Vign13(e1) Easter and Christmas forever (13 of 15)

When my grandmother died, many years ago, she said to my mum: "Your little son must always celebrate Easter and Christmas, whatever the authorities might say. Promise me this".

My mom promised her. And since that time, twice a year we enjoyed a festive time.

Celebration of Easter and Christmas, completely religious holidays, never stopped in Ukraine due to common Ukrainian people. No authority is able to overcome this habit.

It was sort of an open secret, back in those days. Everyone would say "Hush, so other people won't hear our celebrations because they are forbidden in our country." Then, that word of caution out of the way, the celebrations got into full swing.

I recall that people on both sides celebrated these holidays - those who said "No, you must not" and of course the other side, too, the believers and the traditionalists. Of course, neither side wanted the other to know that they were celebrating the holidays. In a different way, yet in the same way for everyone it was a kind of 'procommunist shyness" we all shared.

It wasn't just that this strange mindset came about during the holidays. It was a way of lie in the soviet era. A case in point is what happened with  fantastically popular poet, actor and singer Vladimir Vysotsky. He could be compared to Bob Dylan or the American Townes van Zandt who is so revered by better known names like Steve Early and Kris Kristoferson. Vladimir Vysotsky's art really was officially forbidden, but loved and always quoted by ordinary people and authorities alike. After all, most of them are human and just had the unpleasant task of carrying out the orders of a few crackpots in power.

Millions of magnetic tapes with his momentarily recognizable and beloved voice were widely spread across the country, teenagers and adults copied his tapes readily. This really can be called 'countrywide love' . and no authority could overcome this habit either.

They had to try, of course. Even if it meant temporarily easing back on censorship of western pop culture.

The standard "Anti-religious holidays playlist" usually included ABBA, Boney M, Secret Service FriedrichSchtadtPalas Balley (GDR), and performers from various other socialist countries.

The official communist theory was that it would prevent youth from attending church.

The reality was nothing of the kind happened.

Meanwhile, we all considered these "Christmas+Easter TV programmes" to be an additional holiday gift from our comrades in the Kremlin. Everyone said "Oh, we can enjoy the holidays, we'll have tasty food and good TV programmes. Thank God."

(c) Victor Sergeyev, 2014