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As early as 2000 BC, ancient Egypt was celebrated Happy New Year. In September, when the Nile spilled, the Egyptians with splendor noted the advent of the god of Hapi, giving the abundance. About then began to celebrate the coming of the New Year in Babylon. Abroad It was considered March 21 – the first new moon after the spring equinox. According to legends during the celebration, the ruler Babylon left the city so as not to interfere with its presence subjects have fun and commit all kinds of folly. Ancient Romans celebrated the New Year for a very long time 1 March, until 46 BC Guy Julius Caesar did not transfer the date holiday on January 1 in connection with the introduction of a new calendar. But as in Russia? Pagan Slavs celebrated the coming of the New Year in end of December, the day of the winter solstice. In 1492, Ivan III ordered to consider the beginning of the new year from September 1, and until the beginning of the XVIII century, the New Year holiday for Russian people was at the same time harvest festival. 
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In 1699, Peter I, rapidly accelerating the introduction of European orders in Russia, postponed the New Year on January 1. Accustomed to solve all issues in one fell swoop, he ordered everyone in this day to have fun and enjoy. On the streets by order of the sovereign masquerades and festivities were arranged, houses were decorated with spruce and pine branches. The first Russian emperor himself celebrated the holiday is very peculiar. Relentless Peter drove his closest associates (80-100 people) to his palace, after which the door locked for three days: have fun! Not everyone could stand three days Peter’s feasts. Many to the end of the celebrations from the palace brought out by hand, and some even carried. Elizabeth continued tradition laid down by the father, but at her palace festivities those present were no longer forced to drink to the point of insanity, New Year balls and masquerades have become more dignified. At the beginning of the XIX century on Champagne appeared on Russian tables. Addiction to this drink brought to Russia returning from a foreign campaign of 1813-1814 officers who ravaged Madame’s wine cellars as winners Clicquot. The enterprising widow did not suit about this hysterical, and attributed the losses to the article “advertising costs”, which characterizes her as a talented marketer: in three years the main consumer of its products was no longer France, but Russia. 
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Under Nicholas I, a tree came to the house. Pine and spruce branches replaced by a forest beauty. In 1918, the Bolsheviks replaced the Julian calendar is Gregorian and thus presented to the Russians Old New Year is a holiday, the essence of which is foreigners, no matter how get stronger, they can’t understand. In 1918, the first proletarian tree. For a long time she remained the first and last, since next year 1919 the New Year and Christmas were branded by the Soviet government as survivals of the bourgeois past and their celebrations were canceled. But people kept celebrating and Christmas and New Year, only now we tried to do it secretly from outsiders, so the New Year turned into a purely family triumph. In 1935, the New Year holiday was forgiven and withdrawn from underground, and in 1991, Christmas was rehabilitated. 
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However, having got a new holiday, no one began to refuse old ones. Today, many Russians start New Year celebrations 25 December, celebrating Christmas on the Gregorian calendar (the so-called “Catholic Christmas”), and finish them on January 14, meeting New Year’s Day long ago canceled by the Soviet Government Julian to the calendar. Against the background of this almost three-week spree, three-day booze of Peter I seem like a small trifle, not worthy of attention.
Russia time
