Today is "American Christmas." It's actually Christmas in most parts of the world, but here I keep hearing it referred to as "American Christmas." It's most definitely not Orthodox Christmas, which is celebrated on January 7th. I'm not sure what I expected, but it's so strange to go through an entire day and see or hear nothing celebratory out on the streets. People left for work and returned home, as normal. The marshrutkas were crowded and the streets packed with cars, as normal. People hurried to and fro, as normal.
I decided to have two of the girls that I meet with over for a Christmas Eve dinner yesterday. We watched "White Christmas" and they spent the night. I had planned a pancake breakfast and made strawberry/cherry syrup and was up bright and early to get everything ready. I had spent time thinking of things to fill their stockings with and was looking forward to giving those to them, since it's not a tradition here.
They woke up and wandered into the kitchen, where I was cooking the pancakes and we starting talking. Looking out the window at all of the fog, I made some comment about it kind of being a white Christmas, if fog counts. "Oh, right," one replied, "It's Christmas." And that was that. My balloon of Christmas joy deflated, as I realized that they really didn't understand what this meant to me. I had planned and prepared for this, wanting them to experience some of the joy and traditions of our biggest holiday. And when they didn't respond in the way I was hoping, I wilted. I really didn't have much Christmas cheer to start out with and was looking for them to share in the little that I had managed to eke out. But it's not their biggest holiday and though they enjoyed trying new foods and learning about different cultural traditions, it all comes down to the fact that it's simply....just another day.
