Orthodox St. Petersburg residents protest against the city's New Year's decorations and the "premature" Christmas market

A group of Orthodox Petersburgers sent a letter to the City Advertising Center protesting the festive decoration of the city. Believers were outraged that the Peter and Paul Fortress was "inscribed" in the New Year's landscape as one of the elements. As a result, under the spire of an Orthodox cathedral crowned with an angel with a cross during the days of the Nativity Fast, congratulations on the New Year appeared - a secular holiday, "which, as a rule, is alien to the Orthodox."

Some Orthodox are also dissatisfied with the Christmas market arranged on Arts Square, next to the monument to Pushkin. The authors of the letter believe that this event has nothing to do with a Christian holiday. Fair entertainment with a plentiful quick treat, in their opinion, is more appropriate during Christmas time or Maslenitsa.

Nikolai Popchenkov, deputy director of the City Advertising Center, said in response to a letter that at the beginning of 2007, instead of outrageous Orthodox congratulations, a congratulation on Christmas will appear.

Sources

• A group of Orthodox Petersburgers is dissatisfied with the New Year decoration of the city, believing that it leads away from understanding the essence of the holiday of the Nativity of Christ // Portal-Credo.ru. 2006. 22 12 December.
• New Year's greetings on the wall of the Peter and Paul Fortress will be replaced with the inscription "Merry Christmas!" // There. December 28th.