100 what does the Snow Maiden do in the summer. Who is the Snow Maiden and where did she come from? Truly Russian heritage

Do you want incredible sensations? They are guaranteed if you find yourself in a fairy tale or organize one for others. What could be more wonderful when not only your dream, but the dream of your loved ones or acquaintances comes true! If you have always wanted to play the role of the Snow Maiden, then become her. There are three ways: get a costume and script and arrange a party for family and friends; you can negotiate with an entertainment agency about fabulous employment for the New Year period (if you also want to receive a material bonus). Or you can turn this experiment into a charity event - it will be interesting for you and it will make others happy.

However, to be the Snow Maiden, there are some rules that are worth knowing.

1. To create the desired look, it is not at all necessary to douse yourself with cold water and go out into the cold to freeze. It is enough to buy or rent an appropriate outfit (if your hair length allows) or use a ready-made wig with snow-white braids.

2. Have you ever seen a sad, angry or capricious Snow Maiden? Who wants to encounter such a fairy-tale character! Therefore, a great mood, good spirits and a frank smile are mandatory components of the image. The New Year's bustle, of course, is exhausting, but the granddaughter of Santa Claus is forbidden to be lethargic and sleepy. If you decide to work with it, then determine the schedule for yourself, but the pace should definitely be in “energizer” mode.

3. It is important to be not only cheerful, but also resourceful. The spontaneity of children should not confuse you - no matter what question they ask, you must masterfully “hold the line.” If you have experience with small children, this is a big plus. And if not, you can simply practice in advance - and not on children, but on adults. Ask your friends to ask you the most unexpected questions - this is exactly what children specialize in.

4. In continuation of the previous point, do not forget about the ability to find a language with a wide variety of audiences. After all, you can also meet adults with a difficult disposition or who are shy and difficult to communicate with. As well as vice versa - they are too sociable, and then the question arises: who is entertaining whom here? Don't miss the initiative. Basic knowledge of psychology and what is called social intelligence - the ability to feel people and understand their responses - will not hurt. After all, a holiday is always happiness, and happiness is when everyone is comfortable!

5. Soft and gentle, the “ice girl” must at the same time be active and creative - a real entertainer. Its main task is to give a holiday, which means that in terms of fun you need to be an example for children and adults. Would you like to be told a poem for a gift? An ultimatum and blackmail – is this worthy of a real Snow Maiden? In the end, people are not at an exam, but at home, and you: “Tell me!” Show me! Get it!” Break this evil practice and do the opposite: from you - a poem, from the owners - a dish of pickles.

6. The Snow Maiden is, of course, a beautiful woman. But if we are talking about organizing leisure time in someone else’s family, your mission is to be a family friend who is always welcome and trusted.

7. In the best traditions of quality service, make sure that your clients feel like VIP clients. When it comes to a holiday for kids, it is important to give them a real fairy tale, so that everyone has the feeling that they have touched a miracle. And let not a single child be left without attention, even if it turns out that for the first time you see so many children, each of whom expects something magical from you! However, this also applies to adults. If the company is large, talk to everyone.

Of course, it is impossible to predict all the nuances and complications that may arise during the process. Therefore, the main thing is a great mood, the desire to get used to the image of the Snow Maiden and the desire to give people a holiday! Then you will succeed.

A ray of sunshine warms your cheek, a warm draft blows the curtains, birds chirp cheerfully. The Snow Maiden sits in front of me and laughs. Her laughter really resembles the frosty ringing of silver bells. Snowflakes are swirling outside the window. No, I'm not crazy. It's poplar fluff flying! And sitting opposite me is the actress of the Vera Children's Theater Alexandra Trushkina. And the reason for conversation is joyful. This season, Sasha became the Laureate of the regional award “Nizhny Novgorod Pearl”.

- You are so young, and you can already congratulate you on the award! How many years have you been working in the theater?

