Christmas in the Works of A.S. Pushkin: Between Folkloric World and Personal Drama Introduction: Through the Lens of Folklore and Personal Calendar The theme of Christmas in Pushkin's heritage is not central in the religious-dogmatic sense, but it is present as an important cultural, calendrical, and plot-forming marker. Pushkin perceives Christmas not so much through the lens of church theology as through the folkloric tradition ('Kolyady') and as an element of social life of his time. His approach can be characterized as artistically anthropological: Christmas interested him as a time when the usual boundaries of the world are violated, people's behavior changes, and supernatural forces are activated. The Christmas Cycle ('Kolyady') as a Magical Time In Pushkin's works, especially in prose, Christmas often appears as part of a broader period – the Kolyady (from December 25th to January 6th according to the old style). This period in folk culture was considered a boundary period when the boundary between the world of the living and the world of spirits was thinning. "Eugene Onegin" (Chapter V, strophes IV-X): Here is a classic and the most famous description of Russian Kolyady in a noble estate. Pushkin fixes the rituals with documentary accuracy and warm irony: Fortune-telling of girls ("In the Kolyady evenings / They predicted to them / Husbands and service"). Singing of under-the-table songs, in which the object taken out of the dish foretold destiny ("They took out a toast ring / Sang an under-the-table song"). Fear of the supernatural ("Tanya is afraid / Of secret, telling days"). For Tatyana Larina, the Kolyady become a psychological climax: her excitement, curiosity, and trembling before the mystery of the future find expression in rituals. Her famous mirror fortune-telling and subsequent dream – this is a mystical center of the novel, directly related to the Christmas ritual. Interestingly, Christmas as a holiday is not described in the text, the emphasis i ... Read more