Year - New and Old New

Did you know there was a holiday named Old New Year? In Ukraine there is. Yesterday was Old New Year. I'm not sure when the calendar got changed, but Old New Year follows Eastern Church Christmas one week later, just as New New Year follows Western Church Christmas one week later. (By the way, we usually hear Dec. 25 referred to as Catholic Christmas and Jan. 7 often referred to as Orthodox Christmas. You can see the church split which happened several hundred years ago right there in the names.)

We went to the center of Kiev yesterday. All of these photos are taken in Independence Square (I won't try the Ukrainian language transliteration). If you have kept up with the news over the past 10 years and saw footage of the Orange Revolution - this is where it happened. Of course the first thing I saw was this big tree, not too impressive in the gray, dreary, gray mid-winter gray of Eastern Europe. Rather dull and blah looking to my "I love sunshine and clear blue skies" jaded eyes.
But I noticed that there were several Grandfather Frosts up there, wandering around in their somewhat Santa-like costumes. There were also a bunch of huge stuffed animals, including a Donald Duck, walking around and probably scaring kids half to death. So, I decided to take a photo of one of the Grandfather Frosts (he is NOT Santa - there is a very distinct difference in costume and personality). Imagine my surprise this morning when I looked at the photo and saw this:If you can't tell for sure, click on it and make it bigger. Three police/militsia guys along with one Grandfather Frost. We saw several groups of 3 of these guys walking around yesterday, in every part of the city we happened to be in. Always in groups of three. There were also a lot, and I mean a LOT, of security guys walking around at the mall we visited. I've never seen so many before - but I've never been to Kiev in a)national crisis and b)major holiday during a national crisis. Seeing all these guys and knowing what was happening just a few meters up the street from us in the main government buildings and just a few miles north of us along the Ukraine/Russia border ... well, it was very sobering, to say the least.
Here is the tree later that night, part=way through it's light cycle. I thought the blue was beautiful.
And here we are, in full light. I had to lighten the mid-tones of these night photos to see anything - I hope it shows well on your screen and is not too washed out, or too dark still.
I don't know what this building is, but it is beautiful. The 'firework' lights are stationery and blink off and on. There are several like this along Kreshadik Boulevard.
This is the main street of Kiev. The buildings in the background are government. Here is where what we in America would call "Congress" takes place, the "Oval Office" and so forth and so on - as I understand it. I've never been to Washington, DC, but I've been to Kiev and Kreshadik. I find that interesting, but very American.
And here is my favorite New Year photo - Old New Year or New New Year. It was taken on Jan 1 and he is watching a football game or something on television. Serious boy. Oh how I miss him! They got him up at midnight the night before to watch fireworks on top of Pikes Peak from a ridge above where they live. A great view - we've watched the fireworks from there many times. Here he is looking a little tired to me after the excitement of the night before. :)