The 1st of January is declared a holiday and a day off

Ancient people usually timed the New Year celebration for the month of March, the beginning of nature revival. In Russia until the end of the 15th century the New Year was celebrated exactly the same time relating it with the beginning of the field work.

In 1492 the grand duke Ivan III approved the decision of Moscow church council regarding the transfer of the New Year beginning from the 1st of March to the 1st of September. However the chronology reform was not carried out completely.

The last time the New Year was celebrated on the 1st of September in 1698. On December 20 (30), 1699 Peter I issued a personal decree “On New Year celebration”. According to this decree the years should be calculated not “since the creation of the world” but from the nativity of Christ, and the New Year should be started not from the 1st of September, but from the 1st of January, like in the majority of European countries.

On the day of the 1st January, when according to the old chronology the year was 7208, according to a new chronology began the year of 1700. According to the government direction, the New Year celebrations lasted from January 1 to 7. “The great sovereign ordered to say: He, the Great Majestry, knows that not only in many European Christian countries, but also among Slavic people who are in full accordance with the East Orthodox Church, such as Valaques, Moldavians, Serbs, Dalmatae, Bulgarians and the most subjects of His Great Majesty – Circassians and Greeks whom we have taken our orthodox faith from, all of them count their years since the nativity of Christ eight days later, so to say from the 1st of January, and not since the creation of the world, so that now it is the year of 1699 since the nativity of Christ and the next 1st January will come the new year of 1700 thus a new century…”.

The Peter’s decree also stated: “…the nobles and ecclesiastics should make decorations of pine trees and juniper branches along big and passable streets and in front the gates… as to the poor people, each should at least place a small tree or a branch on the gates or on the house…”.  After the reform of Peter, Russia continued to celebrate the church New Year on the 1st of September, and the 1st of January was considered a mundane holiday.

Right after the October revolution, on November 16 (19), 1917 the Soviet of the Peoples’ Commissars headed by Lenin considered the issue regarding the transfer to a new time calculation. On January 24 (February 6), 1918 it was approved a decree “On introduction of the West-European calendar in the Russian republic”. Trying to dissociate from the old traditions, the Soviet rule abolished in 1929 the Christmas and New Year celebration as well as the priest’s custom to decorate a pine.

The prohibition to celebrate the New Year holidays lasted only for 6 years. Already in the end of 1934 Stalin personally instructed to restore the New Year holiday for people. In December of 1934 the main newspaper of Russia “Pravda” published an article of the Central Committee Secretary of the all-Russian Communist Party, Pavel Postyshev, “Let’s organize a nice New Year tree for children!”. Thus the New Year tradition was revived as a children’s holiday.

On December 23, 1947 under the Decree of the Supreme Soviet Presidium of the USSR, the 1st of January was declared a holiday and a day off.

The New Year holiday came to us from the ancient times; as the time passed, the traditions and customs changed, as well as the attitude toward it. However the New Year still remains the favorite and long awaited festival.

Lit.: Иванов Е. Новый год и Рождество в открытках. СПб., 2000; Президиум Верховного Совета СССР. Указ от 23 декабря 1947 г. «Об объявлении 1 января нерабочим днём» // Сборник законов СССР и указов Президиума Верховного Совета СССР. 1938 г. — июль 1956 г / под ред. к. ю. н. Мандельштам Ю. И. М., 1956. С. 376.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Полное собрание законов Российской империи, с 1649 года.  СПб., 1830. Т. 3: 1689-1699. № 1736. С. 681.