A Russian Christmas Story

Once upon a time there was an old Russian lady, Baboushka, which means 'grandmother' in Russian. It was said that Baboushka was old and had no family. She rarely received guests and was so used to living alone in a big house that all she could think of was cleaning, looking after her empty assets and doing the household chores. One cold evening, at nightfall, when she was still scrubbing her floors, the three Wise Men passed her house on their way to see the Holy Child. They saw her in the window and invited her to come with them to see the new King of the world, but he refused. She told them that her floors were not yet clean.

Since she didn’t have the chance to entertain guests too often, she invited them to her house to spend the night. The wise men gracefully declined, saying that they were in a hurry. They bid her farewell and went on their way. Later in the night Baboushka was sorry she didn’t go with the three men and, gathering a few knickknacks from her scanty possessions, set off to find them and the Holy Child. She walked and walked; inquiring to several people about the three traveling men and the Holy Child fated to be the King of the world but could not find them.

The story goes that she is still looking, wandering from place to place in search of them. On the eve of Epiphany of 6th of January (in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the baptism of Jesus Christ), she also leaves trinkets as gifts to the good children, hoping that they will help her find Baby Jesus.

This Baboushka character had been more popular in old Russia before the revolution of 1917. We hope you enjoyed this legend.

Merry Christmas to You!