Текст на русском находится внизу страницы, после английского
Christmas is meant to be in winter. It’s supposed to be dark, cold and snowy. Or at least for New Year’s, like people were used to back in the Soviet days. Technically, New Year’s is the smaller holiday, and Christmas is the big one – but whatever, doesn’t really matter.
Here in Australia, obviously, the seasons are flipped, so Christmas lands right in the middle of summer. Aussies absolutely lean into it – you’ll see Santa on a surfboard, kangaroos pulling the sleigh instead of reindeer, and lady elves in bikinis hanging out on the beach. But deep down, there’s still a real nostalgia for the cold, snowy, European-style Christmas.
So, being the romantic and practical lot they are, Aussies celebrate Christmas twice. Once at the proper time in December, in the heat of summer. And then again in the middle of winter – a "White Christmas"! It’s not an official public holiday or anything, more like nighttime festivals. The best ones are up in the mountains where there’s actual snow and you can even go skiing. But it’s not just up there.
In Victoria, one of the biggest winter events is in Ballarat – it’s called the Winter Wonderlights. And yep, that’s exactly why I ended up heading out to Ballarat. There’s a place there called Sovereign Hill – a tourist park made to look like a 19th-century gold rush town, built right on top of an old gold mine. They’ve got old-timey houses, full-on recreated streets, and people walking around dressed in period gear (mostly volunteers who just love history, as far as I can tell). They do demos like gold smelting and musket firing and all that. Kids and Chinese tourists go absolutely nuts for it.
In winter, Sovereign Hill puts on the Winter Wonderlights festival – basically, Christmas in July. All the old buildings are lit up with moving light projections, there’s fairy lights everywhere, fake snow foam falling off the rooftops, music playing, fireworks going off… and wandering through the streets you’ll spot a proper St. Nicholas in a red coat (not some dodgy shopping-centre Santa either).
Anyway, here are the photos:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/147740420@N06/9cWu9XqVQM
Правильное Рождество - зимой и со снегом
Рождество должно быть зимой. В Рождество должно быть темно, холодно и снежно. Ну или на Новый Год, как привыкли советские люди. На самом деле, Новый Год - это праздник маленький, а Рождество - большой. Но не суть дело.