Defending the fatherland

It’s a public holiday in Russia today, the grandly named Defenders of the Fatherland Day. What started as a militaristic holiday (then known as Red Army Day) a few years after the Bolshevik Revolution has become a sort of I Love Men day, with women treating men to gifts and extra-special attention. (They’ll be reciprocated in kind on March 8, International Women’s Day and one of Russia’s most celebrated holidays.)

As a result, there’s not a whole lot going on in Russia today. The Communists are marching (holding posters in support of Col. Gaddafi, no less). The police have been called out in force, mainly to deal with the heavy drinking the holiday tends to encourage. And in St Petersburg someone is suffering: yesterday, the head of the city’s media admitted to an embarrassing faux pas. The hundreds of posters decorating the city in honor of the holiday accidentally featured Chinese Chengdu J-10 fighter jets (also known as Vigorous Dragons) instead of a Russian airplane. Oops.

Happy Defenders of the Fatherland Day!