The Presidential Library marking the Nativity of Christ

The Presidential Library’s portal features the history of the holiday in its collection New Year’s Day and Christmas in Russia. 

The book of Archpriest John Bukharev About the Holidays of the Orthodox Church (1807) contains information about the revered days of the Orthodox Church with the appendix of troparions, pictures, Russian translation and explanation of rituals and customs. The collection The Nativity of Christ (1900), published by the Moscow Synodal Printing House, contains legends, explanations for them, notes and chants dedicated to the Orthodox holiday.

In the Artworks section one can read the little-known prose poem Christmas Eve, written by the famous lawyer and writer Anatoly Koni, the story of the priest John of Galabutsky A Christmas Dream (1899), where the author describes the main Christian event in a language accessible to children.

The section of the collection Solemn Words contains rare publications from different years, including The Word for the Nativity of Christ, spoken by the rector of the Kronstadt St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Archpriest Fr. John Ilyich Sergiev (1896).

Of interest are the documents collected in the Holiday Awards section. These are statements about the appointment of monetary awards for Orthodox holidays. For example, in the Case of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra for 1909, the treasurer of the Lavra, Archimandrite Gideon, asks the Spiritual Council of the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra “to issue a monetary reward from the Lavra’s ecclesiastical and economic sums for the feast of the Nativity of Christ in 1909”. The report contains the amounts of payments and a long list, which includes choir singers, church bell ringers, watchmen, cell attendants, couriers, cooks, coachman, doorman of the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, bellhops and other persons.

The collection New Year’s Day and Christmas in Russia also includes pre-revolutionary themed calendars and cards marking Christmas.