Christmas in Russia then return home for the traditional Christmas Eve "Holy Supper", which consists of 12 dishes, one to honour each of the Twelve Apostles. Devout families will then return to church for the "всенощная" All Night Vigil. Then again, on Christmas Morning, for the "заутренняя" Divine Liturgy of the Nativity. Since 1992 Christmas has become a national holiday in Russia, as part of the ten-day holiday at the start of every new year. In Russia, the Christmas holiday has become the official celebration with the baptism of Rus' ordered by Prince Vladimir in the late 10th century. However, given the early
A Christmas Eve deals heavily with the exploration of vanity, this time the vanity of a trashy prostitute and a young man obsessed with his dead sibling. And sharing a similarity with Boito's earlier work "The Body", the tale delves heavily into necrophilia, made only more disturbing with the connotations of incest, since Giorgio's obsession with Emelia is sexual. Since Giorgio is psychologically disturbed and suffering from a painful illness and delusional fantasies, "A Christmas Eve" can also be described an example of a short story with an unreliable narrator. A short film adaptation, updated to 1945 and titled "Christmas Eve '45" (in