vihris-gari: Yea we celebrate Christmas and New Year as well(mostly a tradition that immigrated with us from the Ukraine) There was this funny thing which happened once on a night adjacent to one of the (soon becoming official, I hope) winter holidays. There was this door to door saleswoman came knocking on ours and when she came in and saw the Christmas tree in al its lit up glory, she was so HORRIFED, you'd think she saw crucifixes hanging on our walls. She said :blasphemers, how dare you! We wanted to explain that the tree is put merely to make New Year seem more official and festive, but she didn't want to hear a thing. She stormed out screaming from our apartment. We had nothing to do but to laugh at ther closemindedness. Oh, well it was several years ago. Now everyone(even the locals) are celebrating New Year,and putting up trees and decorations, and what not to signify the event. Finally, progress in the right direction.