Welcome to 2008, everyone! New Year's is a major holiday here, thanks to the Soviet experience when all the midwinter festivities were moved onto December 31. It is sort of like a secular family Christmas mashed up with western-style revelry.
The family gathered at about 10 p.m. to exchange gifts beside the tree, making sure to wear something new. Mila wore a her dress from China that our friend Natasha gave her after a business trip there. Then we sat down to a big table of salads and cold cuts and popped open a bottle of Sovietskoye Champagne.
Then we waited for the President's speech just before midnight, and then watched as Spassky Tower counted in the first hour of the new year. It was a strange thing to see: I'd always imagined the telecast would be sort of like the broadcasts from Times Square that I'm used to, with lots of revelers and noise and mayhem. But on Russian t.v., it was all incredibly subdued. After the clock chimed, they showed stock footage of the Kremlin and St. Basil's in the dead of night while the National Anthem played. And that was that.
All night though, the air was filled with the sounds of fireworks, to the extent that it sounded like a war zone and we were convinced Mila would wake up every few minutes. She was tired enough though that she made it through. We went out for a walk New Year's Day (the sun came out again for awhile!) and found the park full of the detritus of a noisy celebration, including a dumpster full of spent fireworks. But mostly we just spent the day in, ate leftovers, and for a little while watched Alla Pugacheva's "Song of the Year" of Rossiya Channel, a recap of all the "hits" of 2007 in all their lip-synched splendor.
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