holiday lights

Edited to add pictures!

My sister, Amy, loves to drive around and look at Christmas lights. I thought I should post some here for you to see. I will, I promise, but first some musings on Christmas in Russia. While we do have holiday lights, and they are festive, they aren't Christmas lights. We look more like we're in a casino than a winter wonderland. Everything flashes.

I continue to be astounded at how thoroughly the communist government did away with Christmas. I think my opionions on life under communist rule were formed in junior high. That's when I first became fascinated with Russia. Reading Anna Anderson's life story started me reading about the Romanovs. And from there I just kept going.

When did the Sting song come out? It did capture how we felt. We were at the end of the cold war, convinced there was common ground between us and them. But, I think I created more common ground ideologically than there actually was. I put together my own personal inclinations with a heavy dose of American spirit and a dash of Nazi resistance from WWII (another big interest of mine in those days) and created a picture of what I thought life must be like in the Soviet Union.

I didn't think that anyone could actually believe in communism. (Sure, it's great in principle, but since it's executed by imperfect people, it will never work.) I thought people in Soviet Russia knew that and were just playing the game. I thought that agreeing with the government was just self-preservation. I thought people were worshipping in secret. I thought that when the Iron Curtain fell, people would rush to embrace their new-found freedom.

Some of this may be true. But, much of it was not. I remember being on a trip with a girl from China while we were in college who really believed in communism. This blew my mind! And, living here with people who grew up under communism, I 'm astounded by the world view that they have. All of the people who are in power now grew up in Soviet Russia. And, they were the ones who were most strongly inculcated in those beliefs. They didn't know anything different. They had never experienced anything else.

This world view strikes home in many ways, but the lack of Chirstmas makes a huge impression on me. Russian friends tell me often that Christmas is not an important holiday in Russia--that new year's is. And, everytime they tell me, I expect a wink. But I don't get it. Sadly, Christmas really and truly isn't important here. There is no rejoicing for the birth of Christ. There is no wonder, no awe, no peace.

I said when I first came that St. Petersburg reminded me of a gracious lady waking from a long nap with her attendants scurrying around to make her ready for a grand dinner. During the holiday season that gracious lady is nowhere to be seen. The city is all tarted up in a too-tight dress and too-bright lipstick, staggering around on stilettos with a bottle waving in her hand.

This is Nevsky Prospekt. Has anyone read the Gogol story about this street? I avoid Nevsky whenever possible--both on foot and in the car. It's too busy. It's hard to see the lights in this one but they're there.

More lights...but aren't the uplights on the building the prettiest part? St. P looks like a giant music box all winter with these lights on.



That's the Admiralty in the background.



For Tracy, here's Snegoritchka...



...and Dyed Moros..
.
...in the car park in in front of St. Isaac's. (St. Isaac's was the domed cathedral in the last two pictures. I couldn't get a picture of the front of them with St. I's because of all the cars.)



The Hermitage on a misty night. They have the same tree and Dyed Moros that we saw by St. Isaac's in Palace Square. They're also setting up a big sound stage for new year's.



A close-up of the lovely (sarc) decorations adorning the Hermitage.


New Year's lights in front of Peter and Paul fortress (sorry for the blur--night setting)...

...and on a government building. (I don't know what they do there...no one I ask knows.)