Christmas in the Works of A.S. Pushkin: Between Folkloric World and Personal Drama

Introduction: Through the Lens of Folklore and Personal Calendar

The theme of Christmas in Pushkin's heritage is not central in the religious-dogmatic sense, but it is present as an important cultural, calendrical, and plot-forming marker. Pushkin perceives Christmas not so much through the lens of church theology as through the folkloric tradition ('Kolyady') and as an element of social life of his time. His approach can be characterized as artistically anthropological: Christmas interested him as a time when the usual boundaries of the world are violated, people's behavior changes, and supernatural forces are activated.

The Christmas Cycle ('Kolyady') as a Magical Time

In Pushkin's works, especially in prose, Christmas often appears as part of a broader period – the Kolyady (from December 25th to January 6th according to the old style). This period in folk culture was considered a boundary period when the boundary between the world of the living and the world of spirits was thinning.

"Eugene Onegin" (Chapter V, strophes IV-X): Here is a classic and the most famous description of Russian Kolyady in a noble estate. Pushkin fixes the rituals with documentary accuracy and warm irony:

Fortune-telling of girls ("In the Kolyady evenings / They predicted to them / Husbands and service").

Singing of under-the-table songs, in which the object taken out of the dish foretold destiny ("They took out a toast ring / Sang an under-the-table song").

Fear of the supernatural ("Tanya is afraid / Of secret, telling days").

For Tatyana Larina, the Kolyady become a psychological climax: her excitement, curiosity, and trembling before the mystery of the future find expression in rituals. Her famous mirror fortune-telling and subsequent dream – this is a mystical center of the novel, directly related to the Christmas ritual. Interestingly, Christmas as a holiday is not described in the text, the emphasis is shifted to its folkloric, pre-Christian derivatives.

"The Undertaker": Social Satire Against the Background of Christmas

The tale from the cycle "Tales of Belkin" – the only work by Pushkin where the action begins on the day of moving to a new apartment before Christmas. However, the holiday here is devoid of any joy and sanctity. For the undertaker Adrian Prohorov, it is purely a business time: "On the next day, by morning of December 25th, the new owner with all his property was already on Basmannaya." Christmas becomes the background for social satire and a dark fantasmagoria. The drunk dream of the undertaker, in which his 'clients' – the dead – appear to him, is, on the one hand, a parody of the Gothic tale, and on the other – a psychological revelation of his conscience. Christmas time here is just a conditional point of reference for blurring the boundary between reality and nightmare, between the living and the dead, which corresponds to folk beliefs about Kolyady.

The Absence of Direct Lyric Statement: Hypotheses

It is remarkable that Pushkin does not have special lyrical poems dedicated to Christmas as a religious holiday (unlike, for example, Goethe or later Russian poets). This gives rise to several scientific hypotheses:

Cultural: Pushkin, with his deep interest in Russian folklore and folk life, was more interested in the ritual, carnival side of Kolyady than in church dogma. His creative mind found in divinations, beliefs, and customs rich material for poetry and prose.

Biographical and censorship: Public expression of deeply personal religious feelings in lyrics was not characteristic of the poet in his mature period. Moreover, in the 1830s, when he turned to prose, a direct religious theme could attract excessive attention from censorship (especially considering Pushkin's complex relations with power).

Aesthetic: The Christmas miracle may have been embodied for him in other forms – in the miracle of creativity, in the "divine word" of poetry, in moments of inspiration that he described in poems about autumn or a winter morning.

Interesting fact: In a letter to his wife Natalya Nikolaevna from December 22 and 24, 1834, Pushkin writes: "I congratulate you on the holiday, my angel, on Christmas..." He then describes in detail how he plans to spend the Kolyady in Petersburg: "I will see you in my dreams, and maybe even in real life, maybe." This domestic, warm mention shows that the holiday was an important and joyful part of the family and social calendar.

Christmas as a Dramatic Point in "The Queen of Spades"

Indirectly but powerfully, the theme of Christmas arises in the climax of "The Queen of Spades" (1834). Countess Anna Fedotovna dies on the night of Christmas. This chronological choice is not accidental:

Violation of sanctity: The death of the old woman, caused by Herman's moral crime (his threat with a pistol), occurs on one of the holiest days of the year. This enhances the guilt of the hero, coloring his actions in the tones of sacrilege.

Irony of fate: The countess, the bearer of the fatal secret ("Three, seven, ace"), leaves this life at a moment symbolizing birth and hope. This creates a powerful dramatic contrast.

Connection with the supernatural: Christmas night, according to folk beliefs, is a time of miracles, but also a time of activity of evil forces. The visit of the dead countess to Herman later fits into this same logic of "holiday" violation of the natural order of things.

Conclusion:

Christmas in Pushkin's artistic world appears in two main aspects:

As part of the folk calendar cycle (Kolyady), rich in magic, divinations, laughter, and fear. This tradition nourished his interest in the "Russian spirit" and became the background for key scenes in "Eugene Onegin".

As an important temporal coordinate in prose, creating an additional meaningful and dramatic effect (the move of the undertaker, the death of the countess).

The absence of direct lyrical poetry about Christmas is compensated by the deep assimilation of its cultural code – the feeling of wonder, the violation of boundaries, mystery, which Pushkin masterfully transformed into stories about human passions, destinies, and fears. Thus, Pushkin's Christmas is not so much a Church holiday as a holiday/test of folk and private life, where both the most terrifying dreams, like the undertaker's, and the most prophetic, like Tatyana's, come true.

Permanent link to this publication: