The New Year's pre-holiday mood begins immediately with the appearance of the first snow and the negative temperature established outside. Immediately the smell of spruce appears, the sounds of New Year's songs and pictures from everyone's favorite Soviet films about New Year. Many people begin preparing for the holiday much earlier than a couple of days. And that's true. We create the New Year's mood for ourselves, so it is very important to know what is needed for the New Year and how to prepare for it.

Many people begin their preparation by choosing a clothing style. You need to buy it or select it in advance. However, first you need to know the place where you are going to celebrate, this directly affects the choice of your costume. Perhaps you are going to celebrate the New Year outdoors or in a cozy home environment with a narrow circle of friends and family, or maybe in some expensive restaurant or nightclub. Your outfit should match the holiday, so it is very important to choose a New Year's venue in advance.

Holiday - New Year

The option for spending New Year's Eve directly depends on the type of company with which you are going to celebrate this holiday. But whether it’s a noisy company, your chosen one or your chosen one, you need to decide on the country in which you plan to be at this time. There is a category of people who like to celebrate the New Year abroad. These can be exotic places, snowy mountainous areas or romantic European countries. The following cities and countries are the most popular:

1. Prague, Czech Republic. This is the most popular place to celebrate New Year. There you will find yourself in real New Year's fairy tale. The atmosphere of antiquity and narrow streets will not leave anyone indifferent;
2. Finland. An excellent opportunity to relax with a narrow family circle in a homely atmosphere or outdoors;
3. Paris, France. This place is simply filled with romance a month before the New Year. And perfect for all lovers.
4. Italy is perfect for any company. Daily fireworks, store windows full of colorful lights, incredible sales will not leave anyone indifferent;
5. cruise through the Scandinavian countries. Sweden, Norway, Switzerland are among the most beautiful countries at New Year's time;
6. and if you prefer the scorching sun, sea and sand to frost and snow, then you can go to Thailand, Egypt, Goa or Bali.

If you don’t have extra finances or simply prefer a classic New Year’s Eve celebration within hometown in a noisy company, you can use the following options:

• organize a holiday meeting outside the city. A country cottage or any house that can be rented for one night is suitable for this. Its amount will depend on the size of your company. You can play snowballs or just enjoy the view of the starry sky;
• choose a restaurant as a meeting place for the coming year. This option for celebrating New Year's Eve is perfect for the “lazy”. There is no need to worry about preparing the holiday table and the subsequent mountain of dirty dishes. In addition, in similar establishments V New Year's Eve there are special entertainment programs, which will not make you bored;
• throw a themed party. To do this, you need a free apartment and a truly fun and creative company. You can come up with a lot of competitions and games, design special costumes and even come up with an unusual scenario.

Choosing gifts

Once you have decided on the location of the event, the list of guests and your costume, you need to take care of the gifts. When deciding which gifts are best to buy, many people experience certain difficulties. Everyone wants to surprise their friend or relative with their original and unusual gift. In this case, there is a possibility of making a number of mistakes:

An excellent option would be to present some kind of surprise. This could be a gift presented in an unusual way, or variations on the theme of a pleasant pastime - visiting a restaurant, concert, SPA salon or training courses.

And most a win-win option There will always be a gift that you made yourself. These can be various homemade cards, written poems or ordinary prose expressing your feelings. The main thing is that the gift reflects the emotions that you feel for the person and with which you prepared the surprise.

Decorating the apartment

When decorating a house or apartment, everything is very individual. Many people prefer to simply buy a Christmas tree and decorate it. New Year's toys, someone, in pursuit of the West, performs an incredible amount of manipulation to give their home a spectacular, bright style.

The main attribute of the New Year is the festive tree. This can be a natural tree, purchased at a Christmas tree market, or an artificial one, which can be harmlessly environment use year after year. To give an artificial Christmas tree a natural scent, you can use special aerosols.

When decorating a Christmas tree, it is recommended to use one range of colors. Red or gold may be the most suitable. But in this case, the entire interior must also match. Toys can be either purchased or homemade. If the size of the room does not allow you to install a large spruce, then you can use small branches placed in vases in different corners.

