World

Happy (Old) New Year

January 12, 2001 / 2:32 PM EST / AP

As the holiday season winds down in most of the world, Russians have one more day of revelry and a few bottles of vodka to savor this weekend, at a celebration marking Old New Year's Eve.

The paradoxical-sounding holiday commemorates the coming of the new year according to the Julian calendar, on the night of Jan. 13 to Jan. 14.

Some love the day, others barely notice it. For women, it's a chance to practice an old Russian fortune-telling favorite — guessing the identity of their future husbands.

Old New Year's Eve has gained importance among Russia's growing number of Orthodox Christian believers, who returned to the church after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The holiday is celebrated only in Russia and some former Soviet republics, including Belarus and Ukraine, where the Julian calendar, which lags behind its Western counterpart by 14 days, was used until the 1917 Russian revolution.

The reason for the discrepancy is a small mathematical error by the Julian calendar's Roman authors when it was introduced in 46 B.C. — an oversight corrected in the West in 1582 with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar.

The Julian calendar was discarded after the Bolshevik takeover so Russia would be in sync with the rest of the world, but it was retained by the Russian Orthodox Church for religious holidays.

Valery Mordasov, a 56-year-old Moscow resident, said he plans to celebrate Old New Year's with friends at a table laden with traditional Russian snacks: dollops of glistening red salmon caviar, bowls brimming with salad made from pickles and boiled potatoes.

Champagne, wine and vodka are also in order, he said. They will toast at midnight, just as most people do on New Year's Eve.

Lilia Doroshuk, 20, said in the past she has spent the night gazing at the reflection of a candle in a mirror while sitting in a dark room. If she looked long enough, she said, she might glimpse the face of her future husband in the reflection.

But the magic can go horribly wrong, Doroshuk warned, only half in jest. The mirror can instead show the manner of the gazer's own death. In that case, she would have to quickly yell, "Out Devil!" to try to escape this fate.

Using another fortune-telling trick, a young woman can run into the street at midnight on Old New Year's Eve. The name of the first man she meets will be the name of her future husband. Many other methods of fortune-telling also exist.

"I've tried all this, and I'm still not married," Doroshuk said with a pout, brushing long brunette hair from her face, rosy from the frost. "It's just silly." This year, she plans instead to go to a restaurant with friends.

The holiday is not religious, but serves as a substitute for the real New Year's Eve on Dec. 31, which falls during a strict religious fast a week prior to Orthodox Christmas, said the Rev. Antony Ilyin, a church spokesman.

Believers who observe the Nov. 28 to Jan. 6 fast can celebrate Old New Year's Eve with gusto, Ilyin said.

"It's a real trial for believers," he said, noting that the fast forbids meat, milk and excessive amounts of alcohol, and was called for under the old calendar. "The problem is, we live by two calendars."