I have been working at the Vera Children's Theater for 5 years. Before that, he studied at the Nizhny Novgorod Theater School and worked for several years at the Tula Puppet Theater. I went there after my future husband, and didn’t even wait for the prom! After the birth of our son, we returned home to our parents. Home is still better!

- Your first role in “Vera” is the role of the Snow Maiden! And now this is an annual effort. What is more in it - joy or responsibilities?

Of course joy! Yes, the New Year holidays are a huge psychophysical stress, but also very close communication with children. They are so looking forward to the holiday, preparing for it, and I try to touch everyone, congratulate, praise. They look with such admiring eyes! They are open and sincerely believe in Father Frost and the Snow Maiden! I want to create miracles for them! It's a pity I don't have a magic staff...

- In the play “The Silver Tale” by M. Bartenev, you have a role-shifter. From the living girl Feni, your heroine turns into the Snow Maiden, an icy beauty who is bewitched by love. What is more in your Snow Maiden - ice floes or mischief?

There can be no cold in a New Year's fairy tale! The Snow Maiden is more of a liaison between the children and Santa Claus; they recognize themselves in me and trust me.

- In the play “The Blue Bird” you play Mytyl, the younger sister of the main character, played by 13-year-old Volodya Malyzhenkov. How do you maintain such amazing childishness?

I only wanted to work in a theater for children. I understand their logic of behavior, they are interesting to me! It was not at all difficult to work with Volodya; he absorbed everything like a sponge. It was a mutual enrichment, I tried not to be different from him. Glad it worked out!

- With your absolute positive charm, you also have negative roles: the girl Lelka from the fairy tale of the same name by N. Voronova and Mashenka from the play “The Secret of Success” based on the play by A. Ostrovsky “For every wise man there is enough simplicity” - a practical and even cynical girl, easily changing love for prosperity and secular pleasures. How did the directors see this in you?

Yes, roles with negative qualities are more difficult for me. If I cannot find justification for my heroine’s actions, a conflict arises and I suffer. I'm trying to understand how, with such a character, I would act in such a situation. Playing Lelka is difficult and very interesting! She is overwhelmed with emotions, she is growing up before our eyes!

- The range of your roles extends to male ones: the page boy in “Cinderella” by E. Schwartz and Fedyushka in “Kashtanka” by A. Chekhov. Where does femininity hide? (Sasha laughs).

Once, they say, she got carried away with Fedyushka and made a slip of the feminine gender. It seems to me, on the contrary, that I have a lot of boyish harshness in me; as a child I loved playing Indians! When playing with a child, it is important that they recognize themselves. I'm watching my son. My characters contain his happiness, his enthusiasm, his naivety.

- How does the girl Snegurochka manage her family and everyday life?

In the theater, all household chores and problems are forgotten! If I’m rehearsing, sometimes I forget to call to see if my son has had lunch, to check what he’s doing after school...

-Are you a strict mother?

No. I am sure that respect at the level of “I’m older, I’m smarter” will not last long. The child is growing up quickly. To maintain his trust, you need to communicate as equals, and not put pressure on him with authority. I try to be a friend to my son.

- What does the Snow Maiden do in the summer?

Getting ready for the next New Year! And remembers the past! At the last Christmas tree the actors played a prank on me. Sending Totoshka home, I clicked my magic golden shoes and... everyone disappeared from the stage, even Santa Claus. I didn't expect this from him! I was so confused that tears even began to flow treacherously. It's an actors' nightmare come true: you're standing on an empty stage in front of a full audience and don't know what to do. I closed my eyes and whispered: “Please come back!” and clicked her golden heels! And they are back!

In Russia, not a single New Year is complete without the Snow Maiden. This fabulous beauty is the embodiment of purity, youth, fun and makes the winter holiday brighter and more joyful.

Since childhood, we have become accustomed to seeing her next to Santa Claus at all New Year's events, but few of us have wondered where the Snow Maiden's parents are. Let's try to figure it out!