You should also not use a lot of flowers to decorate the room. You can place New Year's compositions in small baskets on shelves and window sills. An original solution would be to use candles, which are best installed at different heights. Nearby you can place fir branches with confetti, cones, and multi-colored balls. The most effective candle colors are also red and gold. And when you light them, you will immediately feel how your home is filled with comfort, warmth and romance.

New Year's table

One more important aspect New Year's Eve is a festive table. You need to know what to set on the table to please as many guests as possible. It's no secret that it's impossible to please everyone.

As a rule, the New Year's table includes a standard set of dishes:

• garnish. Potatoes have always been the most popular here. Therefore, the most win-win option may be mashed potatoes;
• A meat dish should be chosen paying attention to the symbol of the coming year. It is not recommended, for example, in the coming year of this animal;
• several types of salad. Olivier is already firmly entrenched in every second New Year's table. Only herring under a fur coat is equally popular. Therefore, you can choose one of these salads (or both) and try to experiment with other types, of which there are many recipes;

• sliced ​​meat, fish and vegetables. This can be several types of sausages (boiled, dry-cured, raw smoked, etc.), smoked mackerel. In vegetables, preference is given to cucumbers and tomatoes;
• sandwiches. And there is also a huge selection of options. These can be small snacks attached to skewers or toasted slices of bread. It would be useful to prepare sandwiches with butter to slightly delay the effects of alcohol;
• various types of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Here too - who likes it as they like. From vodka to champagne, from compote to carbonated drinks;
• fruit assortment.

And don’t forget that New Year’s Eve plays a very important role in the life of every child. Each of us has always looked forward to this holiday with special impatience because of its atmosphere. Therefore, it is incredibly important to know how to create an atmosphere of comfort and magic in your home.

Everyone wants to celebrate the New Year, receive a huge bag of gifts and eat a portion of Olivier with tangerines. But few people know the basic facts about the New Year and its symbols. But each symbol carries an important meaning, as well as interesting stories.

Father Frost

Birthday good old man wearing a red fur coat is not January 1, as many people think, but November 18. It is on this day that New Year's mail opens. And the kind grandfather begins to prepare a bag of gifts. By the way, the main celebration begins in Veliky Ustyug, where the brothers and relatives of Father Frost come.

On New Year's Eve, everyone wants to see Santa Claus: both adults and children. Children can invite grandpa home, or to a matinee in kindergarten or school. And adults will love it if Santa Claus comes to a corporate party, or to a club where they will celebrate the New Year.

SNOW MAIDEN

Children often ask the question: “Where did Santa Claus get his granddaughter?” And now this terrible secret is revealed. It turns out that the Snow Maiden is the daughter of the Snowman and the Red Spring. It is precisely because of her mother that Snegurochka is so smart and beautiful. But she inherited her dislike for the sun from her father. Therefore, the girl communicates with her mother only in the last days of the passing winter. The girl loves her grandfather very much and always helps him, for example, collecting gifts for obedient children.

SNOWMAN

Incredible but true. The snowman is the son of Father Frost and Snowstorm. Unfortunately, the mother left home and only occasionally comes to visit her son. He will sweep up the snowdrifts on the street and mold his beloved son anew. It is worth noting that despite a difficult childhood without a mother, the Snowman became good father. Raised the cold Snow Maiden to be decent, honest and kind girl. As they say in Russian fairy tales, the snowman doesn’t drink at all, see healthy image life.

Here it is family tree from your favorite New Year's heroes. Everyone has their own behind their back family history. But few people know or remember about it.

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What is needed to celebrate the New Year?

On the threshold of a long weekend, it’s worth thinking about how to spend it so that nothing gets hurt, you don’t get fat, you don’t get sick, and your soul remains happy memories New Year's Eve. You need to prepare yourself a little earlier than the evening of December 31st.

Purpose of the lesson: understand what is needed for a good New Year celebration.

Keywords : New Year, how to celebrate, rules of celebration.

What's the problem?
Somedon't draw conclusions from the annual celebrations. And others take out your own rules that will help you celebrate the New Year well.

Which position is closer to you? First or second?
What about your parents? First or second?
What about your friends? First or second?
A to strangers? First or second?

