- Tree goes up
- Tree (“Novogodnyaya Yolka” / New Year Tree) is put up in the run-up to New Year’s Eve (31 December), not for Orthodox Christmas
- Tree comes down
- No fixed religious end-date functions the way Epiphany does elsewhere; trees commonly stay up through the Orthodox Christmas (7 January) and sometimes to Old New Year (14 January)
- Local superstition
- No prominent distinct bad-luck superstition documented; the season’s structure is built around New Year rather than a Twelfth-Night-style close.
Why that date
Christmas (7 January, Julian calendar) has been secondary to the secular New Year celebration since the Soviet era banned religious Christmas observance from 1929-1935 and rebranded the tree and gift-giving as a New Year custom fronted by Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost) and Snegurochka (Snow Maiden).
What actually happens
Russia genuinely distinctive nuance: the tree is a secular “New Year tree”, not a Christmas tree in the Western religious sense, and Orthodox Christmas on 7 January is comparatively low-key next to New Year’s Eve, the country’s biggest holiday.
Taking it down again
No fixed religious end-date functions the way Epiphany does elsewhere; trees commonly stay up through the Orthodox Christmas (7 January) and sometimes to Old New Year (14 January). No prominent distinct bad-luck superstition documented; the season’s structure is built around New Year rather than a Twelfth-Night-style close.
If you would rather not have this argument again next year, the calendar reminder on the home page will put both dates straight into your phone.
Sources
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