{"id":11819,"date":"2024-12-04T20:02:31","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T18:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/?p=11819"},"modified":"2024-12-04T20:02:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T18:02:35","slug":"russia-day-in-kaliningrad-honours-past-and-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/russia-day-in-kaliningrad-honours-past-and-present\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia Day in Kaliningrad Honours Past and Present"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Commemorate and Celebrate<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

4 December 2024 ~ Russia Day in Kaliningrad Honours Past and Present<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RUSSIA DAY has been celebrated annually on 12 June since 1992. It is the national holiday of the Russian Federation, originally and officially known as the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), but that was a bit of a mouthful, even for Russians, so mercifully it was changed in 1998, so that even I can say it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea that the Russian calendar is dominated by celebrations is not entirely misleading if you factor in everything from music, film, theatre, food, famous people to winter. However, Russia has no more public holidays than most other countries ~ eight, I believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just like Bank Holidays in the UK, most public offices and schools are closed on 12th<\/sup> June. It\u2019s a national day off, with events taking place throughout the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also a chance for Russians to revisit, remind themselves of and celebrate all things Russian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For some people, older people, those who were brought up in the USSR, the day has different significances. For those who bemoan the loss of the Soviet Union, it is a day of fond, if not sad, remembrance; for those who answer \u2018No\u2019 to my question, \u201cDo you miss the Soviet Union?\u201d, it is a day to celebrate pre-Soviet history, the Russia of the here and now and\/or the Russia of the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without mastery of the crystal ball to preview destiny, at least two of these time periods coalesced in Kaliningrad\u2019s 2024 Russian Day festival. Held in the attractive grass and meandering paved precincts bordering K\u00f6nigsberg’s Upper Pond, Russian culture and its past were brought evocatively to life in colourful costumed pageants, tableau vivant and displays of living history. Craft stalls of a multifarious nature plied their trade in traditional hand-made Russian goods, augmented by the up to date and novel to attract the eyes of children and appeal to less retrospective types.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also at hand was costume and fine jewellery, which, If you failed to keep your navigational wits about you, could eventually end up on the hands, around the wrists and upon the neck of your wife or girlfriend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Look, over there! [away from the jewellery stalls]. There\u2019s a very interesting, er, what do you call it, thingymajig.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

June, like most other months of the year, can be temperamental (I knew a girl called June once. Heaven knows why they christened her that, they would better have called her December.), but I am pleased to say that on the twelth day of this June, the clouds rolled back in the heavens, the sun came out to join us and Russia Day in Kaliningrad was a gala day to remember. <\/p>\n\n\n\n