• Who is the Snow Maiden and where did she come from?
• Who are the Snow Maiden's parents and where are they now?
• Who is the author of the fairy tale about the Snow Maiden?
• How is the Snow Maiden related to Santa Claus?

Who is the Snow Maiden and where did she come from?

Folklore has long mentioned three fairy-tale heroes who take a direct part in New Year's festivities - Father Frost, the Snowman and the Snow Maiden. And if the kind old man has his prototypes in many other countries of the world, then the sweet fair-haired girl has no such prototype either in mythology, or in the legends and fairy tales of other peoples.

The Snow Maiden is an original Russian treasure, a kind of angel who can persuade even a shy child not to be shy in front of Santa Claus and recite a poem or sing a song.

There are several versions of the origin of the Snow Maiden. One of them is associated with the ancient Slavic ritual of the funeral of Kostroma, a ritual character symbolizing fertility. According to another version, the origins of the appearance of the snowy beauty go back to pagan beliefs about the mythological god of waters and the night sky - Varuna, who in some legends is the prototype of Santa Claus.

It is believed that the Snow Maiden is the embodiment of ice-bound river waters, concealing the onset of warm spring days.

Who are the Snow Maiden's parents and where are they now?

Although the Snow Maiden was known in folklore back in pagan times, people first started talking about her throughout the country in the second half of the 19th century, when a fairy tale about a girl Snegurka, or Snow Maiden, fashioned from snow was published in Russia. According to this story, once upon a time in a Russian village lived a peasant Ivan and his wife Marya. Peace and love always reigned in their home, but the two of them lived together until old age, never being able to have children.

One winter, a lot of snow fell in their village. Ivan and Marya went out into the yard and began to sculpt a snow doll. Suddenly, the Snow Maiden began to move as if alive, and the married couple accepted this miracle as a blessing from God, who had sent them a child. The fairy tale has a sad ending: while jumping over a fire with her friends, the snowy girl melted.

However, over time, her image took root in the popular consciousness, and from the end of the 19th century it began to be actively used in scenarios on New Year trees. Since Ivan and Marya were ordinary people, they died when they grew old, so Snegurochka is now an orphan.

Who is the author of the fairy tale about the Snow Maiden?

For the first time, the tale of the Snow Maiden and her old parents was recorded in 1869 by the outstanding Russian folklore collector Alexander Afanasyev in his works “Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature.”

The author also has a pagan version of the appearance of the winter heroine, according to which the Snow Maiden is a snow nymph. She is born at the beginning of winter from the snow, and with the arrival of spring days she evaporates and takes with her the desires of the villagers.

In 1873, playwright Alexander Ostrovsky, impressed by Afanasyev’s stories, created the play “The Snow Maiden,” in which he described the winter beauty as a pale-faced girl with blond hair, dressed in a fur-trimmed fur coat, hat and mittens. In this work, the author presented the Snow Maiden as the 15-year-old daughter of Father Frost and Vesna-Krasna, who released her to the people in the Berendeyevka settlement under the supervision of Bakula the Bobyl.

As in Afanasyev’s tale, in Ostrovsky’s play the Snow Maiden melted, but for a different reason - from a bright ray of sunshine, which was directed at her by the vengeful and evil god of fertility Yarilo.

How is the Snow Maiden related to Santa Claus?

If you believe Ostrovsky’s play, then Father Frost is the Snow Maiden’s father, but in 1935, after the USSR officially allowed to celebrate the New Year, they began to be mistaken for grandfather and granddaughter. In pedagogical manuals for holding New Year's events, the young beauty acts as an assistant to the old man and his mediator in games with the kids on the Christmas tree.

Who came up with the idea of ​​calling the Snow Maiden Moroz’s granddaughter is still unknown, but their first joint appearance took place in 1937 in the Moscow House of Unions, and since then it just so happened that the kind old man is the girl’s grandfather.

