Russia has a vibrant culture that is expressed with a variety of celebrations. Russians get to enjoy the holidays of Christmas and New Year twice, thanks to the Julian and Gregorian calendar dates, and they also celebrate many other special occasions not commonly shared by the United States. Name days are one example of celebratons that are observed by many European and Latin American countries, and still highly regarded today by many Russians. Name day celebrations began back in the 1600's with the creation of calendars honoring the many saints of the Orthodox church. The day that a particular saint died came to be known as their feast day. Since many people of that time were named after saints, they would celebrate each other in addition to honoring the saints. With the help of the churches, saints' feasts days became more popular than birthdays and were soon referred to as name days, or angel days. Name day celebrations can be often found in Russian
FOLKLORE, FACTS AND FEATURES ABOUT HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS AROUND THE WORLD