The way Peter I ordered to celebrate New Year’s Day

The 350th anniversary of the birth of the Russian Emperor Peter I will be widely celebrated in the upcoming 2022. A decree on this in 2018 was signed by President of Russia Vladimir Putin.

One has opportunity to recall the glorious deeds of the reformer tsar from the New Year’s first day. Indeed, it was thanks to Peter I that an unprecedented tradition of celebrating the New Year on the night of December 31 to January 1 appeared in Russia.

The great reformer Peter I, who returned from his travels in Europe, inspired by European culture, wanted to approach it in everything, and at the end of 1699 ordered to celebrate the New Year according to the foreign model - in winter. Prior to that, in Russia, the New Year's holiday was celebrated either on March 1, then on September 1. For a long time, the Russian people, whose way of life was associated with agriculture, began working in the field in the spring, considering the first day of the year on March 1. Later, the celebration of the New Year fell on September 1, when the completion of work on the ground and harvesting were celebrated. So for several centuries, the New Year in the country was celebrated in different ways: officially - in the autumn and according to old customs - in the spring. The end of this confusion was put by the sovereign Peter I. By a personal decree of 1699, he ordered from now on to keep chronology from January 1, following the example of not only European states, but also Slavic cities, "from which our Orthodox faith was adopted", - says Ivan Bozheryanov's book The way Russian people celebrated and celebrate Christmas, New Year, Epiphany and Maslenitsa, placed in the collection New Year’s Day and Christmas in Russia on the Presidential Library's portal.

Peter I, realizing that the celebration of the New Year on a foreign model runs counter to the established customs of the Russian people, decided to hold an unprecedented celebration in Moscow. On the eve of the new year 1700, a midnight vigil began in all churches. Peter with his numerous court was at the festive service in the Assumption Cathedral, praying "fervently and earnestly". By the beginning of the liturgy, cannons were brought to the Kremlin, which accompanied with loud shots many years after the prayer service. “The clergy, ambassadors and boyars dined with the Tsar, who was sitting at the table with his entire family. <...> The people feasted on the squares in front of the palace and treated themselves to the dishes, wines and beer exposed to them", - wrote Bozheryanov. And then the streets of the capital and its fortress walls lit up with bright fireworks, illumination blazed in the winter sky, bonfires and tar barrels burned like torches, which Peter himself watched with childish delight. Fun and amusement continued until Christmas. Peter I ordered noble people to visit each other and even personally checked the execution of his order. Nobles who did not want to walk the way the emperor ordered, were brought to the festivities by force.

The main symbol of the New Year, the festive tree, is another merit of Peter I. The custom of decorating the New Year tree, “spied” from the Germans, apparently liked the sovereign during his travels, therefore the decree read: “... and at the houses of deliberate spiritual and secular ranks in front of the gates to make some decorations from the trees and branches of pine and juniper...and for poor people, though, put a tree or a branch on the gate or over your temple... ". In Germany, spruce from time immemorial has been a symbol of eternal youth, longevity and even immortality, while among the Slavs, on the contrary, coniferous branches were associated with funeral rites, which, of course, also hindered the adoption of innovations. Since in Russia most people had no idea either of the overseas New Year's celebrations, or of how spruce should be decorated, it was decided to exhibit tree samples in the Moscow Gostiny Dvor.

During his reign and until his death, the indefatigable Peter I did not cease to ensure that the New Year celebrations in Russia were no worse than in Europe. On the eve of the holiday, the emperor congratulated and with his own hand generously presented the most noble nobles and favorites, took part in court festivities and amusements. Being already the emperor and having made St. Petersburg the capital of the state, Peter I taught the Northern capital to lavish celebrations, balls and assemblies. The emperor himself set the tone for the bright celebrations of the Russian nobility. The book by Alexander Kornilovich New Year in 1724 features the details of the celebration ceremony of January 1 by Peter I.

Peter I, with his reforms and transformations, turned the tsardom of Moscow into the All-Russian Empire, trying in every possible way to make Russia a part of Europe. One of these steps towards rapprochement with Western culture was the introduction of the tradition of celebrating the New Year on December 31, which, albeit not immediately, but firmly entrenched in Russia, becoming perhaps the most long-awaited event of the year.