New year’s in Russia explained + trying traditional foods

Hello and welcome back to my channel, or welcome if you are new here. My name is Nastya and we are currently in Russia. Today's video gonna be a very special edition. New Year's coming soon, and if you don't know, in Russia New Year is the main holiday. We don't celebrate any other holiday that much. For us New Year is as important as Christmas for you. We do have our Christmas, it's on 7th of January, our Orthodox Christmas, but not everyone celebrates it. Russia is very multicultural country, on the other hand everyone celebrates New Year. Another reason for why New Year is more celebrated than Christmas is that during the Soviet times officially Christmas was not celebrated, but people really need some kind of festivity, and therefore the ruling power at the time announced New Year as the main holiday, and it really became so, people take it very close to their hearts and are celebrating this day with whole power. So in this video I would like to share with you our New Year's tradition, what do Russians actually do for New Year's, and as well in the second part of the video I will be trying traditional Russian foods that we are preparing specially for New Year's table, so stay tuned for this, that's gonna be really fun. Oh, by the way, I'm in my full glam, if you didn't notice, to go absolutely nowhere, I dressed and made all this makeup specially for this video for you guys, so you better hit this like button. So, speaking of New Year's tradition, the first thing which every Russian would do for New Year's, actually the day before, we would clean our apartment, we will make it really clean, like pristine clean, I think it's done to not metaphorically take old baggage with you to the New Year, to get rid of everything unnecessary and go to New Year with the clean slate, sort of. As well before celebrating New Year you should clean yourself really well, many Russians would even go to banya, which is Russian sauna, where you steam yourself, you even beat yourself with certain dry leaves and you kind of unclog your pores and get rid of all the toxins, so you're gonna be extra clean for New Year. Next thing, of course, New Year's table, we are taking our New Year's table very seriously, and I bet on every Russian's New Year's table you would find certain dishes which are never missed for New Year's, but we will talk about them a little bit later. New Year's in Russia is a family celebration, we don't really go party outside, it's usually always indoors with your family and maybe some really close friends, so we would prepare a big table in our living room, we would arrange everything really nice, we would cook all day for it, cutting our salads. Yeah, salads on the Russian table probably is the most important thing, we have many many salads, and if you think about salad as lettuce and fresh cucumbers, you are very wrong, that is not Russian salad. Russian salad is a mix of everything possible, mostly it's like boiled vegetables, meats, mayo, definitely a lot of mayonnaise, and we don't really have too much fresh stuff on the table. The reason for this is also because during the Soviet times we kind of have a deficit of food, and people didn't really have access to all the fresh foods, so either they had boiled vegetables or conserves or, you know, something that can be cooked, but they made such a great job in constructing an incredibly tasty dishes from these limited resources they had back then, so people still love them, love these dishes and continue to make them, even though now we have abundance of everything. So, going back to preparation During the day we will be cooking, we will be cutting all our salads while watching old Soviet New Year's movies, and they are the best, let me tell you, they are just so good and nice and kind, they just make you feel in peace, I guess. Those are movies like Irony of Destiny, I'm pretty sure I saw this movie on YouTube with the English translation, it's about a group of guys who went to Banya before New Year's Eve, and they got really, really drunk, and the main guy, the main character by mistake went to Leningrad instead of another guy, and because back then all the houses and apartments looked pretty much the same, so he confused this apartment in Leningrad with his apartment in Moscow, and of course another lady was living there, so she comes home just to see some drunk stranger in her apartment, and of course by the end of the movie they fall in love, but before that there was a lot of comic situations happening, and it's done just in really, really kind way and with really great cinematography and actor's job, so highly recommend. So, we would watch these movies while cutting our salads, then the guests will slowly arrive, all the family members will gather together, and we will sit by the table and start eating, laughing, playing, singing, whatever people are doing on celebrations, all this while our TV is