Why Russians Celebrate New Year Bigger Than Christmas

If you have ever shared the holiday season with a Russian or Eastern European friend, you may have noticed something unexpected: the biggest night of the year is not December 25th — it is December 31st. Novy God (Но́вый Год, pronounced NOH-viy Gohd, meaning "New Year") is the centerpiece of the Russian winter calendar, and it has been for nearly a century. To understand why, you have to travel back to one of the most dramatic cultural upheavals in modern history: the Soviet era.

Was Christmas ever celebrated in Russia? Yes — for nearly a thousand years.

The earliest mentions of Christmas celebrations in Russia go as far back as the 10th century. For hundreds of years, Christmas was widely observed: people decorated fir trees, shared a Christmas Eve dinner, and prepared presents for family and friends. Christmas became a religious holiday with the baptism of old Rus', when Vladimir the Great accepted Christianity for himself and his subjects. By the 19th century, Western European customs — especially those arriving from Germany — had woven themselves into Russian festive life, and a full winter holiday culture was in bloom.

New Year's, meanwhile, only became a formal observance in Russia in 1700, when Peter the Great — a committed westernizer — accepted that January 1st marked the new year per the Gregorian calendar. Initially, celebrations for New Year were "kind of a modest thing." Christmas remained the main event — until everything changed.

What happened to Christmas in the Soviet Union? It was officially abolished.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks came to power, all religious holidays were to be eradicated and their traditions forgotten, as they did not fit the atheistic philosophy of the Party. In 1929, Christmas celebrations were officially banned, and Christmas Day became an ordinary working day.

The holiday of Novy God was promoted by the Soviet Union as a secular holiday that would supplant Christmas, which — along with other religious holidays — had been abolished due to the Communist Party's unofficial policy of state atheism. In the Soviet Union, as Christmas was "canceled," so were Christmas trees, for a while. They were considered a manifestation of "bourgeois" attitudes, since only wealthy people could afford to put one up and decorate it with toys.

How did New Year's absorb all of Christmas's traditions? Through a deliberate Soviet cultural transfer, starting in 1935.

As soon as 1935, those beloved traditions were revived — but they were no longer Christmas traditions. Everything that had once symbolized Christmas now became an attribute of New Year.

The spark came from an unlikely source. The trigger was a letter written to the Soviet paper Pravda by Party member Pavel Postyshev, who noted that before the revolution, "through windows, the children of workers looked with envy at fir trees sparkling with multi-colored lights and the children of the rich enjoying themselves around the tree." Postyshev proposed that the Komsomol and local Party and government leaders organize "collective" fir trees in schools, orphanages, Pioneer palaces, children's clubs, theatres, and movie theatres.

In 1935, Josef Stalin decided — amid the great famine and the Great Terror — to return a celebratory tree to Soviet children. Ded Moroz (Дед Мороз, Dyed Mah-ROHS, meaning "Grandfather Frost") was brought back. He found a snow maiden from folk tales to serve as his lovely assistant: Snegurochka (Снегурочка, Sneh-GOO-roch-kah, "the Snow Maiden"). Festive symbols — the decorated tree, gifts, and Ded Moroz — underwent secularization and became firmly associated with the New Year.

Even the tree's ornaments were transformed. A pentagram replaced the Star of Bethlehem at the top, and secular ornaments in the forms of the Kremlin towers, Soviet astronauts, and sheaves of wheat adorned its branches. The yolka (ёлка, YOL-kah), as the decorated spruce tree is called, was reborn as a thoroughly Soviet symbol.

Did the tradition stick after the Soviet Union collapsed? Completely — and it spread worldwide.

Two generations had completely erased the memory of Christmas as a festive holiday. The generation of children who grew up in the Soviet era did not recognize it as a holiday at all. By the time the USSR dissolved in 1991, Novy God was so deeply embedded that no political change could displace it. The secular observance had allowed the holiday to thrive as a non-working day in the Soviet Union, and its practice continued even after the Soviet Union's collapse in the 1990s.

Novy God's customs have remained a popular observance among Russians and diaspora since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, as well as in former Soviet territories within Central Asia. In 2016, Russian-American journalist Leon Neyfakh called it "the most important family holiday of the season for Russians all over the world."

Novy God has remained deeply rooted in the cultures of Russian-speaking diasporas across the globe — regardless of native language, ethnicity, or religion. From Brighton Beach in Brooklyn to Sacramento's Russian community, December 31st is the night that matters most.

What about Orthodox Christmas? It is celebrated — but after New Year's, on January 7th.

The Russian Orthodox Church follows the Julian calendar, which means that Christmas does not fall before the New Year but is observed afterward, on January 7th. This quirk of the calendar means that even for devout Orthodox Russians, the secular New Year's celebration comes first. Many families observe both — a week of festivities stretching from December 31st through January 7th — making it one of the longest holiday seasons of any culture in the world.

What does a Novy God celebration actually look like? A lavish, late-night feast full of beloved rituals.

There are two central pillars of Novy God: the exchange of gifts and communal meals. The shared tradition of giving brings people together around the yolka. Presents are received from family, friends, and the mythical figures of Ded Moroz and his granddaughter Snegurochka.

On New Year's Eve, Russians gather with family and friends for a big meal with dishes like Olivier salad and herring under a fur coat. People share toasts, watch the President's annual address, and count down to midnight with the chimes of the Kremlin clock. The table is a true centerpiece: the austerity of everyday life is set aside for a culinary celebration that continues late into the night. Crystal vessels, festive cutlery, and white tablecloths adorn the table. The Novy God meal includes a variety of zakuski (закуски, zah-KOOS-kih, meaning "small bites") — cold hors d'oeuvres including pickled fish, caviar, sausages, deviled eggs, cooked salads, and various dumplings like pirozhki and pelmeni.

A beloved ritual accompanies the stroke of midnight: some Russians write their New Year's wishes on a piece of paper, burn the paper, and then drink the ashes dissolved in champagne. The table is typically laden with varenye (варенье, vah-REN-yeh — Russian-style whole-fruit jam) alongside pryaniki (пряники, PRYA-nih-kih — spiced honey cookies), mayonnaise for the iconic salads, and sweets of every kind. Tangerines — their scent alone is said to conjure the New Year's mood — overflow from decorative bowls.

Why does Novy God matter to Russian-Americans today? It is a living bridge between generations and cultures.

Novy God is a long-awaited holiday in many Russian-speaking communities. It is a celebration of family, food, and new beginnings, and it has remained deeply rooted in the cultures of Russian-speaking diasporas across the globe — regardless of native language, ethnicity, or religion. For decades, Russian-speaking community organizations across the United States have lovingly organized Novy God celebrations, which continue to be a way for multiple generations of Russian-speaking families to connect to their culture and each other.

For Americans encountering Russian culture for the first time, Novy God offers an accessible and joyful entry point — a holiday that feels familiar (the tree, the gifts, the feast, the countdown) yet carries its own unique history, mythology, and flavor. That combination of the universal and the distinctly Russian is exactly what makes it so enduring.

Sources:
Wikipedia — Novy God
Foreign Policy — How Soviets Came to Celebrate New Year's Like Christmas
ICLS — How Do Russians Celebrate New Year? 5 Traditions Unveiled
Multnomah County Library — Celebration of Novy God (New Year)