(7 Jan 2000) Russian/Nat
Russian Christians filled churches all over the country on Friday to celebrate the Orthodox Christmas.
Like other religious festivals, Christmas festivities were banned during Russia's 70 years of Communist rule.
But since the totalitarian rule came to an end, Christianity has enjoyed a resurgence with one high-profile worshipper in the shape of Boris Yeltsin choosing to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to mark the occasion.
All over the capital, Christian Muscovites thronged to church to celebrate the Orthodox Christmas.
Like other Eastern Orthodox churches, Russia uses the old Julian calendar, in which the birth of Christ is celebrated two weeks later than in the West.
Public holidays have always been an opportunity for Russians to celebrate age-old folk traditions and Christmas Day was no exception.
At Kolomenskoye, once the summer residence of eighteenth century Tsars, crowds watched and listened as musicians played traditional folk music outside the church.
This was a taste of old Imperial Russia, on a day only celebrated since the lifting of draconian Communist laws banning religious festivities.
Even in this new climate of religious tolerance, the Orthodox Christmas is a low-key affair, playing second fiddle to the more colourful Easter celebrations.
But even for the nonreligious, it's a chance to take a break from work and enjoy a little leisure time.
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"It's just a holiday, but you don't notice it as a spiritual holiday. It just feels like the continuation of New Year. Everyone's lively, happy. It doesn't feel like a Christian holiday."
SUPER CAPTION: Vox pop
Elsewhere in the city, Christmas Day dog sleigh races evoked another old tradition of imperial Russia.
Husky dogs pulled skiers behind them in a race across a Moscow Park.
In Moscow's central Pushkin Square families crowded to admire the colourful street decorations, while couples strolled in and out of those stores still open along Tverskaya Street, leading to the Kremlin.
The culmination of the religious festivities is to be an evening Christmas service conducted by Patriarch Alexei II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, in the restored Christ Saviour cathedral.
The patriarch returned to Moscow on Friday after accompanying former President Boris Yeltsin to Israel to mark Christmas with other Orthodox leaders.
The imposing, gold-domed cathedral, on the banks of the Moscow River, was sanctified on New Year's Eve so that it could be used for the capital's main Christmas Day service.
It was built over the last five years on the site of a cathedral that was blown up on orders of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
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