on, on New Year's Eve, there are a lot of New Year's programs which are really festive, oh, of course we will have our Yolka, our Christmas tree, we decorate it for New Year's, not only in our homes, they would decorate Christmas tree in kindergarten, sometimes at school, and all the kids would have their celebration in kindergarten as well, and they will dress really funny, if I will find, I will throw some pictures from my childhood, how I was dressed on New Year's Yolka in my kindergarten, also we have our own version of Santa, we call Father Frost, and he has a great-granddaughter Snegurechka, which kind of helps him, so they're supposed to put gifts under the tree, and then the kids will discover them, but not the next day, they would discover them like after midnight, because he would come at midnight, yeah, so when midnight is approaching, the whole country would pay special attention to TV, because we would always have the speech of the president about 10 minutes before New Year, everyone would listen to it, and then comes the chimes, the Kremlin chimes on television, during these times when chimes are beating, you should make a wish, your New Year's wish, ideally you should write it on a little piece of paper, and then you burn it, and the ashes should go to your glass of champagne, and during this minute when the chimes are beating, you should drink your champagne, and that will guarantee your wish come true, then there is a national anthem on TV, and everyone says Happy New Year, Новым годом, congratulates each other, then starting to give gifts for kids, for everyone, yeah, by this time everyone is already pretty full, and someone is drunk, and then many people would go outside with fireworks or these Bengal fires, not sure how it's in English, these sparkling little fires on the stick, and they would go outside, they would play and slide from ice mountains, and just, you know, shake all the food they eaten, yeah, because that was like kind of a lot, and everything was mixed, yeah, and that's pretty much the New Year's, hope I didn't forget anything, if there are Russians watching it, please comment what did I forget, and now comes the most fun part, me trying the traditional New Year's Russian foods, brace yourself, so I have this little New Year's party just for myself, that's fun, and what should we start with? Okay, I think we should start with the king of every Russian's New Year's table, it's Olivier salad, here it is, sometimes we also call it winter salad, it contains boiled potatoes, some sort of meat, whatever your budget is, ideally beef, but also it can be some kind of ham, then boiled carrots, eggs, pickled cucumbers, optionally the peas, and everything is glued with mayo, it's so simple, yet so delicious, I will try it right now, oh, just got an idea, I will rate all the New Year's dishes on the scale from one to ten, when ten is the best, eight and a half, next comes something a little bit strange for you, I bet, it's called herring under the fur coat, it's also a salad, and unfortunately mine got kind of turned on the side, but the idea of the salad is that it has layers, so the first layer is herring, then goes onions, carrots, and finally beets, and between each layer you should also put mayonnaise, and then cover everything with mayonnaise, and so hence the name, it says herring under fur coat, so it's kind of herring dressed in the coat, I know that sounds crazy, but it's kind of tasty as well, so let's try it out, to be honest I didn't like it that much before, and usually people make it just for New Year's Eve and don't make it through the rest of the year, so now when I'm trying it, it tastes so good, so so good, I personally made it just once in my life, to be honest, because first I didn't like it that much before, and second because it's such a pain in the ass to make it, let me tell you, because herring has too many bones, and to make it first you need to debone the herring, it's just too time-consuming, and then everything smells with this herring, and so... but my mom, for example, likes to have fun with herring, so she usually makes this salad. What to go next? Okay, so it will be ЗАЛИВНОЕ. ЗАЛИВНОЕ is a meat jelly, so to say, imagine some kind of broth, a soup slash broth, and it will be jellified, so it tastes pretty much like this, and I know the foreigners find it really creepy, but I mean you like soup, so why not to eat it in the form of jelly? Here is beef, carrots, eggs, some greens, and just for decoration some cranberries. Oh, did I rate the herring under the per code? I would give it a 9 this time, but let's see how the jelly tastes. I love ЗАЛИВНОЕ, I always liked it, it tastes like New Year, would give it 8.5 as well. Oh, actually my mom also made a second version of it, and you're actually supposed to take it out of the forms when you made it, and put it on the plate like this, and it will be jingly and funny, so I'm not sure if this one is any different, but