The First New Year Day

Hello and a very Happy New Year to everyone here! Today is New Year’s Day! We hope 2014 will be a perfect year for you, your families and relatives, your friends. May the year of 2014 be bright and colorful, full of happiness and health, joy and wealth in your life! May this year make your dreams come true! If you are dreaming about true love and a wonderful life partner, it’s time to start your new life with a loving and gorgeous Russian lady right now. We wish you to be successful in overcoming this romantic challenge!
What are the winter Christmas holidays like in Ukraine? The day of January 1^st is traditionally considered to be “a hard day”. The Presidential speech, toast raising, Christmas gifts and presents’ opening, fireworks in the sky are over. People were eating, drinking (a lot of!!! It’s a quite national sporting here), singing, dancing and having fun the whole night long. So the first of January is traditionally believed the day of rest after celebrating. In the late afternoon the Russians visit their friends and relatives in order to wish them a happy new year. It’s a time for partying, going to restaurants, visiting more and more friends, family indoor activities (New Year is a mostly family holiday in the countries of the former Soviet Union).
Besides that, there is an interesting New Year custom in Ukraine. Children in costumes travel from house to house in order to congratulate lodgers with the New Year and Christmas holidays. They go from house to house carol-singing; wish all that is best on earth and sprinkling wheat grains the lodgers so that they would have wealth and health in the new year. The lodgers are expected to give children copper coins (cash and banknotes are also welcome), cakes and candies. In fact, this custom is something like trick-or-treating in the USA. So don’t be surprised if the doorbell rang and some children appeared in the doorway would begin to carol. They just want to wish you a happy New Year!