Birthplace of the Snow Maiden

Legend says that the birthplace of the Snow Maiden is the Berendey kingdom in the Kostroma region. In the Yaroslavl province, which borders the Kostroma region, there is the village of Berendeyevka. According to legend, this is where the Snow Maiden lives.

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Of course, our favorite New Year's characters are Father Frost and Snow Maiden. But if some semblance of our Russian pagan God Father Frost under different names exists in many countries, then the Snow Maiden is our purely Russian heritage, the product of the great and generous truly Russian spirit.

We have long been accustomed to the annual appearance of this fabulously beautiful, eternally young, cheerful and infinitely kind Russian Goddess at New Year's celebrations and every time we chant with pleasure: “Snow Maiden! Snow Maiden! Snow Maiden!" And it’s even hard to imagine that no one will respond to our call.

But here is what is known about the Snow Maiden from other, earlier sources.

The image of the Snow Maiden is not recorded in Russian folk ritual. However, in Russian folklore she appears as a character in a folk tale about a girl made of snow who came to life.

Tales of the Snow Maiden were studied by A. N. Afanasyev in the second volume of his work “Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature” (1867).

In 1873, A. N. Ostrovsky, influenced by Afanasyev’s ideas, wrote the play “The Snow Maiden”. In it, the Snow Maiden appears as the daughter of Father Frost and Spring-Red, who dies during the summer ritual of honoring the Sun God Yarila. She looks like a beautiful pale blonde girl. Dressed in blue and white clothes with fur trim (fur coat, fur hat, mittens). Initially the play was not a success with the public.

In 1882, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov staged an opera of the same name based on the play, which was a huge success.

The image of the Snow Maiden was further developed in the works of teachers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who prepared scenarios for children's New Year trees. Even before the revolution, figures of the Snow Maiden were hung on the Christmas tree, girls dressed up in Snow Maiden costumes, fragments from fairy tales, Ostrovsky’s plays or operas were staged. At this time, the Snow Maiden did not act as a presenter.

The image of the Snow Maiden received its modern appearance in 1935 in the Soviet Union, after the official permission to celebrate the New Year. In books on organizing New Year trees of this period, the Snow Maiden appears on a par with Father Frost, as his granddaughter, assistant and mediator in communication between him and children. At the beginning of 1937, Father Frost and the Snow Maiden appeared together for the first time at the Christmas tree celebration at the Moscow House of Unions (i.e., at the most important Christmas tree in the Soviet Union).

The story of the Snow Maiden. Snegurochka is a Russian New Year's character. She is a unique attribute of the image of Santa Claus. None of his younger or foreign brethren has such a sweet accompaniment.

The image of the Snow Maiden is a symbol of frozen waters. This is a girl (not a girl) - an eternally young and cheerful pagan Goddess, dressed only in white robes. No other color is allowed in traditional symbolism, although from the mid-20th century blue tones were sometimes used in her clothing. Her headdress is an eight-rayed crown embroidered with silver and pearls. The modern costume of the Snow Maiden most often corresponds to the historical description. Violations of the color scheme are extremely rare and, as a rule, are justified by the inability to make the “correct” suit.

The image of the Snow Maiden is not recorded in the ancient Russian folk ritual. The Snow Maiden is a relatively recent achievement of Russian culture.

Nowadays there is often a deeply erroneous, anti-scientific opinion that the image of our Snow Maiden arose from the image of a certain pagan goddess of winter and death, Kostroma.

Let us remember here that in historical science there is a term “armchair mythology”, in which well-known scattered facts are artificially “pulled by the ears”, powerfully supplemented by the “researcher’s” own imagination, and as a result a quasi-historical work in the fantasy style arises, which has nothing to do with reality . Often, such mythological scientists work under the order of authorities - local or state.

