capitalization of holidays in Russian

[Christopher Becker]

There seems to be no definitive standard for capitalization of holidays in Russian. I have checked a number of dictionaries, textbooks, and grammars and they often disagree. Many of them aren't even consistent with themselves. The Oxford Russian Dictionary capitalizes Easter but not Passover, yet it's the same word in Russian. Is there really no standard for capitalization, has the standard changed over time, or were these entries not carefully checked before publication? I'd welcome any comments on this.

Here is what I've found. The transliterations (for those who can't read the Russian encoding) may be spotty but the point of capitalization should be clear.

Gerhart (The Russian's World), 1974
Velikiy post, Velikiy Ponedel'nik, Paskha, Pervoe maya, Den' Pobedi, Noviy god
Великий пост, Великий Понедельник, Пасха, Первое мая, День Победы, Новый год

Katzner (A Russian Review Text), 1962
velikiy post, paskha, Noviy god
великий пост, пасха, Новый год

Katzner (E-R R-E Dictionary), 1984
velikiy post, paskha, Pervoe maya, Noviy god
великий пост, пасха, Первое мая, Новый год

Новый Большой англо-русско словарь, 1993
paskha, evrejskaya paskha, Pervoe maya, Den' Pobedi, Noviy god
пасха, еврейская пасха, Первое мая, День Победы, Новый год

Oxford Russian Dictionary, 1995
velikiy post, Velikiy chetverg, Paskha, (evrejskaya) paskha, den' Pervogo maya, Den' pobedi, Noviy god
великий пост, Великий четверг, Пасха, (еврейская) пасха, день Первого мая, День победы, Новый год

Wade (A Comprehensive Russian Grammar), 1998
Pervoe maya, Noviy god
Первое мая, Новый год

Yakobson (Conversational Russian), 1985
Paskha, Noviy God
Пасха, Новый Год

Christopher Becker

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