Webquiz Task

You are Tom, an American teenager. You got a text from your Russian pen pal, Dima, who you asked to write about his favourite holiday.

Read Dima’s text and write a reply how the holiday he wrote about is celebrated in the United States.

Pay attention to different aspects of the holiday mentioned in the text and base your reply on them.

Hi, Tom. My favourite holiday is called Noviy God. Actually, it is a favourite holiday of a lot of my Russians. Noviy God is very popular and is also one of the main holidays in Russia.



Noviy God literally means “new year” and is celebrated on December, 31st. Actually, we love Noviy God so much that we celebrate it twice a year. The second holiday is called Stariy Noviy God that means “old new year.” It may sound as an oxymoron but it has a perfect explanation. Unlike Noviy God, Stariy Noviy God is an unofficial holiday and is celebrated 14 days after Noviy God because Russian Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar and before 1918 Russian Empire used it and not the Gregorian one.



About two or three weeks before the holiday people start setting up real or artificial fir trees in their houses. People use tinsel, Christmas lights and ornaments to decorate their fir. Decorated fir trees and different decorations start appearing on main squares throughout cities, shopping centers and other public places. In kindergartens and elementary schools Yolka events are held: kids dress up as fairytale characters and get sweets as gifts.



When December, 31st comes, people dress up in their best clothes (in many cases the decision what to wear is made according to the colours of the upcoming year’s symbol in Chinese tradition) and gather together with their families, friends, or loved ones. Television plays a huge role during Noviy God. People watch their favourite soviet movies such as Irony of Fate or The Carnaval Night. In the Soviet Union people would watch Little Blue Light, a New Year’s special TV program, where prominent Soviet sang songs and celebrated the beginning of a new year. In modern Russia the president’s New Year address is broadcast five minutes before the Kremlin’s clock strikes twelve times. That means the new year’s finally come as has his personification: Ded Moroz (Grandpa Frost). Ded Moroz lives in a city of Veliky Ustyug in Vologra region where Russian kids from all over the country send letters to all year round. Although Russia is so big that apart from Ded Moroz’s granddaughter, Snegurochka, we actually have about 16 other Ded Morozs, mostly from national republics in Russia. They all consider each other cousins and visit each other pretty frequently.



Considering that winter holidays after Noviy God usually last about ten days, people can often be heard half-jokingly complaining that they’ve gained weight from all the food they prepared for the celebration. Indeed, there are so many dishes on the holiday table that people usually consume the last leftovers by the time they have to start working again. Yet the food that associates with Noviy God the most doesn’t have to be prepared and the word is tangerines. Surprisingly, no soup is present but there are a lot of salads such as Olivier, herring under the fur coat, vinaigrette, mimosa, and crab meat salad. There’s also a place for kholodets and caviar. Adults drink champagne. There’s a belief that if one manages to write down a wish on a piece of paper, burn it, mix it with champagne and drink it during the striking of Kremlin’s clock this wish will come true.



I think that’s about it. Looking forward to hearing the way the New Year is celebrated in the States.

Read, determine the topics, and list them.

Research: find similar information on the New Year in the United States.

Put together: combine the information you’ve discovered into a comprehensible reply.

This task is meant to teach students to think autonomously, develop their attentiveness, look for and process information on given topics, and work on their own using the template.