CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION IN GLASGOW RUSSIAN ORTHODOX SCHOOL
Friday, March 26, 2010 
On the 9th of January 2010 Glasgow Russian Orthodox Parish School celebrated Christmas and New Year. Archpriest Gennady Andreev, the newly appointed rector of the Parish of St Kentigern in Glasgow inaugurated the event. This was Fr Gennady’s first day in Glasgow and all the children and parents had a possibility to meet and talk to Batushka.
The participants of 2010 festive concert were not only the children of the school but also our guests – the choir “Russkaya Cappella”. Christmas songs and music by D. Bortnyansky, P. Tchaikovsky, A.Kastalsky was performed by the choir along with the school pupils. Aleksey Rudnevsky, professor of the Moscow Conservatoire, choirmaster at the Moscow church of the Trinity-St Sergius Monastery .
The children of all ages presented the Nativity Play on a brightly decorated stage. This year’s story was about two sisters, one of whom set a good example of politeness, caring, loving and sympathetic attitude to others while the other sister learned a lesson of kindness and generosity. All the forest animals were happy to help the three kings and Mashen’ka and Marfushen’ka to decorate an evergreen Christmas tree! 
The long-awaited guests of the celebration – Father Frost and Snow maiden lit up the festive Christmas tree. The darkness cleared away and the children found a Father Frost’s sack full of presents under the tree. The sack “had been stolen” by another festive character – the Fox, saucy-baggage. But she was never punished by good-hearted children. Instead she was allowed to participate in the celebration. And the celebration was enjoyed by everyone – boys and girls danced around the Christmastree, took part in the competitions, guessed the riddles and sang Christmas songs, exactly the way they were taught by their music teacher – Alina Marshaniya. And finally, there was no way to leave without a present from Father Frost and good spirits. (See Photo Gallery)