What a feast looked like in the Russian Empire (PHOTOS)

1. What Russian doesn't like a feast? It’s a simply nice tradition to invite people or visit them with a treat. Here's what the festive dinners in different regions of the Russian Empire looked like over 100 years ago.

2. There were always lots of reasons for a big dinner, from family celebrations of birthdays or weddings, to religious holidays.

3. Hosts always cooked the best dishes - and often some unusual recipes, that they could not afford in everyday life.

4. In the Russian Empire, the main holiday of the year was Christmas, not New Year, as today (here’s why). They decorated a Christmas tree, bought gifts for children and, of course, prepared a festive dinner - even the poorer people did. And the Christmas table was always full of gastronomic delights: caviar, pies, fish, salads, wines, etc.

5. For Easter, Russian families baked traditional kulichi cakes, consecrated in the Church the day before. Also on the table were eggs painted with onion skins, sweet cottage cheese mass with raisins called ‘Paskha’ in the form of a pyramid, and various pastries – depending on the family's wealth and the hostess' culinary skills.

6. In summer, people regularly had dinners at the dacha (Eng. “country house”). The dining table was taken outside and covered with a light tablecloth. The center of the table traditionally belonged to a large samovar with tea.

7. Still, Russians prefer tea to any other drinks. Sweets and intimate talks always follow the tea party.

8. For richer families, all these feasts were just another one reason to show their wealth. They could get expensive food from Europe, and most often, had cooks arrange the table.

9. Gala dinners were also common in the restaurants of Russia’s capital. And the menus were always very elegant! Try, for example, the ‘Maly Yaroslavets’ restaurant on Bolshaya Morskaya street, that hosted famous writers (from Chekhov to Mamin-Sibiryak), and its served sterlet soup and a lamb with buckwheat!

10. The youth, as today, preferred to hold dinners with music. Guests who played the guitar and piano became the stars of the evening.