I will try it anyway I think let's see. Next thing which I'm kind of missing here is pickles. We would always have pickles on our table, which our grannies would do in the summer with our garden veggies, also because in the winter we would not have access to veggies in the soviet times. I don't have pickles right now, but everyone would have cucumbers, tomatoes for sure, but what I have here is pickled mushrooms. I think those are called ЛИСИЧКИ, which translates as little foxes. They are pickled with some onions here, and I will give it a try. Only because I bought it in the store, it was not made by my granny, my granny's pickles are much much better and tastier, and they are also organic obviously. I would give it a 7. Oh, forgot to mention, speaking of the fresh fruits, our traditional fruit for New Year is a tangerine. It's like when you say New Year, you say tangerines, when you say tangerines, you say New Year, so everyone would have tangerines on their New Year's table, and the whole room will smell with tangerines, and people automatically associate this smell with New Year, so tangerine. I will not rate them, because you probably know how tangerines are tasting. Then we'll have another salad. We would have a plenty of salad, and every family would make some of their own, but definitely each family would have olivier and herring under the fur coat, and this one is the salad with beef tongue. It consists of beef tongue, eggs, cheese, tomatoes on top, some unnecessary lettuce, mayonnaise. Not sure what else, I will try it. It's like 9.5, guys. For those who never tried beef tongue, you would probably say beef tongue, but beef tongue, in my opinion, is one of the tastiest meats ever, arguably, but try it out, boiled beef tongue, it's just fantastic, it's so tender, and it tastes fantastic, and in the salad it goes so smooth and gentle, and just, I don't know, it just really really makes sense, this salad. Okay, the last thing which we have here is more herring, this time it's just cut like this on slices, I guess it's because you have leftover from your herring for the fur coat, or not, I don't know, maybe some people just love herring too much. Usually, traditionally, we would cut herring, we would also cut onions, and we would eat it with potatoes. Here are some fried village potatoes, but usually it would be boiled potatoes, the small ones, and we will cover everything with melted butter, and put dill on top, and salt, and maybe some pepper, and parsley. Honestly, I haven't had it for a very long time, so I'm gonna give it a try, I don't have fork here. Well, I get people who likes it, for me it's a little bit hardcore, just the taste of the herring separately from everything is very very strong. Usually, you know, the tough Russian men would eat it while drinking their vodka or not, but probably it's not what I would eat during my New Year celebration, so I would give it six and a half, but once again, it is tasty, but it's just not for me. So, that was it for the foods, of course, I'm pretty sure I was missing few things, like, for example, some cuts of delimits, or some other side dishes, like, for example, cuts of tomatoes with a mix of cheese, garlic, and mayo on top, and maybe a few other things. Also, dear Russians, please, let me know what I missed. Also, I forgot to mention regarding the New Year's Russian traditions, I don't know why, but somehow we also adopted a Chinese zodiac calendar here, and Russian really makes a big deal with what kind of year gonna come next, for example, this year, the 2025, it was the year of snake, if I'm not mistaken, correct me if I'm wrong, but anyway, the one which is coming, 2026, is the year of the horse, and not just horse, it's the year of the fire horse, so I don't even know what it means, but they say you should wear a certain colors of your dress for New Year's celebration to have luck and prosperity in the upcoming year, and for the year of the fire horse you need to be wearing the colors of this fire horse, obviously, so they're gonna be red, terracot, orange, golden, and a little splashes of green, that's what the internet says, hence my disco ball outfit with a red thingy in my hair, yeah, so I think I told everything that I wanted to say, everything that I remember at least, what I usually would do for New Year, and I believe almost every Russian would do as well, let me know if those traditions are similar in your countries or not, if you ever tried any of those dishes, or if you would like to try them, I'm wishing you the most amazing year, I'm wishing for every one of you that 2026 will be great, will treat you amazing, you will reach all your goals, you will be healthy, happy, and prosperous, and so will be your close ones, if you'd like to support my channel you can find the link down below, I will leave there all the necessary links how you can find me everywhere, and I'm sending you my love, my hugs, and I will see you in the next year, bye!