Красные дни календаря

Red Days of the Calendar

A2 · Elementary · non-fiction · 10 scenes · Premium story

An elementary reader on Russia's fourteen public holidays, each set beside its nearest Western equivalent. Why New Year and not Christmas is the great winter festival, why January has eight days off, what happens on the twenty-third of February and the eighth of March, and why the best-loved days — Maslenitsa, Easter, the Old New Year — are not official at all.

Read Красные дни календаря in Russian

Characters

New Year (Новый год) — The biggest one
Grandfather Frost (Дед Мороз) — Brings the presents
The ninth of May (Девятое мая) — The most serious day
Maslenitsa (Масленица) — A week of pancakes

Vocabulary from this story

праздник — holiday
выходной — day off
каникулы — vacation
день — day
календарь — calendar
Рождество — Christmas
Пасха — Easter
Масленица — Maslenitsa
парад — parade
салют — fireworks
концерт — concert
демонстрация — demonstration