12-21-2022, 10:57 PM
URALICANS PREPARING FOR FESTIVITIES
Christmas tree lightings, advent calendars, baking, baking, and more baking, Nativity scenes, church plays, choral carol-sings... everywhere in Uralica there's the sense that something big is coming, and that something big is Christmas, which contrary to outside opinion is actually only the second-most festive time in Uralica (Easter tops it), but is a major event regardless. As documented by the Vancouver Sun's Jason Reed two years ago, the churches are full from Christmas Eve night through to St. Stephen's Day, with all businesses not run by Jews and/or Muslims required to close early on the 24th and not re-open until the 27th. Although, like our Canadian allies, we have "Boxing Day," the commerce overload doesn't start until the 27th, giving us time to reflect on the greatest Gift ever given. We also take January 7th off for Orthodox Christmas/Epiphany, even if the Reformed Baptists don't put as much stock in that as the other two Big Three churches do.
"It's a great time of year," said a smiling President Vlasi Malenkov when asked about the Christmas holidays. "Jarkko [Salomäki] was getting all giddy about the Pelastus concert set for Saint Stephen's Day in Syktyvkar, Yevgeny Kolpakov is getting a quick visit from his second son, Vancouver Canucks superstar Matvey Kolpakov, among his other children, who are said to be gathering in the northern suburb of Kolpakovo at their family home... who else? Oh! Yuvan Shestopalov showed me some pictures of a very Samoyedic Christmas setup his more distant family had set up in... ah, there it is, Vorgashor. Cool, huh?"
Many of the "big names" in running Uralica have their Christmas stories, but none more so than the aforementioned Shestopalov. Born to textile-factory workers in Salyakharad, he was given to an orphanage after his mother's death when he was two years old, his father having sank into a deep depression. Being told his father died as well, he found out this wasn't true when the two bumped into each other in mid-2001 in a bar in Naryan-Mar in a moment that ended with his father permanently brain-damaged (and in a coma for eight years) after a massive bar fight broke out after the latter tried to punch Yuvan and missed.
But it was Christmas of 2012 when the Shestopalovs finally became a united family again. Yuvan had reestablished contact with his father's family in the northern Pechora Valley and with his mother's family from the Aksarka area. With Yuvan himself having lived in the Vorkuta area since 2006 (where his now critically-acclaimed writing career first took off), he invited the whole clan to visit him at his modest home on the outskirts of Vorgashor - including his father, who had been living in a care home in Naryan-Mar after the bar fight. It was there that Yuvan very openly forgave his father for the past, and asked forgiveness for "his youthful arrogance" when they had last met.
"For all the gifts given that Christmas," a teary-eyed Shestopalov recalled several years later, "having my father as actual family again was the greatest for me."
Noley Shestopalov still lives, with the rest of the family, in Vorgashor, with him in a care home and the rest in an apartment building close to Yuvan's home. He gave his author son permission to put his story in writing, both as a "cautionary tale" against the dangers of alcoholism and as encouragement to those facing extreme hardship. His speech is still slightly slurred and he requires a walker due to being unstable on his feet, but he has been sober since 2009. And Christmas is special for him as well. He and his son have attended the annual lightup in Vorkuta every year since 2013, and for the last four years, he and the extended family have put together a culturally-Nenets Christmas display at Yuvan's home.
In other parts of Uralica, the major cities are trying to outdo one another again to see who can pull off the best Christmas displays, and this year it looks as if Cheboksary, whose world-famous Zaliv is all decked out in some extravagant lighting, has taken the yearly championship away from threepeat champions Perm. This championship has been on since 2015, with Perm having won five out of the eight overall, Syktyvkar winning in 2016, and Viipuri winning in 2018.
There is also the yearly Uralican push to give to those in need, and as a result there are huge shipments of food going to war-recovering Balochistan.
"The thing that everyone marvels at about Uralica is that, even though there are people 'below the poverty line' in a relative sense, nobody in this country lacks their basic needs, not because of goverment programs but because of a combination of internal charity year-round and good working conditions," says Risto Lehtinen, Uralica's Minister of Infrastructure and Community Development. "I am very honoured to say that Uralicans are some of the world's most generous, giving people. Since we take such care of each other, is it any wonder that Uralicans have so much to give elsewhere too?"
Michael Hiebert, the Minister of Foreign Aid and International Development, adds, "With Judah Kalifungwa-Uralets being my new deputy minister, I have been able to help various charities and drive initiatives connect directly with the ERHDC as its flights go back and forth between Uralica and Balochistan. The amount that has been given is unreal."