In historical science, “armchair mythology” did not arise yesterday and will not disappear tomorrow. In all sciences there have always been and are fans of inventing gags that are not related to reality. The connection between the image of the Russian Snow Maiden and Kostroma was “found” by Kostroma local historians when the Kostroma authorities decided to declare their places the birthplace of the Snow Maiden.

Note that the supposedly “ancient” ritual associated with the image was first noted and described only in the 19th century, so the antiquity of information about it is very small. Much later, from these descriptions, local Kostroma “armchair mythologists” concluded that the myth of the Snow Maiden arose from the “ancient” Slavic funeral rite of Kostroma, which was carried out by peasants in the areas around the city of Kostroma.

But let’s look at who Kostroma is in this ritual.

The word "Kostroma" has the same root as the word bonfire. According to the descriptions of 19th-century researchers, at the end of winter, peasants in the vicinity of the city of Kostroma buried the effigy of Kostroma in different villages in different ways. A straw effigy representing Kostroma, joyfully, with hooting and jokes, was either drowned in the river or burned.

From conscientious descriptions by researchers of the 19th century, it is clear that the ritual of destroying the effigy of Kostroma repeats to the smallest detail the ritual of the festive destruction in the spring of the effigy of the annoying evil Winter-Madder, which in different localities is also called Morena, Marana, Morana, Mara, Marukha, Marmara, which has existed since ancient times.

From the descriptions of the ritual it is clearly clear that the winter goddess Kostroma is not a separate independent deity, but just a local (local) Kostroma name for the common Slavic Madder (Morana), the pagan goddess of death, winter and night.

Morana (Marana, Kostroma...) was personified in a terrifying image: implacable and fierce, her teeth are more dangerous than the fangs of a wild beast, she has terrible, crooked claws on her hands; Death is black, grinds its teeth, quickly rushes to war, grabs fallen warriors and, plunging its claws into the body, sucks the blood out of them.

The plurality of Morana-Kostroma names in the Russian language is not surprising. In the 19th century in Rus' there were still many local features of the Russian language, which by the middle of the 20th century had practically disappeared due to the introduction of a single standardized education. For example, the same ancient pagan harvest festival, traditionally celebrated on the day of the autumnal equinox, was called Veresen, Tausen, Ovsen, Usen, Autumn, Radogoshch in different parts of Russia.

Burning an effigy of Winter (Madder, Kostroma, etc.) is a farewell to a boring winter, practiced in the spring by all the peoples of Europe, including the Slavs, who in pre-Christian times had a common religion of druids/magi (among the Slavs, pagan priests-druids were called “ Magi").

In pre-Christian times, the effigy of Winter was destroyed by drowning in water or burning on the day of the vernal equinox during the pagan holiday of Komoeditsa (see details). Later, when the victorious Christian church, under pain of grave punishment, banned the pagan Komoeditsa and introduced in its place the Christian holiday Maslenitsa (in Europe called “carnival”), people began to destroy the effigy of Winter on the last day of Maslenitsa.

The ritual of burning on Komoeditsa on the day of the vernal equinox (later in Christian times - on the last day of Maslenitsa) an effigy of the annoying Winter-Madder (and not Maslenitsa, as some mistakenly believe) was intended to ensure the fertility of the lands.

Of course, there is no reason to associate the image of our Russian Snow Maiden with the image of the ancient evil and cruel goddess of winter, death and night Morana (Kostroma) - these are just ridiculous anti-scientific stretches of overly witty Kostroma local historians acting under the orders of local authorities.

It is also pointless to try to look for the roots of the Snow Maiden’s kinship in the pre-Christian mythology of the Slavs, which by the 13th century was completely and irreparably destroyed by the clergy, and about which almost nothing is now known.

In the cruel medieval times of the introduction of Christianity in Rus', conquered and enslaved by alien Scandinavian bandits-Varangians (Vikings), the Russian people lost both their mythology and the ancient Slavic runic writing, and together with the runic writing - all their historical chronicles, which were kept by the Magi. It was then that the history, beliefs and customs of the Slavs of pre-Christian times were carefully destroyed by the clergy and Varangian authorities for several centuries and became unknown.

