RISHON LEZION, Israel --?
For years, many Israelis got a little jittery as New Year's Eve approached.
Their neighbors, some of the nearly 1 million Soviet citizens who flocked to the Jewish state as the Communist regime collapsed, would decorate fir trees and wear Santa Claus-like hats, celebrating New Year's Soviet-style.
But after 20 years, Israel has come to terms with the Christmas-like custom, even if most of the country lights Hanukkah candles this time of year.
Soviet-born immigrants will ring in this New Year with more oomph than ever before - a testament to the comfortable and influential niche they've carved for themselves in Israeli society. One hotel is throwing a Russian winterland bash and charging up to $660 a plate.
"How can we not celebrate? There's no holiday in Israel like this one," said Violetta Galbert, a nurse from Moscow, as her toddler son dived into a large box of tinsel at a supermarket catering to the Soviet-born immigrant community.
New Year's is not an official holiday in Israel because it is not a Jewish commemoration, but many young secular Israelis flock to bars and discos on Dec. 31.
It is the Soviet-style celebrations, though, that have raised eyebrows.
Irene Yavchunovsky's experience in the early 90s was commonplace: Her first year in the country, she decorated a fake miniature tree she brought from her native Ukraine - shocking her religious Jewish landlord.
"He said, 'What are you doing?' I said, 'It's not religious,'" Yavchunovsky, a writer and translator, recalled. "He was not happy we were doing those things in his apartment."
She tried, in vain, to explain: Her family was not celebrating Christmas. Soviet citizens didn't even know what Christmas was - the Communist regime replaced all religious holidays with party-imposed commemorations. "Novy God," Russian for New Year's, was the only nonpolitical holiday the Soviets allowed. Christmas icons were stripped of their religious symbolism and attached to New Year's Eve.
"It was the best, cleanest, most joyful holiday. It was completely clean of ideology," said Masha Buman, who arrived in Israel from what was then Leningrad. In the early 90s, she ran workshops for Israeli social workers to teach them the symbolic significance of Novy God. They were relieved to learn that it wasn't a Christian tradition, she said.
By most accounts, the Soviet immigration is considered an Israeli success story. The tiny country took in nearly a third of one million people in a two-year period and eventually absorbed more than a million newcomers, boosting its population by some 20 percent.
Two decades later, Soviet emigres occupy virtually every corner of Israeli society. Soviet immigrants or their children hold senior Cabinet posts and important military commands, and freely marry veteran Israelis. Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, himself came from the Soviet Union in the late 1970s.
Israeli rabbis, however, are less accepting of the immigrants' New Year merrymaking. Since 1998, they have banned most of the country's hotels and banquet halls - which are under their kosher supervision - to display trees, ornaments and other reminders of the holiday.
Novy God decorations have still made it out in the open. No longer are statues of Santa - called Grandpa Frost in Russian - sold only in small Russian-language bookstores. Today they're displayed nationwide in some of Israel's biggest supermarket chains - ones that don't seek rabbinic certification, like the Tiv Taam megastore in Rishon Lezion, a city south of Tel Aviv.
At the entrance to the store, a smiling mustachioed snowman statue wearing a Grandpa Frost hat towers over a tall pyramid of canned peas, mushrooms and mayonnaise - essential ingredients for traditional Novy God fare.
The store is also well stocked with vodka bearing labels like Kremlin and Russian Standard, hundreds of pounds of red caviar, a Russian delicacy, and - to the chagrin of many Israelis - pork, which is not kosher.
Store manager Alexey Spitsin, who is from Uzbekistan, says many Israeli customers objected to the Novy God decorations when he began working there 13 years ago, but this year only a few complained.
While many immigrants celebrate at home, Israel's most successful Soviet emigres will be throwing the most expensive Novy God party in the country's history - an opulent display of the oligarch-style wealth some quickly attained here and in the Old Country.
The Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel on the Mediterranean seashore will be transformed into a Russian winter wonderland, with a wet bar carved of ice and faux snow fluttering from the ceiling. Partygoers will bid on works of art flown in from around the world. Some are expected to fetch millions.
The 300 Russian-speaking invitees include local politicians and businesspeople, and Jewish VIPs from Russia and Georgia flying in for the party on private jets.
One man is on the blacklist: Grandpa Frost. The hotel won't allow him in since he'd threaten its kosher certification.
Party organizer Yulia Mohrik said she reached a tasteful compromise: Grandpa Frost will ride around the hotel's perimeter in a horse-drawn carriage - shipped in from Buckingham Palace, no less - and will wave to the guests through the windows.
While the country's rabbis are reluctant to embrace the holiday, Israeli politicians have begun to endorse it.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended his first official Novy God greetings last year. He did it again this year, over the objections of some in his office who are still uncomfortable with the holiday.
Source: http://www.lakewyliepilot.com/2011/12/30/1376510/israel-warms-up-to-new-years-soviet.html
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As a kid growing up in Central New York, we always had plenty of snow thanks to the lake effect off of the Great Lakes. I would sled and ski, cross country and downhill constantly. Each year once Halloween passed, I found myself with elbows pressed on the window sills, head in my hands, just waiting for the first snowfall to totally transform the earth white.
So what causes our region to undergo this wardrobe change into white? The answer lies partly in the intricate design of each snowflake and science oh mystical science.
However, the term ?snowflake? is actually incorrect. Scientifically speaking, the word snowflake refers to a cluster of snow crystals stuck together. Snowflakes are what we usually encounter in an everyday flurry. The awe-inspiring six-sided individual snow crystals are spotted falling softly from the sky only on those special winter days where there is little to no wind and the weather conditions are just right. Most of us probably recall seeing a perfect snow crystal fall onto our gloved hand at one point or another in our lives and it really is amazing to see.
Many different shapes and types of snow crystals exist, not just the aforementioned six cornered variety. The type and shape of each snow crystal is determined by the atmospheric temperature and supersaturation of water vapor in the air, also known as the humidity. The most complex designs occur when humidity in the air is the highest. 
Having said that, there is more to the picture than just what we see on the surface. If you pierce a small, deep hole in the snow you may notice the snow way down inside appearing bright blue. Also, different layers of snow and bubbly ice like that of frozen waterfalls and glaciers sometimes have been observed to emit a subtle blue or even greenish hue. Red algae is also said to alter the perceived color of snow. These and other topics relating to the physics of snow continue to captivate researchers and science lovers alike as they have for over 100 years.
Acknowledgements: With very special thanks to Ken Libbrecht for allowing me to interview him via email. I learned so much and he really helped make this article possible. If you want to savor the magic of snowflakes a little longer, check out his amazing books on Snow Crystals and Snowflakes! His website is also well written and very fun to read!