Christmas tree lightings, advent calendars, baking, baking, and more baking, Nativity scenes, church plays, choral carol-sings... everywhere in Uralica there's the sense that something big is coming, and that something big is Christmas, which contrary to outside opinion is actually only the second-most festive time in Uralica (Easter tops it), but is a major event regardless. As documented by the Vancouver Sun's Jason Reed two years ago, the churches are full from Christmas Eve night through to St. Stephen's Day, with all businesses not run by Jews and/or Muslims required to close early on the 24th and not re-open until the 27th. Although, like our Canadian allies, we have "Boxing Day," the commerce overload doesn't start until the 27th, giving us time to reflect on the greatest Gift ever given. We also take January 7th off for Orthodox Christmas/Epiphany, even if the Reformed Baptists don't put as much stock in that as the other two Big Three churches do.
"It's a great time of year," said a smiling President Vlasi Malenkov when asked about the Christmas holidays. "Jarkko [Salomäki] was getting all giddy about the Pelastus concert set for Saint Stephen's Day in Syktyvkar, Yevgeny Kolpakov is getting a quick visit from his second son, Vancouver Canucks superstar Matvey Kolpakov, among his other children, who are said to be gathering in the northern suburb of Kolpakovo at their family home... who else? Oh! Yuvan Shestopalov showed me some pictures of a very Samoyedic Christmas setup his more distant family had set up in... ah, there it is, Vorgashor. Cool, huh?"
Many of the "big names" in running Uralica have their Christmas stories, but none more so than the aforementioned Shestopalov. Born to textile-factory workers in Salyakharad, he was given to an orphanage after his mother's death when he was two years old, his father having sank into a deep depression. Being told his father died as well, he found out this wasn't true when the two bumped into each other in mid-2001 in a bar in Naryan-Mar in a moment that ended with his father permanently brain-damaged (and in a coma for eight years) after a massive bar fight broke out after the latter tried to punch Yuvan and missed.
But it was Christmas of 2012 when the Shestopalovs finally became a united family again. Yuvan had reestablished contact with his father's family in the northern Pechora Valley and with his mother's family from the Aksarka area. With Yuvan himself having lived in the Vorkuta area since 2006 (where his now critically-acclaimed writing career first took off), he invited the whole clan to visit him at his modest home on the outskirts of Vorgashor - including his father, who had been living in a care home in Naryan-Mar after the bar fight. It was there that Yuvan very openly forgave his father for the past, and asked forgiveness for "his youthful arrogance" when they had last met.
"For all the gifts given that Christmas," a teary-eyed Shestopalov recalled several years later, "having my father as actual family again was the greatest for me."
Noley Shestopalov still lives, with the rest of the family, in Vorgashor, with him in a care home and the rest in an apartment building close to Yuvan's home. He gave his author son permission to put his story in writing, both as a "cautionary tale" against the dangers of alcoholism and as encouragement to those facing extreme hardship. His speech is still slightly slurred and he requires a walker due to being unstable on his feet, but he has been sober since 2009. And Christmas is special for him as well. He and his son have attended the annual lightup in Vorkuta every year since 2013, and for the last four years, he and the extended family have put together a culturally-Nenets Christmas display at Yuvan's home.
In other parts of Uralica, the major cities are trying to outdo one another again to see who can pull off the best Christmas displays, and this year it looks as if Cheboksary, whose world-famous Zaliv is all decked out in some extravagant lighting, has taken the yearly championship away from threepeat champions Perm. This championship has been on since 2015, with Perm having won five out of the eight overall, Syktyvkar winning in 2016, and Viipuri winning in 2018.
There is also the yearly Uralican push to give to those in need, and as a result there are huge shipments of food going to war-recovering Balochistan.
"The thing that everyone marvels at about Uralica is that, even though there are people 'below the poverty line' in a relative sense, nobody in this country lacks their basic needs, not because of goverment programs but because of a combination of internal charity year-round and good working conditions," says Risto Lehtinen, Uralica's Minister of Infrastructure and Community Development. "I am very honoured to say that Uralicans are some of the world's most generous, giving people. Since we take such care of each other, is it any wonder that Uralicans have so much to give elsewhere too?"
Michael Hiebert, the Minister of Foreign Aid and International Development, adds, "With Judah Kalifungwa-Uralets being my new deputy minister, I have been able to help various charities and drive initiatives connect directly with the ERHDC as its flights go back and forth between Uralica and Balochistan. The amount that has been given is unreal."
Spammers Beware! I will destroy you by the POWAH of the JARK SIDE! ALL SPAMMERS WILL BE EXTERMINATED ON SIGHT.
Spammers EXTERMINATED: 120
(06-11-2022, 10:13 PM)Kyng Wrote: I love how [Abacab] has a track with a section named "Lurker", when the album title itself looks like Lurker's attempt to spell "Abacus" or something .
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