Material for thought:

The most necessary things for celebrating the New Year are:

1. Mezim. I don't represent any pharmaceutical company, I just really good pills. Only before meals, BEFORE. They won't help after that. All these French Oliviers, excessive assorted meats, non-mink coats, jellied fish, and by the way, not always disgusting, sandwiches with sprats or sprats caviar, and maybe other fish. And it all just sees off old year. Further bigger, fatter, more appetizing. Potatoes, all kinds of salads, and always something like “here’s a new recipe” in order to surprise at the table. All these plans are surprisingly very dangerous, in fact. When, for festive table hear the phrase “new recipe”, look first at the reaction of the discoverer, and then accept the first important decision in the new year.

2. Coal. Preferably activated. Alcohol is such a sloppy thing that in the rush of happiness of the new year you can’t quite control the ppm. And the most dangerous thing is that there are practically no people nearby who could control it. It’s just that everyone has been waiting for so long, let’s go! Very reminiscent of how athletes at the start, and after the shot (in in this case pop of champagne corks) everyone speeds up. And here is a similar situation, if there is a choice of drinks, what is happening becomes n-times more complicated. Of course, having choice in a person's life is wonderful and democratic. If at the beginning of the evening you just mix all the drinks that are available, then for some reason it’s “I don’t mix,” but when it’s all drunk during the night, and from a low degree, then up, then down, then up, then generally it is not clear where absinthe, sambuca, etc. came from. The result is that no one remembers the New Year's Eve. What then is the point of the meeting?

3. Christmas tree.

4. When will you receive gifts?, remember the old truth, not written down by the world, that the main thing is not the gift, but the attention. After all, in fact, you might not have guessed it completely. And if all the wishes coincided with what was received, perhaps the year started just great.

5. TV, according to which they show first “fate” and then “irony”. Naturally, it’s not necessary to watch, or rather it’s not even worth watching at all. But every time you enter the room where this TV is located, you need to know in advance the phrases of the characters and sing along to all the songs. If all this is missing, then you will have to watch the film from beginning to end. And in fact this is not a minus. Music is also important, definitely Gurchenko and “5 Minutes”, Aguzarova “It’s Snowing”, Jingle Bells, George Michael and “Last Christmas”. And here knowledge of words is mandatory. If you don't know, learn in advance.

6. Costumes, tinsel, smiles.

7. Friends. Don't call anyone at 00.10 to congratulate them on the new year. Be with those who are nearby. The rest will wait until the morning, i.e. before lunch, or sometimes even until evening.

Kolesnik Yulia
(adapted)

Questions	Possible answers
Question 1: Which of the above rules do you consider important?	Possible answer 1: I think the first two are to stock up on pills. Otherwise, finding them on New Year’s Eve will be simply unrealistic.
Question 2: What rule (or several) would you add to the list?	Possible answer 1: I would add this: plan the New Year in advance so that it remains in your memories for a long time.
	Possible answer 2: Probably, come up with as many interesting forms of pastime as possible: competitions, karaoke, for example.
Question 3: Why do they say that the most important thing is not the gift, but the attention?	Possible answer 1: Because even if you didn’t like the gift, it’s worth remembering that the person hasn’t forgotten about you. He tried hard, chose a gift with the goal of doing something nice. Sometimes it’s not possible to do something nice, but you shouldn’t openly demonstrate your dissatisfaction with the gift.
	Possible answer 2: This rule is no longer relevant for a long time. After all, it happens that people give something that they have lying around idle. This is neither attention, nor respect, but... an attempt to get away.

Where did the Snow Maiden come from? Why do they decorate the Christmas tree? What does a monkey have to do with 2016? “April” decided to understand the history of our New Year traditions.

However, at first, according to tradition, it was not possible for us to do as in Europe: by 1700, most states switched to Gregorian calendar, and we celebrated in Julian. Therefore, the Russian New Year was delayed by 11 days.

2. Why do we also celebrate the Old New Year?

Precisely because the New Year was initially celebrated in Russia 11 days later, according to the old style. In 1918, when the country switched to the Gregorian calendar by decree of the Council of People's Commissars, a tradition arose to celebrate the Old New Year.

