Defender of the Fatherland Day

February 23rd is one of my favourite holidays here called Defender of the Fatherland Day (День защитника Отечества). The date itself is of no historic significance, but the holiday is very popular in Russia. It is celebrated in many CIS countries as well.

The holiday dates back to 1918, when during the Russian Civil War the first mass draft into the Red Army occured in Petrograd (now Saint-Petersburg) and Moscow. So its original name was Red Army Day (День Красной Армии) which was later changed to Soviet Army and Navy Day (День Советской Армии и Военно-Морского флота). After 1991, the holiday got its current name. On this holiday we generally congratulate all men including those who never served in the army, even young boys. We sometimes call it the Men's Day =) And that's why I love this day - it gives me another chance to do something nice for my husband who is the best man for me in the whole world. I also remember my father on this day. He was a real Man, and he is greatly missed by his family now.

For us the celebration started yesterday morning with a sports holiday in the kindergarten where our daughter goes. There were funny competitions for dads and children, poems and songs. We had a great time. And tonight a family party with a cake and something yummy for dinner will follow =)

Dear men, have a wonderful day!

The blog post was made with the help of Wikipedia and timeanddate.com

Comments

10 interesting facts about the Russian language

In my previous post I promised to follow with the interesting info about some other languages. So here are 10 facts about the Russian language which might be of interest to those who are studying it. If you would like to have this list in Russian, please contact me and I will send it to you by email. So, what do I find interesting about my native language? 1. Russian has about 500,000 words, but only 2,000-2,500 of them are used frequently. 100 most frequently used words make 20% of all written and oral speech. A high school graduate's vocabulary usually has 1,500 to 4,000 words. Those who have graduated from a higher educational institution normally have a richer vocabulary consisting of approximately 8,000 words. 2. It's compulsory for all astronauts in the international space station to learn Russian, so we can call it an international language of space :)

15 interesting facts about the English language

I prepared this list for one of my English classes. And then it dawned on me that I can share it with you, too! So here are 15 facts about the English language that I find very interesting. Hope you do, too ;) Rudyard Kipling was fired as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner. His dismissal letter said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language. This isn't a kindergarten for amateur writers." No language has more synonyms than English.

Translation Forum Russia 2017: my report

A few days ago I came back from Translation Forum Russia which took place in Ufa, Bashkortostan . My daughter Delia went with me because she never visited Ufa before (neither have I) and because of the trip to the Southern Ural mountains we planned to take after the conference with a small group of colleagues. Ufa is not considered one of the primary tourist attractions of Russia, though I am convinced now that it definitely should be. Some pictures of the city (not all of the pictures are mine, some were made by the official photographer of the conference Elena Ekaterininskaya, our company CEO Fedor Kondratovich and some other colleagues): The bee is a symbol of the region as Bashkortostan produces the best honey in Russia. We saw installations shown below in different parts of the city. There were still covered because of the cold weather, but they will be full of blooming flowers as soon as the warm weather comes. The bee as we saw it That's what it

Your professional translator

Search This Blog