New Year party "Visiting the Empress"

The most welcome and joyful holiday is always and for all the New Year. Although with each passing year his charm and charm is lost. Perhaps this is due to the fact that it is increasingly reduced to an elementary celebration at the table and in front of the TV. And if you go to the distant past with the help of the Internet or the encyclopedia, you can find out about this holiday a lot of interesting things.

For example, it is curious that the New Year was celebrated in winter only by the decree of Peter the Great. And before this decree, according to which the New Year party was postponed From September 1 to January 1 , only Christmas Eve and Christmas were on winter holidays. And even earlier, before the autumn New Year, this holiday was on March, 1st. And the main thing during the celebration was not even the variety and abundance of food and drinks, but the general folk festivals.

From Moscow under Peter the Great, the capital was moved to St. Petersburg, and the main festival was also transferred there. On a large square near the Peter and Paul Fortress, again, a law, signed by the tsar himself, arranged grandiose celebrations. Those who did not appear without a justifiable reason were severely punished.

And since the time of Empress Elizabeth 1, daughter of Peter the Great, the New Year party has gradually grown into a masquerade, since it was she who started the disguises that night. She herself was in the ballroom in a man's suit. Empress Catherine continued the tradition proposed by her predecessor. She changed clothes in 1756, 7 men in a woman's dress and invited them for her festive table. She herself was on New Year's holiday, hiding her face under a mask.

That's where the fun of disguises and the most unimaginable fancy dresses came to the present. And today no mom will send her baby to a tree in ordinary clothes, not having decorated her with special adornments, without wearing any masquerade attribute: hare ears, mask or New Year's masks.

And what if a New Year's party is planned at home, try to move with guests to that remote past? Ball in the style of 18 or early 19 century! Its cool! Ladies in crinolines, men in tailcoats. Or vice versa: men in crinolines, and ladies in short pants and hats!

By the way, you can easily build a ball dress from grandmother's. Of course, this is not difficult if the grandmother has large forms. Otherwise, when it is not possible to get a wide long dress, you should use ordinary sheets, throwing one over one shoulder and the other through the other. And then follows the same algorithm for converting these "masquerade costume patterns" into a real ladies' ball gown.

By placing under it the folds of the material below the waist and in the chest area, tying the waist with a wide belt, lowering the shoulders to make the decollete, the man will easily turn into a lady. And cosmetics will complete the plan. It is perfectly permissible to use wigs or ladies' hats, berets, or scarf. Such a transformation will immediately set everyone who had a New Year's party for unrestrained fun!

Representatives of the same fair sex for the costume will need short panties - "bicycles" or breeches, pantyhose and wide blousons with bows, or decorated with improvised jabots sewn on a blouse of ribbons. The place where the panties end is worth bandaging with ribbons, and putting a mask on your face - glasses. The hat is prepared at will.

By the way, if a New Year's party for teenagers is being prepared, then costumes can be offered right at a time when everyone is already in the collection. Usually children in their teens do not particularly like to prepare fancy dresses in advance, but they gladly take part in improvised disguises.

And if you still invite them to play in the "New Year at the Empress", using the ancient etiquette, old entertainment, without which there was not a single celebration, this night will be simply unforgettable. Theatrical charades, live pictures, even the now famous and beloved "crocodile" - these are the contests of the New Year's party, arranged "in the old days".