This holiday is also celebrated by residents of Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, the Baltic countries, Serbia, Montenegro, Switzerland and other countries.

3. Why is the Christmas tree decorated for the New Year?

Initially, the spruce was considered a symbol of the Nativity of Christ, which in Russia was celebrated until 1918 on December 25, and later on January 7. According to legend, when all the trees came to worship the infant Christ, the Christmas tree stood modestly in the doorway and did not dare to approach, because it was afraid of pricking the child, and besides pine needles and cones, it had nothing to offer as a gift. Then the rest of the trees hung their fruits, nuts, and flowers on its branches, Christ reached out to the decorated Christmas tree with a smile - and it became a symbol of Christmas.

The first written evidence of decorated Christmas trees dates back to 1605 and says the following: “In Strasbourg, fir trees are brought into houses at Christmas, and roses made of colored paper, apples, waffles, gold foil, sugar and other things are placed on these trees.” .

TO early XIX century, this original German custom became widespread in other countries. But in England, France and the USA, Christmas trees began to be decorated everywhere only in mid-19th century century.

4. How did the tradition of decorating the Christmas tree come to Russia?

The custom of decorating homes with branches of coniferous trees, introduced by Peter I, was forgotten over time, and was revived only in the 19th century, but precisely as a Christmas ritual.

However, in 1929, celebrating Christmas was officially banned in our (already atheistic) country. At that time, special patrols were even common, which looked into windows and entered houses, stopping attempts at festive preparations.

Olivier salad and more - in our article

Later, the Soviet authorities realized what to take from people traditional holiday It just won’t work out that way, so we decided to radically change the meaning of the attributes of Christmas. Therefore, the Christmas tree became a New Year's tree, and its main decoration - the star of Bethlehem - was five-pointed, like on the Kremlin towers.

5. How long has it been a tradition to associate the arrival of the New Year with one of the animals of the Chinese horoscope?

Quite recently. And this phenomenon is connected with the Chinese New Year, which, in fact, comes later than the European one. However, the tradition of celebrating the year of the bull, snake and other animals took hold in the USSR and other countries in the late 1970s.

6. Who is Santa Claus?

In Russia, the creation of the canonical image of Father Frost as the main character of the New Year, and not the Christmas holiday, dates back to the late 1930s.

But the history of Frost as a personified natural element appeared among the Slavs long before the adoption of Christianity. To our ancestors he seemed like a short old man with a long gray beard. He didn’t give gifts, didn’t hang out with the Snow Maiden, and he wasn’t kind at all: he ran through fields and forests and caused bitter frosts by knocking.

The modern Father Frost is an East Slavic version of the Christmas giver. He is depicted as an old man with a long white beard, wearing felt boots and a colored fur coat, with a staff in his hand.

He usually comes to the holiday on three horses and accompanied by his granddaughter Snegurochka. Currently, the image of Father Frost is noticeably replaced by Western European Santa Claus.

7. Who is the Snow Maiden?

The granddaughter of Snegurka, Snezhevinochka or Snegurochka, seemingly always accompanied Father Frost, but their first joint official appearance took place in 1937 in the House of Unions in Moscow.

During the holidays, the Snow Maiden acts as an intermediary between children and Father Frost, and such intermediaries exist not only in the Soviet-Russian tradition. For example, Santa Claus has fairy-tale elves playing the role of assistants, and in Italy, along with the local Santa Claus, there is a full-fledged character - Befana. This little old witch brings all kinds of sweets to children after the New Year.

8. Does Santa Claus always leave gifts under the tree?

In Russia - yes. However, if you don’t find gifts under the New Year’s tree, don’t rush to get upset. Perhaps visited you this year American Santa Klaus left gifts in one of your socks, or the Mexican Papa Noel showed up on your holiday and definitely put something valuable in your shoe.

French Père Noël generally likes to dump gifts down the chimney, so if you have a fireplace, it's worth checking out this option. And don’t forget to check the window sills - that’s where he leaves his New Year's gifts Weihnachtsman from Germany.

Tatyana Barbotina sorted it out

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