New year tree
A New Year's tree is decorated in a similar way to a Christmas tree and is set up in public places, schools, kindergartens and homes in the week before New Year's Eve. It is part of the New Year celebrations in several cultures and nations, especially in the states of the former Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia , Turkey , China and Vietnam . It should not be confused with the Central European custom of leaving Christmas trees standing over the New Year until the Three Kings Day .
The New Year tree in Russia
The tradition of putting up a Christmas tree in Russia goes back to Tsar Peter the Great , who massively reformed the Russian Church and brought the custom of the Christmas tree with him from his trip through Europe. Tsar Peter also stipulated in 1699 that the beginning of the new year should fall on January 1, 1700 and that this day should be a public holiday. At Christmas he had a Christmas tree put up and decorated and suggested to his subjects that they also put up a Christmas tree or decorate the house and apartment with fir branches. After the October Revolution , these customs changed. The new leadership of the Soviet Union introduced the Gregorian calendar , but the Russian Orthodox Church kept its time according to the Julian calendar and Christmas was postponed to January 7th. Christmas was not officially banned under the new leadership, but the practice of religion was not welcomed, churches were closed and the faithful celebrated very withdrawn. In the 1920s, the Komsomol had led a campaign against the “ bourgeois degeneration” and the “ priest - obscurantism ” of Christian Christmas celebrations and thus strongly pushed back Christmas. In order to suppress the custom of the Christmas tree, it was ridiculed in political caricatures and ridiculed at it.
But since the prescribed atheism of the Soviet Union also wanted a festival in winter, the New Year regained importance; the first New Year tree (Russian новогодняя ёлка novogodnjaja jolka ) was set up in Moscow in 1937 at the House of the Trade Unions and finally New Year was honored as an important festival from 1947 on again with an official holiday. The Christmas tree became the New Year tree.
Pavel Petrovich Postyshev , who published an article in Pravda on December 28, 1936 , thus initiated the “rehabilitation of the Christmas tree”, played a major role in this . In this letter, Postyshev called for “the pleasure of the rich from pre-revolutionary times for all children as a Soviet Christmas tree in public buildings”. There was no decision by the Politburo for this call; Postyshev had personally discussed the "rehabilitation of the Christmas tree", which was picked up across the country, with Stalin. It went hand in hand with a social change: the abolition of ration cards in 1935, the beginning of the production of Russian sparkling wine and the re-approval of jazz and foxtrot.
The most important New Year event in Russia is the Christmas Tree Festival in the Moscow Kremlin . The event is called "The Kremlin Christmas Tree" (in Russian: Кремлёвская Ёлка). It is an event for both children and adults. In the foyer of the palace, Father Frost and his granddaughter Snegurochka greet visitors. You dance around the Christmas tree, there is a game and after the performance there are presents.
The New Year tree in Turkey
The Turkish New Year tree, Yılbaşı Ağacı , is similar to the Christian Christmas tree, but is put up for the New Year. In families, the Christmas tree is decorated on December 31st and Noel Baba (Father Noel) distributes New Year's gifts. The New Year tree can also be found in shopping centers and public places.
New Year trees in Vietnam and China
For the Vietnamese New Year festival, the Tết Nguyên Đán , the most important Vietnamese festival, the New Year tree , the cây nêu , is part of the decoration . It consists of a bamboo tube up to five or six meters long that is bare except for a small tuft at the top. Small fish and bells are attached to a round bamboo frame below the head. These bells are made of clay and ring in the wind. Consecrations and thorny branches are fastened under the frame. The top of the New Year tree is decorated with a kerosene lamp that burns on New Year's night.
Flower buds and flowers symbolize the new beginning. Hoa Mai are yellow apricot blossoms that are used for decoration in South Vietnam and Hao Dao are pink peach blossoms that are used in the cold climate of the north. Bouquets of flowering branches are often marked with small signs wishing good luck. Also decorated kumquats be established.
Decorated kumquats are also found in the southern part of China, Hong Kong, the Guangdong and Guangxi provinces as New Year trees for the Chinese New Year . In Chinese, kumquat means gam gat sue . The word "Gam" rhymes with the Chinese word for gold, and the word "Gat" sounds like the Chinese word for luck. Thus, a kumquat tree symbolizes an "abundance of wealth" and good luck at home. In addition, bamboo and peach bushes are decorated as New Year trees.
Hoa Mai
Hao Dao
Chinese peach tree
decorated kumquats
decorated entrance
Kumquats in front of the Catholic school
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Russia News - Customs: From Christmas Tree to New Year's Fir. In: aktuell.ru. Retrieved December 27, 2017 .
- ^ The New Year celebrations in Russia. (No longer available online.) In: gaertig.at. Archived from the original on December 27, 2017 ; accessed on December 27, 2017 .
- ↑ Radio Free Europe: Елка, фокстрот и шампанское, January 2005
- ^ New Year's Eve and New Years in Moscow - RusslandJournal.de . In: RusslandJournal.de . 2017 ( russlandjournal.de ).
- ↑ Christmas in Turkey: Christmas trees for Muslims . In: stuttgarter-nachrichten.de . ( stuttgarter-nachrichten.de ).
- ^ New year in Turkey: Noel Baba . In: FAZ.NET . 2010, ISSN 0174-4909 ( faz.net ).
- ↑ The Turks also love Christmas. In: tagesspiegel.de. Retrieved December 27, 2017 .
- ↑ Noel Baba: Christmas time in Turkey: Nicholas in Turkish - Qantara.de . In: Qantara.de - Dialogue with the Islamic World . ( qantara.de ).
- ↑ a b Tet - The Vietnamese New Year Festival. In: Unser-vietnam.de. www.unser-vietnam.de, accessed on December 27, 2017 (German).
- ↑ New Year Decorations , the Chinese Spring Festival. In: chinarundreisen.com. Retrieved December 27, 2017 .
