you are right, though, that it is purely religious. it’s the Nativity of Christ.

According to others Snegurochka is daughter of Winter, who is daughter of Father Frost.

Apparently he was a cruel and evil God who would freeze people. From the beginning of 20th century, especially since the 1930s, the Soviet “propaganda machine” (wikipedia’s words, not mine) recast him as a benevolent character who brings kids presents on New Year’s eve.

Father Frost started as a pagan god of pre-christian Russia, and was never linked with Christianity (like it happened with Santa Claus). Rather, he was adapted as a symbol of the New Year in Soviet era.

Snegurochka is a character from russian folklore, a girl made from snow. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote an opera about her. She was also adapted first in pre-revolutionary Russia as a part of New Year characters, and then in Soviet Russia as Father Frost’s granddaughter and companion.

It’s interesting that Russian Orthodox church (the main branch of Christianity over here) doesn’t accept Father Frost and Snegurochka into it’s mythology. They are ready to do it only if it will be clearly stated in the ‘official’ way that Father Frost is christened.

I am in no way an expert on cultural history and folklore, but as is mentioned in other comments, most of the winter celebrations in the northern/western hemisphere from pagan times through religious holidays are connected. So you pick the elements you like, and leave the rest.

(I feel my blog name is pretty appropriate right now).

What I’m trying to say is that Christmas and New Year have a lot of historical connections with each other, and it wouldn’t be surprising if these two were (similarly) usurped by the Christian church as it spread into Russia.

She was appalled, at Halloween, by the costumes she found at the stores, but found a skimpy “Russian Snow Princess” costume that she wore with tights and a turtleneck as her Halloween costume.

Just like there are Black men who dress up as Santa Claus, there could be Black females who costume up as snow maidens.

The only problem I can see is with that name “Snegurochka”. It has too many syllables, it’s too hard to pronounce, and it’s just too darn foreign looking for red blooded Americans.

But I have faith in Hollywood writers. They’ll come up with a more acceptable name that with widespread promotion (in the USA & elsewhere) would soon be considered the Snow Maiden’s real name.