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№7 December 2009

Your monthly guide to what’s happening in and around Bishkek

December 2009

The Spektator

www.thespektator.co.uk

This Month

Just

don’t call me

Santa!

Season’s greetings! Your avourite Bishkek monthlyis back and brimming with tongue-in-cheek yule-tide cheer. Starting with the lowdown on DedMaroz, Russia and Central Asia’s main estive celeb-rity, we’ve got a host o turkey-basting articles tolit your winter-sapped spirits. Enjoy!

ED MAROZ,

the pre-eminent per-sonage o the Russian New Year, is asurvivor. From his pagan roots via thesuocating Christian piety o the tsar-ist period, beyond the state enorcedatheism o the Soviet Union and up to the presentday, he has prevailed. He has been portrayed as theseasonal rieze on people’s window panes, a cruelunsmiling ace in the sky. He has been made to look less like Santa Claus, more like Santa Claus, purgedand provided with a homeland. But like Clint East-wood and

the Spektator,

Ded Maroz is very muchalive and well, and it would be a ool that mentionsFather Christmas in his presence.

Authoritarian Streak

A ar cry rom the rosy-cheeked, git giving old manthat shares so many o St Nicholas’ traits, Ded Marozwas originally devolved rom a series o Slavic Godswhose terrible cruelty is still recounted in Eurasianolklore today.

Pozvizd

, who determined both goodand bad weather,

Zimnik,

who had a solely wintermandate and

Korochun,

who governed the lethalrosts o the Siberian steppe, all let their mark onthe original Ded. Unlike the Western ‘Jack Frost‘, a pe-ripheral gure with a limited capacity or real harm,Ded Maroz rarely messed around. As late as 1812, hewas credited with wiping out an entire army as thetroops o Napoleon Bonaparte perished during theirill-ated invasion o Russia, a campaign unravelled bythe ‘coldest winter in living memory’. In doing so, hisname took on a more reverent quality. For destroyingan enemy that had initially seemed invincible, Dedwas toasted across the width and breadth o the Rus-sian Empire. He had deended the Tsar’s people withone long, unstoppable mood swing.Although Ded Maroz remained a rather austerepresence in Russian olklore, it gradually becameclear that his character was on the mend. A tale thathad been doing the rounds or some time, trans-lated and published in Verra de Blumenthal’s ‘Talesrom the Russians’ in 1903, demonstrated that Dedgiveth as well as taketh away. Once upon a time, itis told, a wicked stepmother ordered her husbandto take his blood daughter into the sub-zero wil-derness where she was then expected to die. Hen-pecked and in search o a quiet lie, the husbandobeyed, weeping all the way to the wide, barrenelds where he let her to her ate. The young girlprayed and prayed with all her might as she trem-bled and shook, until Ded Maroz, the sovereign o this hapless wasteland, emerged rom the wintermists. “Does thou know me, the red nosed rost?”he asked the girl. The girl in turn addressed ‘DearFather Frost’ in terms o the utmost respect, andcharmed by both her pleasant appearance andmanners in the ace o adversity, he showered herwith gits - a thick, warm, sequin laced coat and atreasure chest brimming with expensive goodies.Expecting him to return with a corpse, thegirl’s stepmother sent her husband back to thewilderness to see what had become o her. Despitethe intervention o a talking dog, who wagged histail and repeatedly inormed her that all was wellchez Maroz, the wicked woman continued to pre-pare a east or the young girl’s uneral. When herhusband returned overloaded with presents, hisdaughter dressed in all sorts o neries, the old hagwas livid. Immediately, she dispatched him oncemore to the wide, barren elds, this time with herown daughter, in order to reap some material gainrom this unhappy state o aairs. Unortunately,her own spawn was neither as beautiul or politeas her stepdaughter, and on making acquaintancewith Ded Maroz she made the rather elementarymistake o reprimanding him. “Can’t you see I’mreezing with cold, you stupid old man?” she yelled.Ded Maroz took the rebuke personally and rozethe stupid girl to death.

Repression and Renaissance

By the time o the October Revolution, Ded Marozhad begun to resemble his Western counterpartsin both looks and character. He wore a red catan,sported a white beard and rarely appeared withouthis reindeers. Moreover, he’d become inextricablyassociated with Christmas rather than just winter

per se.

World War I had represented a lean periodor Ded, as his similarities with the German SantaKlaus who appeared at

Weinachten

were all too ap-

Did You Know?

Overshadowed by New Year in terms o impor-tance, the Russian Orthodox Christmas takesplace on January 7th, a date determined by theOrthodox Church’s continued attachment to theJulian Calendar. Ater 1582, the Julian Calendarhad been made obsolete in Europe by PopeGregory, who cast into a void the best part o two weeks that the calendar had accumulated,due to it gaining 11 minutes and 14 seconds onthe solar year every year or one and a hal mil-lennia. The Gregorian Calendar was accepted inRussia in the early 1900s but Christmas was stillpegged 13 days ahead o the Gregorian 25thDecember, and is celebrated as i the changenever occurred.· The Gregorian Calendar is so accurate that itwill take until the year 4316 to gain a whole dayon the sun, which we think is very cool.· Kyrgyzstan was judged the best possible lo-cation or Santa Claus to base his headquartersby a Swedish Logistics rm in 2007. Ocials inthe Kyrgyz Tourism Ministry immediately leapton the idea to make 2008 ‘the year o SantaClaus‘. The big man had a mountain namedater him and Alatoo Square hosted a ‘Festivalo World Santa Clauses’ in February 2009. TheSpektator cannot conrm whether or not DedMaroz was in attendance.

Visit vologda-oblast.ru to nd out how to pay avisit to Ded Maroz’s home in Veliky Ustuyg.

CHRIS RICKLETON