and sometimes not. They feast, play games, go
snowballing, and guess riddles, always having a jolly good time.
Reciters of _builinas_ (poems) are often present to sing and recite
the whole night through, for of song and poetry the Russian never
tires.

A pretty custom very generally observed is the blessing of the house
and household. The priest visits each home in his district,
accompanied by boys bearing a vessel of holy water; the priest
sprinkles each room with the water, each person present kissing the
cross he carries and receiving his benediction as he proceeds from
room to room. Thus each home is sanctified for the ensuing year.

The familiar greeting of "Merry Christmas" is not heard in Russia
unless among foreigners, the usual salutation on this day being
"Greetings for the Lord's birth," to which the one addressed replies,
"God be with you."

The observance of New Year on January first, according to the
Gregorian Calendar, was instituted by Peter the Great in 1700. The
previous evening is known as St. Sylvester's Eve, and is the time of
great fun and enjoyment. According to the poet, Vasili Andreivich
Zhukivski:

"St. Sylvester's evening hour,
Calls the maidens round;
Shoes to throw behind the door,
Delve the snowy ground.
Peep behind the window there,
Burning wax to pour;
And the corn for chanticleer,
Reckon three times o'er.
In the water-fountain fling
Solemnly the golden ring
Earrings, too, of gold;
Kerchief white must cover them
While we're chanting over them
Magic songs of old."

Ovsen, a mythological being peculiar to the season, is supposed to
make his entry about this time, riding a boar (another indication of
Aryan descent), and no Christmas or New Year's dinner is considered
complete without pork served in some form. The name of Ovsen, being so
like the French word for oats, suggests the possibility of this
ancient god's supposed influence over the harvests, and the honor paid
him at the ingathering feasts in Roman times. He is the god of
fruitfulness, and on New Year's Eve Russian boys go from house to
house scattering oats and other grain while they sing:

"In the forest, in the pine forest,
There stood a pine tree,
Green and shaggy.
O Ovsen! Ovsen!
The Boyars came,
Cut down the pine,
Sawed it into planks,
Built a bridge,
Covered it with cloth,
Fastened it with nails,
O Ovsen!