looking for good Russian ghost stories

[Elena Katsaros]

 >when I brought up the notion of having a party.  I believe though that
>there was a tradition of dressing up and going from door to door as part
>of the New Year's festivities.
>
>Emily Fields

You are right, there was a tradition of going door to door before Christmas
night. It was called 'kolyadovat'', and you can find a great description of
it in Gogol's  Vechera na Hutore Bliz Dikan'ki and Tolstoy's War and Peace.
Some people still do it in the villages. As for Halloween, 5 years ago
noone would know what you mean, only some students of English maybe.

Elena Katsaros

Russian Department
Grinnell College
Katsaros at ac.grin.edu