Let's turn to the real story of the origin of our Russian Snow Maiden.

It is known that gods are once born, live in the minds of people for some time, and then die, erased from memory.

In the great Russian culture of the 19th century, the miracle of the birth of a new Goddess took place, who will never disappear from the memory of the Russian people as long as our Russian people exist.

To understand this Russian cultural phenomenon, one should not mistakenly assume that only the cunning Jewish people are capable of creating new gods, and that other peoples, in their creativity and traditions, must certainly dance to the tune of only Jewish religious fantasies. As the cultural history of the 19th and 20th centuries shows, Russian people are also not born with bast. It would be nice if Russians did not forget about this in the current 21st century.

Since ancient times, people have made likenesses of humans from various materials (i.e. sculptures), sometimes imagining their sculptures to come to life (remember the ancient myth of Pygmalion and Galatea).

The image of a revived ice girl is often found in northern fairy tales. In Russian folklore of the 19th century recorded by researchers, the Snow Maiden also appears as a character in a folk tale about a girl made of snow who came to life.

Most likely, the Russian folk tale about the Snow Maiden was composed somewhere in the middle of the 18th century, perhaps under the influence of northern tales that came through the Russian Northern Pomors, and was then interpreted in the oral works of various storytellers. This is how versions of this fairy tale appeared in Rus'.

In Russian folk tales, the Snow Maiden miraculously emerges from the snow as a living person. The great Russian playwright A. N. Ostrovsky made the Snow Maiden the Slavic Goddess in 1873, giving her the Slavic gods Father Frost and Red Spring as her parents. And as you know, gods give birth to gods.

The Russian fairytale Snow Maiden is a surprisingly kind character. In Russian folklore there is not even a hint of anything negative in the character of the Snow Maiden. On the contrary, in Russian fairy tales the Snow Maiden appears as an absolutely positive character, but one who finds herself in unfortunate environmental conditions. Even when suffering, the fairy-tale Snow Maiden does not show a single negative trait.

The fairy tale about the Snow Maiden, generated by the creativity of the Russian people, is a unique phenomenon in the entire world of fairy tales. There is not a single negative character in the Russian folk tale “The Snow Maiden”! This does not happen in any other Russian fairy tale or in the fairy tales of other peoples of the world.

The amazing Russian culture of the 19th century gave birth to another similar unique work - the opera “Iolanta”, in which there is also not a single negative character, and the entire plot is also built on the struggle of good noble heroes with unfavorable natural circumstances. But in the opera “Iolanta” the heroes (with the help of scientific achievements) win, but in the folk tale “The Snow Maiden” the heroine dies under the influence of the irresistible force of earthly nature.

The modern image of the pagan Goddess Snow Maiden, whose name has the same root as the words “snowman” and “snow,” is a relatively recent creation of the great Russian culture of the 19th century.

Our divine Russian Snow Maiden originated as a literary character.

The initial study of folk tales about the Snow Maiden was carried out by A. N. Afanasyev (see the second volume of his work “Poetic views of the Slavs on nature”, 1867).

Influenced by information about the fairy-tale snow girl received from Afanasyev, in 1873 A. N. Ostrovsky wrote the poetic play “The Snow Maiden”. In it, the Snow Maiden appears as the daughter of the Slavic gods Father Frost and Spring-Red, who dies during the festive ritual of veneration of the Slavic god of the spring sun, Yarila, who comes into his own on the Day of the Vernal Equinox (on the day of the beginning of astronomical spring, which our ancient pagan ancestors had and New Year's Day).

Later, writers and poets turned the Snow Maiden into a granddaughter - gods are not born as a result of a single creative act of an individual, but always accumulate many ideas of the people.

