•Хохлома
[ khakhlama]

🔻Khokhloma is the 'calling card' of all Russian patterns, the most well-known and recognizable both in Russia and abroad.

🔻Historically  khokhloma was a painting on wood - mainly on dishes and kitchen items, as well as on wooden furniture.

🔻Russian wooden spoons painted with khokhloma are especially famous overseas.

🔻The pattern is always painted on a black background with red, green and gold colours. The main khokhloma motifs are berries and herbs, sometimes the pattern featured birds, as well.

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🎵"Ойся, ты ойся"
a Cossack dance song
"На горе стоял казак"
(a Cossack stood on the mountain).
• Flanking with a saber
• Cossack Lezginka

🔻Казаки [ kazaki ] (The Cossacks) are a predominantly East Slavic Orthodox Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia.

Video by: Ассоциации С (YouTube)

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• Гжель
  [ gzhel' ]

🔻Gzhel is a type of ceramic handicraft. It comes from the village of Gzhel in Moscow Region, where the special clay has been mined for ages.

🔻Porcelain produced from local clay was appreciated even at the court of Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich. In the 19th century, there were dozens of factories in the area, which produced dishes, stove tiles and other ceramic products, as well as toys in the form of animals.

🔻The technique of gzhel is 'majolica' and it features floral ornaments and all in the brand's blue and white colours.

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Жостово
[ zhostava ]

🔻The painting of forged tin trays in the village of Zhostovo in Moscow Region dates back to 1825.

🔻The craft was imported from the Urals by Demidov family - in Tagil, there was already a successful production of painted trays. The local Zhostovo artists, who already painted miniatures on wooden items, were engaged in the production of these trays.

🔻Masters depict both gardens and flowers. They put a drawing with oil paints in several layers, achieving the three-dimensional image.

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• Палехская роспись
  [ palekhskaya rospis' ]

🔻Palekh lacquer miniature is a relatively young folk craft. After the 1917 Revolution, it was taken up by talented artists, former icon painters and masters of temple paintings from the village Palekh in Ivanovo Region.

🔻Artists focused their skills on "ancient painting". They depicted scenes from folk tales and works of literature, using the iconographic techniques.

🔻In the Palekh style, on a black background with bright red and gold colours, artists now paint mostly decorative items: often jewelry caskets or small souvenirs.

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• Баня
  [ banya ]

🔻Since old times, steam baths, or banya, like they are called in Russia, were believed to be the place not only for body, but for soul purification as well.

🔻People thought that banya helped to kill evil spirits, because it united all the four elements in one — fire, water, air, and earth.

🔻There is a common opinion that Russian banya is the most ancient in the world. It was mentioned in the old manuscripts of the 11th century.

🔻Traditionally, Russian banya is made of wood, preferably of conifers. 

🔻The average temperature of the room is maintained around 70 to 80 degrees Celsius with some people even taking it to 100 degrees Celsius.

🔻People who take banya should whip each other with a birch/oak broom heavily, and after that go outside to jump into a snowdrift, or in an ice-hole, for tempering the organism.

❓Would you risk it?

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• Poждество
  [ razhdistvo ]
  Christmas

• Coчельник
  [ sachel'nik ]
  Christmas Eve

🔻In the Russian Empire, Christmas was celebrated at the state level.

🔻In the Soviet Union, until 1929, Christmas was a public holiday and a day off and was celebrated according to the Gregorian calendar, but after the weekends on religious holidays were abolished, most Christmas customs (like a fir tree and gifts) were transferred to the New Year celebration.

🔻Once again, Christmas Day became a day off in 1991.

🔻Nowadays Christmas is more a religious holiday, when Orthodox Сhristians go to church.

🔻However, this holiday is still loved by ordinary Russians. A quiet dinner with the family and visiting relatives are the most common ways of celebrating it.

С Рождеством! 💕🙏🎄

Videos: etours_Russia
Music: Александр Кэтлин "Рождественское чудо"

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• Старый Новый Год
  [ staryj  novyj got ]

🎄The Old New Year, or the Orthodox New Year, is an informal traditional holiday, celebrated on January 14 as the start of the New Year by the Julian calendar.

🎄In 1918, the Bolshevik government decided to change the calendar. Tsarist Russia lived according to the Julian calendar, and Europe lived according to the Gregorian calendar. The difference between the two counting systems was 13 days and created inconvenience for conducting international political and economic affairs and led to funny incidents in everyday life. For example, judging by the dates on the postmarks, it turned out that the telegram was received in Europe several days earlier than it was sent in Russia.

🎄In Russia, according to statistics, the Old New Year is celebrated by about half of the country's population, gathering at the festive table.

🥂 Ну, за Старый Новый Год!

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• Оренбургский платок
  [a-ren-bur-skiy pla-tok]
  Orengurg shawl

🔻This type of finely knit, down-hair lace shawl originated in the Orenburg area about 250 years ago, in the 18th century. The Orenburg region of Russia is famous for its shawls, known as Orenburg shawls "Orenburgskyi Platok" in Russian.

🔻In the English-speaking world, they are often called "wedding ring shawls" because, although the shawls are quite large, a shawl knit in the traditional fashion is so fine that it can be pulled through a wedding ring.

🔻A quality shawl is knitted from hand-spun yarn: the knitter will spin a strong down hair yarn and then ply it with commercially spun silk thread. It usually takes a month or more to knit a large shawl or a kerchief with a pattern.

🔻Because of the high cost of down hair and yarn, an original hand-made Orenburg shawl is an expensive luxury item.

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• Блин (блины)
  [blin bli-ny]
  (Thin) Russian pakcake(s), blin(i)

🔻 Today is the beginning of Butter or Cheese-fare Week: a week before popular Russian holiday Maslenitsа (Shrovetide) after which Great Lent starts .

🔻During the week of Maslenitsa, meat is already forbidden to Orthodox Christians, and it is the last week during which eggs, milk, cheese and other dairy products are permitted, leading to its name of "Cheese-fare week" or "Crepe week". So, thin pancakes are the most common treat during this week.

🔻After the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the following state atheism in the Soviet Union, public Maslenitsa celebrations became even less common.

🔻After the start of perestroika and fall of the Soviet Union in the 1980s and 1990s, large outdoor celebrations began to be startеd up again, and much of the older Maslenitsa traditions began to be revived in a modern context.

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