to the Flesh, Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. The appearance of the Savior was a miracle, for the realization of which people needed time and an interpretation of the event accessible to their understanding: “And Mary gave birth to her firstborn Son, and swaddled him, and laid him in a manger. There were shepherds on the field who kept night watch by their flock in that country. Suddenly the Angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone upon them; They were afraid of great fear. And the angel said to them: “Do not be afraid; I declare to you the great joy that will be for all people: for now you are born in the city of David the Savior, who is Christ the Lord".

The traditions of celebrating this day, filled with some kind of supreme joy, also developed gradually. It was believed that on Christmas Eve you can’t eat until the first star appears - this is due to the legend of the appearance of the Star of Bethlehem, which announced the birth of Christ.

“On Christmas Eve, no one ate anything until the star appeared, and the rules were kept strictly back in the last century”, - Ivan Bozheryanov’s describes. The author on this occasion tells a story that has become a legend: “The famous Alexander Suvorov, who was famous for his piety, was invited to the dinner table on Christmas Eve by Empress Catherine II. A caring hostess assured Suvorov that there was fish on the table. Lunch at that time was early, before the appearance of the star. Guesses came that Suvorov was fastening, waiting for the heavenly messenger. The Empress whispered to the lackey cell standing behind her, and at that very minute they brought a diamond star of St. Alexander Nevsky. The Empress told:

- Do you see the star? Now you can eat!

Prince Potemkin, who was there, exclaimed: “So let the light illuminate the people!”

Bozheryanov in his fundamental study How the Russian People celebrated and celebrate Christmas, New Year, Epiphany and Shrovetide focuses on the care of the Orthodox about affirming sobriety in their way of life: “Young women were not offered wine, they often went out to the mistress's room to drink kvas, where the hostess served them a one-year-old honey, at the table people who took drinkers were mistaken for important persons and escorted with honor“.

The collection presents such rare secular and church books as Church and other holidays in the Irkutsk churches, Christmas and others. The Presidential Library’s collections also provide stories on the theme of the Nativity of Christ. Christmas stories are widely represented in the book From Christmas to Easter.

An indispensable attribute of the Christmas holidays was the spruce, the custom of dressing up and having fun around it was brought by Peter the Great from Europe. The Presidential Library contains a postcard “Merry Christmas!” from the times of the First World War: in the foreground there is a pair of soldiers with rifles in a snow-trenched trench. And on the left - a system of white angels translucently prescribed by the artist, each holding a small New Year tree...

Under whatever circumstances Russia celebrates Christmas, “the Russian soul rests and rejoices on a church holiday, and it’s a blessing to those whom pious parents have taught to celebrate the holiday from childhood, to wait with joyful feeling and enjoy its refreshing and exalting power”, - wrote the Prosecutor of the Holy Synod Konstantin Pobedonostsev in 1893 in the publication Feasts of the Lord.