By ALEXANDER DOLITSKY
Worldwide, New Year traditions focus on luck, prosperity, fortune and new beginnings, featuring lucky foods like Spain’s Las Doce Uvas de la Suerte (The Twelve Grapes of Luck tradition consists of eating a grape with each of the twelve-clock bell strikes at midnight of Dec. 31 to welcome the New Year); the Southern US tradition of eating black-eyed peas; noisemaking to scare spirits (e.g., Ireland’s pots, Ecuador’s effigies); symbolic actions like Scotland’s “first footing”; Brazil’s wave jumping; wearing specific colors (e.g., red underwear in Italy, white in Brazil); and cultural rituals like Japan’s 108 temple bells for purification.
Historically, across Slavic countries, New Year’s celebrations are characterized by lively festivities, large family and friends’ gatherings, elaborate and delicious feasts. While specific folk traditions vary by region, several core similarities exist.
Slavic countries are nations in Eastern, Central, and Southeastern Europe with Slavic majorities. Linguistically and demographically, Slavic countries are grouped into East (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus), West (Poland, Czechia, Slovakia), and South (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bulgaria). These nations share common linguistic roots and cultural heritage, though they vary in history, cultural values, religion (i.e., Orthodox in the East/South and Catholic in the West), and political development.
Key Similarities in Slavic New Year Celebrations
Focus on a Fresh Start: A widely shared belief is that the way one spends New Year’s Eve will set the tone for the entire year. This leads to common practices briefly described in this article
House Cleaning and Settling Debts: Many people clean their homes, resolve disputes and pay off debts before December 31st to start the year fresh and avoid bad luck or financial instability.
Festive Gatherings and Feasting: The New Year is primarily a social and family-oriented holiday, often considered more important than Christmas in some Slavic countries (e.g., Russia, Ukraine, Belarus) due to historical Soviet-era secularization.
Abundant Food: A rich, abundant table is a mandatory attribute, believed to ensure prosperity. Traditional dishes, while different across Slavic countries, are prepared in large quantities. For example, Olivier salad (mayonnaise-based salad with diced boiled potatoes, carrots, eggs, olives, pickles, and peas, ham or bologna) in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine; boiled pork head in Czechia and Slovakia; and faworki pastries in Poland (also known as angel wings—light, crispy, deep-fried, and dusted with powdered sugar).
Champagne and Toasts: Toasts with champagne or local sparkling wine are a universal tradition at midnight.
Fireworks: Setting off fireworks is popular in both public squares and private homes across Poland, Russia, and Czechia.
Making Wishes: A common ritual involves writing a wish on a piece of paper, burning it, and drinking the ashes in a glass of champagne before the clock finishes chiming for the wish to come true.
Symbolic Decor and Figures: The New Year tree is a central decoration across many Slavic homes, decorated with lights and ornaments, symbolizing the season’s cheer.
Folk Traditions: In some South and East Slavic countries (e.g., Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine), pre-Orthodox folk traditions like costumed caroling, dancing, and house-to-house performances persist, aimed at bringing luck and playfully teasing neighbors.
“Old New Year” Celebration: Countries with a strong Orthodox Christian influence often celebrate the New Year twice: once on January 1 (Gregorian calendar: the standard civil calendar used worldwide today, replacing the inaccurate Julian calendar by adjusting leap years) and again on Jan. 14 (Julian calendar), providing an extended festive season or a reason to celebrate pre-Orthodox tradition.
New Year Celebration in Russia
In Russia, New Year is the most notable winter holiday, surpassing even Christmas in significance due to Soviet-era (1917 to 1991) suppression of religion, becoming a secular, family-focused event filled with feasting, gifts from Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost), and festive traditions, symbolizing hope, renewal, and uniting generations with joyous celebrations and toasts for the year ahead.
This holiday 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 policy of state atheism. In the former Soviet Union, religion was tolerated but not encouraged.
Gifts from Ded Moroz and Snegurochka
Children receive gifts from Ded Moroz (Father Frost) and his granddaughter Snegurochka (the Snow Maiden) on New Year’s Eve. These two figures are central to New Year’s celebrations, just like Santa Claus and his Elf for children in the West.
