Victory Day
Trip Start
Apr 04, 2009
1
16
24
Trip End
Jul 29, 2009
St. Petersburg,
Russia
Monday, May 11, 2009
Victory day! ypa (hooray)!
May 9th is Victory Day here, the celebration of the end of World War II. Early in the morning Giovanna, Caroline, and I left the dorms to get good spots to view the start of the day's festivities. All day long there are concerts, parades, and ceremonies and subsequently people everywhere! The last time I saw so many people in one place was at the Inauguration this January.
The first event of the morning was what they called a "parade" but was really more like a ceremony. Starting around 9am groups of soldiers were marching into the square in front of the Hermitage. Once everyone was assembled around 10, 45 minutes of speeches and cheers ensued along with music from the military band. One interesting thing that I noticed was that Giovanna, Caroline and I got there an hour early expecting it to be difficult to find a good spot but what we found was pretty much empty streets. Americans tend to get to events hours before it starts and guard their good spot with their lives (e.g Macy's Parade). In Russia, however, it seems that people show up 15 minutes beforehand and then just shove until they are where they want to be.
After the morning ceremony we had a long time until the afternoon parade. We met up with some other friends (a few from France and a friend from Israel). The group of us walked over to Peter and Paul Fortress where there was a free concert/ variety show going on. After watching a myriad of singers, dancers, and poetry recitations we departed for a quick jaunt through the Summer Gardens.
The next event for the day was the Veterans' parade down Nevsky Prospekt. The Veterans' Parade is a tradition I really like. All of the veterans march in a parade and people buy carnations or other flowers to hand to them as they walk by. It is such a nice, simple form of appreciation and recognition. One shocking thing from the parade was the amount of Soviet symbolism present throughout. Flags with stars and hammer and sickle symbols were everywhere. There were banners reading "CCCP" with Lenin's face on them and red was ubiquitous. It was a strong reminder that Soviet history is a huge part of Russia still.
Half-way through the parade disaster hit. The earlier blue, cheery skies had turned dark and ominous. Almost, without warning they opened up and a torrential downpour literally "rained on our parade." We ran for shelter in a nearby doorway where we were able to see the remainder of the parade and the poor parade-ers brave out the wet weather.
After the parade the streets were sheer chaos. It was wet, cold, and everyone was trying to find shelter or transportation. It took us over 2 hours to find a bus home since the subways were closed and the bus schedules were irregular, not to mention the fact that every means of transportation was spilling over with people. There was, in the evening, another ceremony with fireworks but by 8pm we were all worn out from the earlier festivities. We decided to return home to dry out and warm up!
Thursday I am going to see three short Stravinsky ballets: Les Noces, Le Sacre du Printemps, and The Firebird. I am really excited because these specific ballets are works that I've always wanted to see but they are rarely preformed in the U.S. But before that it is back to class and lots of homework!