Many people liked the lyrical, beautiful story about the Snow Maiden. The famous philanthropist Savva Ivanovich Mamontov wanted to stage it on the home stage of the Abramtsevo circle in Moscow. The premiere took place on January 6, 1882.

Costume sketches for her were made by V.M. Vasnetsov (in a light sundress with a hoop or headband), and three years later the famous artist makes new sketches for the production of the opera of the same name by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, based on the play by N.A. Ostrovsky.

Two more famous artists were involved in creating the appearance of the Snow Maiden. M.A. In 1898, Vrubel created the image of the Snow Maiden for a decorative panel in the house of A.V. Morozova (in white clothes woven from snow and down, lined with ermine fur). Later, in 1912, N.K. presented his vision of the Snow Maiden. Roerich (in a fur coat), who participated in the production of a dramatic play about the Snow Maiden in St. Petersburg.

The image of the Snow Maiden was further developed in the works of teachers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who prepared scenarios for children's New Year trees. The story of the snow girl who came to people became increasingly popular and fit very well into the city's Christmas tree programs.

Even before the revolution, figures of the Snow Maiden were hung on the Christmas tree, girls dressed up in Snow Maiden costumes, fragments from fairy tales, Ostrovsky’s plays or operas were staged. At this time, the Snow Maiden did not act as a presenter.

During the period of repressions of 1927–1935, the Snow Maiden suddenly disappeared.

The image of the Snow Maiden received its modern appearance in 1935 in the Soviet Union, after the official permission to celebrate the New Year. In books on organizing New Year trees of this period, the Snow Maiden appears on a par with Father Frost, as his granddaughter, assistant and mediator in communication between him and children.

At the beginning of 1937, Father Frost and the Snow Maiden appeared together for the first time at the Christmas tree celebration at the Moscow House of Unions. It is curious that in early Soviet images the Snow Maiden is often depicted as a little girl; she began to be represented as a girl later. Why is still unknown.

During the war period, the Snow Maiden was forgotten again. As an obligatory constant companion of Santa Claus, she was revived only in the early 1950s thanks to the efforts of children's classics Lev Kassil and Sergei Mikhalkov, who wrote scripts for Kremlin Christmas trees.

Father Frost and the Snow Maiden entered the public life of the country as obligatory attributes of the coming New Year. Since then, every New Year, the Snow Maiden has been given responsibilities, which Santa Claus successfully handles on his own at the American and Western European Christmas trees. And on New Year’s Eve, theater students and actresses often worked as Snow Maidens. In amateur productions, older girls and young women, often with fair hair, were chosen for the role of the Snow Maidens.

Following our wonderful Russian New Year's tradition, now the European New Year's Grandfather has also begun to be accompanied by a beautiful granddaughter.

Irregular working hours. Yes, there are not many of these days a year. But the schedule of each of them is full from morning to evening. And customers appear long before the holiday itself. But the work is not boring and varied - after all, every day you need to speak in front of new people, and this is very interesting. Although some difficulties can be encountered here too - after all, you need to find your own approach to each person and please him in a special way.

The hardest thing is to surprise customers every year. The Snow Maiden doesn’t just need to be able to dance around and know a few New Year’s songs.

How nice it is to feel that everyone is waiting for you! In every apartment, in every team, everyone is happy to see you.
You need to be careful with the props - children constantly try to check whether the Snow Maiden has arrived to them for real, and they pull at the braid, fur coat, and mittens.

So what does it take to become a real New Year’s Snow Maiden and bring a fairy tale into people’s homes this year?

Firstly, you need to have communication skills, responsibility, organizational skills, be able to communicate with children and strangers, and think creatively. Of course, the appearance must be suitable for the image of the granddaughter of Santa Claus. Secondly, you need to be prepared for the following inconveniences: irregular working hours and the inability to plan your personal time, work on weekends and, especially, on holidays. Finally, to practice and understand for sure whether you can become the Snow Maiden, try to fulfill the New Year's dreams of your loved ones, arrange a festive performance for them and please your household.