Dressing up
Children often dress up in costumes, such as hares, foxes, bears or Little Red Riding Hoods (a classic European fairy tale about a girl in a red cloak, a cunning wolf, and her sick grandmother). Some children also make up their own costumes of a favorite literary character.
New Year Tree of Wishes
In recent years, Russian political leaders, including President Vladimir Putin, have participated in the New Year Tree of Wishes campaign, granting the wishes of children. The New Year Tree of Wishes (Yolka Zhelaniy) is a Russian charitable campaign where adults fulfill New Year’s dreams of children by picking their written wishes from a special tree.
Schools and preschools hold New Year’s celebrations for children starting from around the age of three. Traditionally, children receive sweets and toys from Ded Moroz (Father Frost) and his granddaughter Snegurochka (The Snow Maiden).
Fifteen minutes before midnight, all TV channels show the president’s speech. You must watch it, if you do not want to miss the chimes, whether you like it or not. When the chimes of the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower signal the start of the New Year, Russians make a toast to the good year to come and drink champaign bottoms up. Families and friends exchange gifts, a tradition like Western Christmas.
Preparations for New Year’s Eve
On Dec. 31, Russian homes resemble the homes in America on Dec. 24. People decorate their condos (most people in Russia live in condos/apartments) in red, white, gold and green. Central to the celebration is the New Year tree (Novogodnaya Yolka), which looks exactly like the Christmas tree. However, there are no stockings in Russia; all the presents need to be put under the New Year tree.
What’s on the Table: The Russian Salad (Olivier salad) & Beyond
The New Year’s meal plays a crucial role in the festivities, highlighted by iconic dishes of Olivier salad, Selyodka pod shuboy and ikra (caviar).
The Olivier salad, also known globally as the Russian salad, is a combination of diced potatoes, carrots, peas, eggs, olives, mayonnaise, and usually ham, chicken, or beef, making it a central dish.
Selyodka pod shuboy (herring under a fur coat) includes layers of herring, potatoes, beets, and carrots, topped with mayonnaise.
Ikra (caviar, salt-cured fish eggs) served on buttered bread. Although caviar is a rare and expensive delicacy on the Russian table, people make sure to have it on New Year’s Eve, as it represents the hope for a year filled with prosperity and good fortune.
Happy, prosperous and peaceful New 2026 Year to all.
The author was born and raised in the former Soviet Union before settling in the U.S. in 1978. He moved to Juneau in 1986 where he taught Russian studies and Archaeology at the University of Alaska Southeast, and Social Studies Teacher at the Alyeska Central School of the Alaska Department of Education. From 1990 to 2022, he served as a director and president of the Alaska-Siberia Research Center, publishing in the fields of anthropology, history, archaeology and ethnography. Find him on Amazon.com.
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9 thoughts on “Alexander Dolitsky: A peaceful new year to all, and cheers to new beginnings!”
Thank you Mr. Alexander Dolitsky for informative news story on Slavic end of year traditions.
The Olivier salad is one recipe I would to try.
This salad is very filling; do not overload this salad with a mayonnaise.
The bottom one ;looks yummy!
If you don’t like herring, as most Americans, you can substitute it with a salmon lox.
Thanks I appreciated your article. At some point I would interested in your insights and thoughts on the 1825 Decembrist Revolt in St Petersburg. The whys and the protagonists. A forerunner to future events or just a moment in history.
The year end Economist magazine had a segment piece on the Decembrist Revolt which spurred my interest. Happy New Year. Always appreciated your insights.
To John Lund: Soviet historiography praised Decembrists of 1825 as brave revolutionaries and role models for the young Soviet generation. But Western historiography interprets this movement as a revolt or coup of young Russian officers/aristocrats against the monarch. I was brought up and educated based on Soviet historiography and ideology.
Soviet historiography praised Decembrists of 1825 as brave revolutionaries and role models for the young Soviet generation. But Western historiography interprets this movement as a revolt or coup of young Russian officers/aristocrats against the monarch. I was brought up and educated based on Soviet historiography and ideology.
I came across of different and conflicting with each other interpretations. Thanks.
Thanks Alex. Interesting history and I was intrigued on how it was interpreted after the fall of Nicholas. Plus a brief period where nobody wanted to be Czar. Happy New Years.