S'Dnyom Pobeda - Happy Victory Day!

Yesterday (Wednesday, May 9th) was a big national holiday here, commemorating the victory of the Russians over the Nazis in WWII. Symbolic of Russia in general, this day is held one day after the rest of the Europe celebrates their victory over the Nazis--everything in Russia has to be done differently than in Europe, what can I say?

Anyway, it was an exceptionally gross day yesterday, and most of the festivities were muted or even canceled altogether. But the parade happened, and we enjoyed checking it out. Then we went to a concert by Alexander Rozenbaum, a famous Russian singer who happens to be proudly and openly Jewish, even singing a handful of songs with Hebrew lyrics.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to hear any of his non-traditional stuff. In fact, the half part of the concert was him singing old Soviet war songs. The most memorable part, aside from the music that we didn't understand, was the guy who threw up in the seat behind me (that's three times in three weeks, for those of you who are counting). Otherwise, it's hard to describe the whole event in words; instead, take a look at the pictures--which I have diligently captioned and even translated the banners--by clicking here.

Marching sailors from one of the city's many military universities.

Alyson enjoys intermission at the concert hall.