The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-01-13
HAPPY NEW YEARsKY FOR
 THE SUBJECTS OF THE ozAF


 Merry New Yearsky This is the greeting which the subjects of the Russian Car will extend to each
 other tonight, for the first of Janu-
 ary. new styIey is not observed by the adherents of the Eastern Church,
 who still cling to the Julian method of reckoning time The Russian
 Jan uary, according to the Gregorian calendar, and the Serbs, BuIgarians, Greeks, Roumanians and Montene-
 grins observe the same day as the Russians.
 1 The old New Yearss Eve will not pass unnoticed on this side of the Atlantic for in North America there are nearly half a million adherents of the Eastern Church. Nearly half l Yof these are Greeks, hundreds Of thousands of whom have enafgrated
 to the New World and are employed in the construction of railways. the blacking of boots, the shaving Of
 faces, the selling of fruit, and the
 other occupations for which the I A1nericanized Greek has manifested
 church has about 75,000 members in
 the United States and Canada and 1 the Seryian church has almost as many adherents. All of these will
 celebrate New Years Eve tonight. and, as a. result. many industries
 largely dependent upon Greek labor f will have to shut down tomorrow The proper recognition of the arrival
 of a New Year does not leave the
 average Greek Iaborer in a eondi-
 ton to pursue his ordinary toiI on
 the morrow.
 The Russian New Year celebration
 is really the glorious finish of the i Christmas festival. as the subjects ] of the sCzar devote the whole inter- i vening week to festivities While | aS1fi
 the Czar's armies, and vast mum I bers are prisoners of the tws Kaisers5 the war has not made any l profound effect on the customs and mode of life of the stay-af-h homes, and it is probable that New Years ! festivities will be carried out on the l usual scale. Petrograd, Moscow and
 other Russian cities give themselves I over to unrestrained merriment as
 soon as the firing of cannon official I Iy announces the birth of the infant l year The Car and members of the l imperial family, as well as a large i proportion of the people, attend. pub- lie mass at midnight The religious exercises end exactly at twelve, # when a salute Of a Hundred guns is
 the signal fors begnning the revelry I Ordinarily the Russian celebration I Of the New ear continues two l weeks At the end of that period 4 of feasting and merry-mahng the people attend solemn religious ser
 vices and fast for a day.
 On the door of every Russian
 house the sign of the cross will be marked tomorrow. That is suppos- 1 ed to keep Satan from the premises for a year to come. No pious Rus sian would think of neg1ectfng this l precaution against the unwelcome I attentions of the Prince of Evil
 Until 1752 England and her I American colonies observed the old sf style calendar which is still in vogue in Russia and the Balkan States. The
 change. erected by dropping eleven l days, was far from popular and came in for much denunciatfon. The
 American colonists Of the more ig- norant class were outspoken in their icriticisnn, and English off1eials were l often greeted in the streets with the cry, Thief! You stole eleven days
 from us. Give us back our eleven