New Year’s exhibition at the National Archives

On New Year’s Eve, at the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, the public association «Belarusian Women’s Union» initiated the unusual exhibition «The Christmas Tree of Our Childhood». It presents New Year’s photographs and only black and white photographs from the family archives of the workers. In addition to photographs, visitors will be able to see New Year’s cards of the past and present centuries from the personal collections of the archive, New Year’s periodicals «Vyaselka», «Worker and Sylyanka», «Athletes of Belarus», «Literature and Mastatstva», an issue of the children’s newspaper «Zorka». They are all dated December 31st and are filled with beautiful illustrations and poetry. For the New Year’s exhibition, archive workers brought Christmas tree decorations from different years, decorations made of paper, cardboard, garlands, and rare toys made of cotton wool – each with its own character.

From the first days of December, artificial Christmas trees, tinsel, garlands and, of course, favorite Christmas tree decorations are taken out of closets and mezzanines in apartments all over the city. Both children and adults enthusiastically sort through the charming figures of people and animals, look at the patterns on the balls, and create a composition under the Christmas tree. But only a few managed to preserve and pass on from generation to generation the collection of fragile glass decorations and delicate cotton toys that were used to decorate the Christmas tree in the last century.

The exhibition reflects the unique face of the Soviet New Year holiday with tangerines and champagne and allows you to feel the atmosphere of that time. It is thanks to the careful and reverent attitude of the archive workers that such unique exhibits of this exhibition have been preserved and lovingly passed on to families.