Now that the holidays are over, I wanted to post about the New Year's tradition of Ded Moroz. From my days in Macedonia, I recall the Santa Claus equivalent called "Dedo Mraz" or Grandfather Frost, and they have the same tradition in Kazakhstan. Here, the Russian name is "Ded Moroz" and translates the same as the Macedonian. One difference is that Ded Moroz is assisted by Snegurochka, his granddaughter.
I asked my local friends for more information on Ded Moroz to see what the similarities and differences are, and there are some interesting differences. Ded Moroz does not live at the North Pole, and he doesn't have elves to make the toys for him. He lives in the forest, and the forest animals help him make the gifts for the children. I mentioned to my friends that Santa Claus leaves lumps of coal for the bad kids, and I asked what Ded Moroz leaves for the bad kids. The response was that there are no bad kids. I wondered how parents get their kids to be good for the month leading up to New Year's.
As I was trying to clarify Snegurochka's role, I learned that people here don't know that Santa Claus is married. My friends said that Snegurochka was basically someone to help Ded Moroz and keep him company. They felt sad for Santa because he's all alone, so I told them that he had Mrs. Claus with him up at the North Pole. They seemed relieved to know that Santa wasn't alone.
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