Russia has a Holiday Train, too. Sort of
After my last post, it was kind of fitting to see this come across my friend feed.
Over at ru_railway, e_strannik (yes, another Strannik :) ) wrote about a holiday train on Moscow's suburban commuter train lines.
For those who aren't familiar with Russian culture, a bit of background. In Motherland, Christmas is firmly a religious holiday that's celebrated on January 7. New Years Eve is more like the completely secular version of American-style Christmas. During the early years of the Soviet Union, Christmas wasn't celebrated, because religion is the opium of the masses and all that. But in the 1930s, people were allowed to celebrate New Year - and the secular aspects of Christmas wound up moving over there (that includes things Americans will find familiar and some folk traditions/conventions unique to Russia).
One of those traditions is our own take on the Old Man Who Gives Presents archetype - Ded Moroz (Grandpa Frost). There are some similarities and some differences, but they are not relevant for the purpose of this post. Click here if you're curious
With this background out of the way, I'm going to turn to my digital почти-тёзка's original post. As always, the translation of original text is in italics, my notes are in plain text and in brackets.
---
In the run up to New Year, on the electric trains of the Region-Express company, you can meet Ded Moroz, who's giving out presents for kids and adults. Today [on December 29], I rode with Ded Mortoz from MozhaykaMozhaysk and back, and I'm going to show you how it happened. Believe it or not, not only kids, but adults happily read New Year poems and even sang songs, which earned them chocolates and company-branded pens, as well as great New Year mood.
For those who don't know, REKS region-express is a project to increase ridership on suburban passenger railroad lines using faster, more comfortable trains. [REKS being a branch Aesroexpress LLC, the operator of commuter train lines in a number of major Russian cities. It is, in turn, owned by state-run Russian Railroads company.] At present, routes along Belorusskiy, Kazanski, Savyolovskiy, Paveletskiy and Yaroslaviskiy corridors use ED4M series electric trains, which can be easily recognized by their bright-blue decal and the company mascot - a friendly dachshund - place in every train car.
And here some photos of Ded Moroz visiting the train
[The picture of the girl on the window is Snegurachka, Ded Moroz's granddaughter. I've seen her name translated as "Snow Maiden," which isn't quite right, but it captures the meaning well enough]
--
Okay, so it isn't quite like the Holiday Train. But imagine riding the Metra train (or fill in commuter train in your area), thinking it's just another evening commute, when suddenly, a Santa Claus comes in with a sack full of presents. And then he starts handing them out.
Personally, I think it would be pretty cool.
To my Russian (and Russian-speaking) readers - С Новым Годом! To my English-speaking readers - have a Happy New Year! May it be better than the last one. For all our sakes.
Over at ru_railway, e_strannik (yes, another Strannik :) ) wrote about a holiday train on Moscow's suburban commuter train lines.
For those who aren't familiar with Russian culture, a bit of background. In Motherland, Christmas is firmly a religious holiday that's celebrated on January 7. New Years Eve is more like the completely secular version of American-style Christmas. During the early years of the Soviet Union, Christmas wasn't celebrated, because religion is the opium of the masses and all that. But in the 1930s, people were allowed to celebrate New Year - and the secular aspects of Christmas wound up moving over there (that includes things Americans will find familiar and some folk traditions/conventions unique to Russia).
One of those traditions is our own take on the Old Man Who Gives Presents archetype - Ded Moroz (Grandpa Frost). There are some similarities and some differences, but they are not relevant for the purpose of this post. Click here if you're curious
With this background out of the way, I'm going to turn to my digital почти-тёзка's original post. As always, the translation of original text is in italics, my notes are in plain text and in brackets.
---
In the run up to New Year, on the electric trains of the Region-Express company, you can meet Ded Moroz, who's giving out presents for kids and adults. Today [on December 29], I rode with Ded Mortoz from MozhaykaMozhaysk and back, and I'm going to show you how it happened. Believe it or not, not only kids, but adults happily read New Year poems and even sang songs, which earned them chocolates and company-branded pens, as well as great New Year mood.
For those who don't know, REKS region-express is a project to increase ridership on suburban passenger railroad lines using faster, more comfortable trains. [REKS being a branch Aesroexpress LLC, the operator of commuter train lines in a number of major Russian cities. It is, in turn, owned by state-run Russian Railroads company.] At present, routes along Belorusskiy, Kazanski, Savyolovskiy, Paveletskiy and Yaroslaviskiy corridors use ED4M series electric trains, which can be easily recognized by their bright-blue decal and the company mascot - a friendly dachshund - place in every train car.
And here some photos of Ded Moroz visiting the train
[The picture of the girl on the window is Snegurachka, Ded Moroz's granddaughter. I've seen her name translated as "Snow Maiden," which isn't quite right, but it captures the meaning well enough]
--
Okay, so it isn't quite like the Holiday Train. But imagine riding the Metra train (or fill in commuter train in your area), thinking it's just another evening commute, when suddenly, a Santa Claus comes in with a sack full of presents. And then he starts handing them out.
Personally, I think it would be pretty cool.
To my Russian (and Russian-speaking) readers - С Новым Годом! To my English-speaking readers - have a Happy New Year! May it be better than the last one. For all our sakes.