MOSCOW, April 1, 2010. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data concerning how many Russians are going to celebrate Easter and what way are they going to do it.
This year 87% of Russians are going to celebrate Easter. The most traditional way of celebrating is cooking of Easter dishes and it even became more popular (from 45% in 2005 to 71% this year).
42% of respondents are going to make a visit or invite guests, 34% are going to sanctify Easter cakes and other Easter dishes (5 years ago - 14%). Such tradition remains to be popular as going to cemetery (30%). There are fewer respondents who plan to make presents (12%, 5 years ago - 1%) or visit night service (8%, 5 years ago - 3%).
Easter is mostly celebrated by the majority of orthodox believers (95%) although it is popular among followers of other Christian branches (70%) or atheists (48%). For instance, Easter cakes will be cooked by three fourths of orthodox believers (55%) and every third atheist (33%).
Celebrating Easter is familiar to inhabitants of all regions (88-89%) excluding Urals and Far East - hear the percentage is lower (71 and 74%). First of all residents of North-Western (84%), Volga and Siberian (81%) districts will cook Easter cakes and other dishes. Inhabitants of Central district will sanctify them (50%), the majority of those who wants visit night service is in Urals district (21%).
The initiative Russian opinion poll was conducted on March 27-28, 2010. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 140 sampling points in 42 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4 %.
Are you going to celebrate Easter? If yes how are you going to do it? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||
| April 2005 | April 2008 | April 2009 | April 2010 |
I will cook Easter dishes (eggs, paskha, cake) | 46 | 60 | 64 | 71 |
I will sanctify cakes, eggs and paskha in church | 14 | 21 | 27 | 34 |
I will go to night service | 3 | 4 | 8 | 8 |
I will invite guests or make a visit myself | 23 | 30 | 38 | 42 |
I will go to cemetery | 11 | 16 | 29 | 30 |
I will make presents to my relatives | 1 | 4 | 7 | 12 |
Other | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
I won't celebrate Easter | 12 | 6 | 12 | 8 |
Hard to tell | 3 | 7 | 4 | 5 |
Are you going to celebrate Easter? If yes how are you going to do it? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||||||
| Total respondents | Federal districts* | ||||||
CFD | NWFD | SFD | PFD | UFD | SFD | DFD | ||
I will cook Easter dishes (eggs, paskha, cake) | 71 | 61 | 84 | 64 | 81 | 60 | 81 | 68 |
I will sanctify cakes, eggs and paskha in church | 34 | 50 | 33 | 41 | 21 | 45 | 18 | 18 |
I will go to night service | 8 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 21 | 5 | 4 |
I will invite guests or make a visit myself | 42 | 42 | 39 | 44 | 50 | 37 | 40 | 29 |
I will go to cemetery | 30 | 44 | 18 | 44 | 28 | 32 | 10 | 7 |
I will make presents to my relatives | 12 | 13 | 7 | 3 | 21 | 16 | 8 | 10 |
Other | 8 | 5 | 11 | 8 | 7 | 12 | 8 | 21 |
I won't celebrate Easter | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Hard to tell | 5 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 17 | 3 | 5 |
Are you going to celebrate Easter? If yes how are you going to do it? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||
| Total respondents | Followers of Orthodoxy | Followers of other Christian branches | Atheist, vacillating between faith and unbelief |
I will cook Easter dishes (eggs, paskha, cake) | 71 | 79 | 55 | 33 |
I will sanctify cakes, eggs and paskha in church | 34 | 41 | 6 | 6 |
I will go to night service | 8 | 10 | 0 | 1 |
I will invite guests or make a visit myself | 42 | 47 | 33 | 22 |
I will go to cemetery | 30 | 34 | 21 | 15 |
I will make presents to my relatives | 12 | 14 | 12 | 3 |
Other | 8 | 1 | 6 | 1 |
I won't celebrate Easter | 1 | 2 | 24 | 39 |
Hard to tell | 5 | 3 | 0 | 13 |
*Used abbreviations:
- CFD - Central Federal District
- NWFD - North-Western Federal District
- SFD - Southern Federal District
- PFD - Volga Federal District
- UFD - Urals Federal District
- SFD - Siberian Federal District
- DFD - Far-Eastern Federal District
Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or www.wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!