1. Russians drink
tree juice
That’s right. Tree juice. What’s more, from a very young age. Birch sap
is one of the most popular traditional Russian drinks, so Russians know the
taste of birch trees well. They first came up with the idea way back in ancient
Russia when Birch sap, as well as kvas (a drink made
of fermented bread and malt), was used as raw material for making wine.
If a Russian tells
you the juice is squeezed from birch logs, don't believe it – they’re just
pulling your leg. In order to obtain the juice, you must go to a forest between
March, when the snow is melting, and the end of April. Make a small hole in the
tree trunk about two centimeters deep, insert a straw and then put a jar under
it. Usually, one birch tree produces between two and three liters of sap a day.
But isn't it strange
to drink tree juice? Perhaps. But it does no harm to the tree—the main thing is
to plug or seal the hole when you’re done—and consuming it is good for you.
Birch sap has wide array of healthy properties. It is regarded as
beneficial for the heart and blood vessels, provides relief from edema, and
fights infections and tooth decay among other things.
2. Russians live in
darkness for up to six months a year
Can you imagine a night that lasts for six weeks or even
six months? That’s a reality for hundreds of thousands of people in Russia. In
cities above the Arctic Circle, the polar night, like the polar day, can last
an incredibly long time.
Nearly 178,000 people live in
Norilsk [2,881 km from Moscow], which is one of the coldest and northernmost
cities in the world, Here, sub-zero temperatures last for up to 280 days a
year, and summer in the conventional sense doesn't exist. Food prices are high
because delivering anything from central Russia takes a long time and is
costly, and because food products here have a long shelf life they are
virtually tasteless.
These are inhuman conditions,
you might say. But in Russia extremely
low temperatures are not something to be afraid of. Many people like the long
winter and temperatures of minus 30 degree Celsius because there is more fun to
be had in winter than in a "summer” that barely even exists anyway.
Instead, during the winter people enjoy the northern lights, do winter sports
and evenyes it’s
true—hold beach parties in winter.
3. They have 118 days a
year off from work
Despite the long winter, Russians don’t get depressed and
don't drink liters of vodka every day. They like to have fun. A lot of fun. And
do you know how many days off from work they have to do so? A total of 118 days
a year! No one else in the world has so many holidays. And that is not even
counting annual leave.
For us it is hard to explain to
foreigners the significance of the nine-day holiday over the New Year period
and why Russians celebrate the new year once on Dec. 31, according to the
Gregorian calendar, and then again on Jan. 13, based on the Julian calendar and
called the Old New Year. Or why some Russians celebrate the new year 11
times—once for each times zone
in the country. Just for fun. That’s why.
In Ulyanovsk, the governor even
made up a new holiday called Conception Day (Sept. 12) and the birth rate there
in June has doubled!
4. They play Russian
crazy golf
What to do if
the golf season in Russia lasts only five months, but the game is popular?
Clearly, the answer is to play in all seasons and all weather. In Russia, they
play golf in the snow, and there is an even more exotic version of the game
called helicopter golf.
Heli-golf
competitions are held every year. The pilot, the navigator and the
player try to navigate a huge ball through an obstacle course as quickly as
possible from a helicopter. It turns out to be not that fast and is rather
bizarre to watch. But people here believe that a long winter is no reason to
put down their clubs.
5. They congratulate
each other on coming out of the shower or sauna
You don't
generally expect to be congratulated when you come out of the shower or a bath,
right? Again, this is only possible in Russia. "I hope you enjoyed your
steam," Russians say, literally congratulating someone on having a good
wash.
This is what people in
olden days who only bathed in bathhouses used to say. In the past one could be
poisoned by carbon monoxide in the bathhouse, so the congratulation made sense.
Nowadays people say it out of habit, albeit with sincerity.
