RUSSIA GETS READY TO CELEBRATE NEW YEAR
MOSCOW, December 26, 2002. /From RIA Novosti correspondent/--Every city
in
Russia is getting ready to celebrate New Year, the streets are
being
decorated and Father Frost, the Russian Santa Claus, has begun
his
procession across the country.
The authorities of Nizhny
Novgorod, Volga area, have installed the city's
central fir-tree in Minina
and Pozharskogo Square. According to Alexei
Sokolov, the Mayor's public
relations aide, the forest beauty is 110 years
old and is almost 30 meters
high. The mounting, purchase, transportation
and even protection of the tree
will cost the city about 30,000 rubles, or
1,000 euros. In the meantime, the
residents of Nizhny Novgorod are buying
trees to decorate their homes.
Fir-trees and branches are being sold in 72
places specially arranged for
this purpose. On the average, a tree 1.5
meters tall costs 150-200 rubles.
The central fir-tree of Krasnodar, a regional center in Southern Russia,
is
installed in front of the city administration. Nikolai Buzmarev,
Executive
Director of the company Kubandorblagoustroistvo, said the tree was
made as
usual out of a 20-meter carcass and 700 running meters of fir-tree
branches
attached to it. The branches were brought to Krasnodar from the
Apsheron
district.
Almost 500 Father Frosts took part in a festive
parade in Kursk, Central
Russia. After the procession across the city's
central square, the Father
Frosts lit up the tree, which had been specially
brought from Holland. The
Mayor's Office had purchased it for 300,000 rubles.
A Father Frost procession will be held for the first time in Nizhny
Tagil:
on December 27, more than 100 Father Frosts will march about 3
kilometers
along the city streets to the central fir-tree. Having gathered
around the
tree, they will then mount buses and be taken to smaller New
Year
celebrations in different parts of the city, where they will amuse
children
and hand out gifts. All those who want to join the procession must
make
their own New Year costumes and prepare an entertaining program.
Tickets to the Presidential New Year Celebration in Moscow were given to
56
children from the Volgograd region, Southern Russia. According to
the
Volgograd regional administration, the children, aged between 9 and
12,
were from children's homes and low-income families. There is a vast
program
waiting for them in Moscow, which includes excursions around the
city,
making friends with kids of their age, and participation in a New Year
Ball
on December 27.
More than 2 tons of New Year parcels left
Irkutsk on board a warplane and
were headed for the North Caucasus, where
they will go to Siberian-born
soldiers. Colonel Sergei Dimov, the head the
Garrison Officers' Club who
oversaw the process of putting the gifts
together, said the soldiers would
get food products and warm clothing.
Besides, children from a school in
Irkutsk have signed 250 letters of
congratulations, which they folded into
triangles like the frontline letters.
The batch of presents was livened up
with two dozens of New Year trees.
