On 14.012022, the Russian Center in Bratislava hosted a conversation club on the topic “Your own rules for Christmas-tide” online.The festive meeting was attended by representatives of public organizations, compatriots with children, teachers of Slovak and Russian educational institutions with their students, students of Russian language courses at the Russian Center in Bratislava.
Christmas time is one of the most revered and beloved holidays in Russia, which lasts twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany. On Christmas evenings, young people have fun from the heart, arrange carols and fortune-telling.
This period is considered the time when the border between the world of people and the other world becomes so thin that with the help of special rituals - fortune-telling - you can find out your future and the fate of your family members.
Christmas time is reflected in Russian literature and painting. Taking the opportunity, the teachers of the Russian Center introduced the participants of the meeting to films and literary works, which will describe Christmas rituals. At the meeting, they talked about sleigh rides, about Russian folklore, about Russian painting, in which artists depicted mysterious rites of divination. We got acquainted with the paintings of such great masters as Y. Sergeev “Fortune-telling on the betrothed. Christmas time”, K. Makovsky “Christmas fortune-telling”, K. Trutovsky “Christmas festivities”, K. Korovin. "Christmas festivities". Of particular interest was the work of K. Bryullov "Guessing Svetlana".
At the meeting, the participants not only got acquainted with an interesting folk tradition, but also had the opportunity to play divination with wax candles. The predictions were comic and depended on the imagination of the participants.