As a rule, when people talk about New Year’s and Christmas in Kharkiv in the 19th and early 20th centuries, they recall a variety of festivities. However, in addition to church services, feasts, and entertainment traditions, much was done for the poor, the sick, and children. After all, Christmas is, above all, a celebration of love and kindness. To understand just how compassionate and generous the residents of our city were, let’s take the year 1902 as an example. I should note that until 1918, the Julian calendar was in use in our region, according to which Christmas fell on December 24–25.
Preparations for the holiday charity events in Kharkiv began well in advance: On December 12, by personal order of the governor of Kharkiv, Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Obolensky, a fundraising campaign was launched among the city’s residents to collect donations for preparing a Christmas Eve dinner and serving hot tea to the poor.
The funds raised by December 23 made it possible to prepare a Christmas Eve dinner for 600 people in need at the night shelter. The menu for the festive evening on December 24, attended by 375 men and 76 women, consisted of borscht, pies, uzvar, and tea. All attendees were also provided with free lodging and given a mug and a wooden spoon as souvenirs. Given that Kharkiv’s population at that time was significantly smaller than it is today, this event was an exceptional act of charity toward one’s neighbors.
But it wasn’t just the collection of donations for a Christmas dinner for hundreds of homeless people that made our city famous more than 100 years ago. During the Christmas season, the newspapers of that time published appeals to all kind-hearted people. In 1902, for example, we read:
“We would like to draw the attention of donors to the following:
- The Rakitsky family, who live in Osnova, is in a very dire situation. According to Father Mikhail Klyachnov, the family consists of a mother and seven children, four of whom are attending various educational institutions. The situation is most dire for the girl attending Mrs. Chernyakovskaya’s gymnasium. She is about to be expelled in the coming days for failing to pay her tuition. Her parents’ only hope lies in kind-hearted people who will come to the aid of this poor girl striving to get an education. The Radetskys live in Osnova, on Balashovskaya Street, in Moskaleva’s house.
- In the settlement of Ivanovka on Kovsharovka, on Nadvorny Lane, in Pyatnitsky’s house, lives a family in dire need—that of the seriously ill townsman Pavel Zavadsky, which includes three small children.
- Agrafena Bakhmutenko, who is ill and unable to work, has a 70-year-old mother. Address: Moskalevka, Prikhodkovsky Lane, 10.
- To the lonely elderly woman Elisaveta Nikitina Khlevinskaya. Address: Kholodnaya Gora, Kladbishchenskaya Street, 13.
- Regarding the plight of Maria Petrovna Goncharova, who has six children. Address: Kholodnaya Gora, Tserkovny Lane, 9.
- Alexander Ivanovich Küstern, a former technician, lives at No. Simonovsky Lane, 9. He worked on the construction of railroads, parish schools, and bridges in the city of Kharkiv. His eyesight has been deteriorating for several years now, and he is now nearly blind. His wife broke her arm after falling from a horse-drawn carriage. They cannot support themselves through their own labor and are even lacking food.
- The plight of two unfortunate women—Varvara Shaporenko, a 70-year-old woman, and her daughter, Maria Shaporenko. Since the latter is suffering from tuberculosis, both women are deprived of any means of support. Address: Zaikovskaya Street, 15.
- “Regarding the extremely dire circumstances of the ailing widow Lazareva and her six children. Address: Moskalevka, Valerianovskaya Street, 77”
You have to admit, it’s not the worst Christmas tradition for the Kharkiv media.
The authorities and city residents also organized a celebration for people with mental illness. On December 26 at 7:00 p.m., a concert and dance party were held at the Saburova Dacha. On the right side of the hospital’s large hall, a big Christmas tree was set up, decorated with sweets, cardboard ornaments, and multicolored electric lights. Next to it were simple gifts for the patients—perfume, small mirrors, scarves, pencils, and other items. These were purchased not only with funds allocated by the local council but also with donations from private individuals. At 8:00 p.m., a musical concert began for the patients. At the end of the second set, all of the aforementioned gifts were distributed. According to accounts from contemporaries, many patients received them with childlike joy and delight.
And on December 27, a festive Christmas tree celebration was held for the students in the building of the 19th Parish School, funded by its honorary trustee, Ivan Alekseevich Sergeev. Everyone particularly remembered the song “Ah, You Night” performed by the children’s choir, as well as the reading in Ukrainian of excerpts from Taras Shevchenko’s poems. After the celebration, all 160 students received gifts in the form of bags containing candy, gingerbread, and books of fairy tales. Tea was served to the parents.
The orphans in our city weren’t forgotten either. On the evening of December 29, the Olginsky Orphanage organized a wonderful New Year’s celebration for its 36 young residents. In addition to a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, singing, dancing, and treats, there was one important detail: before buying the gifts, the caregivers asked the children what they wanted. So, at the festive gathering, each of the young orphans received not just a gift, but exactly what they had asked for.
During the Soviet era, of course, people loved to talk about the oppression of the working class, but in pre-revolutionary Kharkiv, both they and their children were also given attention during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. For example, on December 28 and 29, a Christmas tree party was organized for the children of railroad workers at the railcar repair shops of the Kursk-Kharkiv-Sevastopol Railroad. Under a large tree decorated with electric lights, they placed a cotton-wool Santa Claus, whose eyes and mouth glowed with electric light. The children’s delight knew no bounds. Also, to everyone’s delight, an electric carousel was set up. An orchestra played throughout the celebration, and both adults and children danced and formed circles to dance in. At 7:00 p.m., the children, having received bags of treats as gifts, went home happy and content.
The next day, December 30, thanks to the efforts of the “Society for the Promotion of Children’s Physical Education and Welfare,” a grand Christmas tree celebration was organized at the Kharkiv Stock Exchange building for the poorest children in our city. Eyewitnesses describe what happened at the time as follows:
“At one o’clock in the afternoon, 300 boys and girls—including some very young ones—entered the stock exchange hall, where a decorated Christmas tree stood proudly, gifts were laid out, and refreshments had been prepared. The children received dresses, underwear, toys, books, and treats. At tables set up along the walls of the hall, the children were served milk, tea, crackers, and rolls. There, the children listened to a gramophone, sang songs, and danced in circles. At 4:00 p.m., the Christmas tree sparkled with lights, the string orchestra of the Orenburg Cossack Regiment entered the hall, and the children’s faces lit up with delight. The dancing began, and by the time it ended, around 6 p.m., although the children behaved quite freely, they did not disrupt the order in any way. As the little underprivileged children, who were so happy that day, left the celebration, some of them were met on the street by their parents and relatives, who sent their warmest wishes to the kind people who had given their children the chance to feel that “the days of great celebration have now begun.”
Unfortunately, so much from those days has been forgotten and is no longer practiced today. However, it is truly heartening to know that more than 100 years ago, our city had such “traditions of kindness” and such kind and compassionate people during Christmas and New Year’s.
