The frosty issue has spoiled Muscovites: people reproach each other for their inability to dress in the cold

A new argument has emerged against long winter holidays

The ten-day New Year holidays, the feasibility of which Russians have been arguing about since 2005, have come to an end – and this time they left behind even more disappointments and questions than usual. The frosts played against the festive mood and craving for cultural leisure – although not abnormal, but still very unpleasant. Either lock yourself in a warm home for ten days, or stand in long lines at museums in twenty-degree frost—both scenarios for the New Year holidays turned out to be bleak.

The debate about whether Russians need long holidays for the New Year, or whether it would be better to move the weekend to May 1-9, has been going on for 18 years, since the corresponding changes were made to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation in 2005. A common argument: they say that the winter holidays will please only those who can afford a holiday at ski resorts, but in May all normal people can go to the countryside! Well, in winter you just have to sit at home, eat and drink (and slowly degrade). There is also a counter-argument: to hell with the skiing – you try, dear Russians, at least take a walk with your children in the park and build a snowman! Or go to a museum or theater in your hometown – that’s also leisure time.

However, against such a position – fair! — this year the frost played a role. Which, just like the New Year holidays, immediately split Russians into two camps. Some screamed: “How long ago did minus 20 in the middle of winter become an anomaly for us?! As a child, we went to school perfectly in such weather; no one canceled our physical education in the park on skis!” And they continued: “How can you live in central Russia and not have normal winter clothes?! Of course, if you dress in thin jackets and don’t wear tights under your jeans, you won’t survive the cold!” Others object: thank you, they say, but I won’t freeze the children with walks in this weather – I would like us to go to school and work on January 9, and not to go to the hospital with a cold all together. After all, although a good fur coat or down jacket can save you from the cold, the most dangerous thing remains – inhaling frosty air. Well, at the same time – an exacerbation of all chronic inflammations, from sinusitis to rheumatism, which is almost guaranteed in the cold.

The holidays turned into exactly what outraged both their supporters (“Don’t you have any better ideas?!”) and their opponents (“People are getting drunk and getting fat!”): many simply sat at home for 10 days, entertaining themselves with TV series and board games. games and, culturally speaking, gastronomic experiments. And they called the last holidays ruined. Not surprising.

The most desperate ones – as well as tourists who specially came to the capital – still did not abandon the idea of ​​cultural leisure. And they encountered another traditional New Year’s misfortune: there are too many people everywhere these days – precisely from those who decided to have a cultural vacation with visits to museums and theaters. Queues form, which are much more difficult to withstand in the cold.

“We specially came to Moscow for the holidays: my daughter is 15 years old, and I try to give her as many opportunities as possible to go to museums and concerts, since we don’t have this in our city,” a resident of the Voronezh region named Marina shares on social networks. “We weren’t prepared for twenty-degree frosts, but we couldn’t sit in a hotel room!” Of course, we implemented the entire planned program, but it was terrible. In almost all museums there were queues to enter, and there were queues on the street. We moved from one cafe with hot coffee to another, but after returning we still came down with a cold. Just think: I seem to have provided the child with cultural leisure, but, frankly speaking, zero pleasure.”

“I encountered an unexpected problem: while walking around Moscow I couldn’t take a photo at all! It’s a shame: the sky was clear and sunny, it would have made for some beautiful shots! But my gloves, which are more or less tolerable at minus twenty, without sensory “fingers”. I couldn’t take pictures in them,” complains tourist Natalya from Yaroslavl. “Well, I’m not ready to take off my gloves even for the most beautiful shots.” So we left with a minimum of photos.”

And on the first day of work there are a lot of such complaints on social networks – where there should be an exchange of impressions after the holidays.

You can, of course, remember the Moscow frosts of the 1970s and mannerly roll your eyes when talking about young people who don’t know how to dress. Or at the same time – why waste time on trifles! – remember the winters of 1941 or 1812, when General Moroz launched his own military campaign in support of the Russians. But it’s better to live here and now – and turn to current statistics. Climate change cannot be ignored, and things are confidently moving towards warming. In the current century, frosts below 20 degrees have occurred in January only three times: in 2006, 2011 and 2017. Well, now back in 2024. The rest of the time, Moscow celebrated the New Year and Christmas with moderate frosts, or even moved towards “Eurowinter”. So for modern Muscovites, minus twenty is truly a “nightmare” and an “anomaly”, and not at all a reason for mockery.