Volume XХXII, no. 1/2 of Palaeoslavica for 2024 (530 pp.) marks the final one for our journal, which has now ceased its production.  Volume I/2 Александр Б. Страхов Рождество и Святки на Западе и у славян: народное христианство и народные верования   This is a 2nd edition of the work originally published in 2003 under the title Ночь перед Рождеством: народное христианство и рождественская обрядность на Западе и у славян (Cambridge, Mass., 2003 = Palaeoslavica XI. Supplementum 1), 380 + iii pp. The new edition, thoroughly revised and enlarged by the author, is a posthumous publication. The editorial work is by Olga B. Strakhov. The new edition contains an Introduction, eight Chapters, List of Works Cited, and a detailed Summary in English (pp. 459-530).      Chapters I-III describe the legendary miracles of Christmas Eve: the blossoming and fruit-bearing of trees (ch. I), water turning to a wine in rivers and springs (ch. II), the un­usual behavior of domestic animals in barns (ch. III). The chapters analyze in details the Advent (the days of Stt. Barbara, Lucy, and Andrew) and its customs, whose aim is to sti­mulate the blossoming of trees; the legend of the fern which flowers on St. John's Eve; formulas of "impossible" (ch. I); motifs of "wine" and "vineyard" in Christmas carols; girls'  fortunes-tellings about future groom; and ablutions and swimmings in­cluded into the ritual calendar (ch. II). Chapter III discusses the "Bethlehem mythology" and its echoes in popular rituals and superstitions concern­ing animals and shepherds.      Chapter IV describes customs whose aim is fertility in the household: rituals concerning fruitful trees and rituals connected with straw; both taking place during Christ­mas-tide. The ritual burning of the Christmas log and threats to fruitful trees, both performed on Christmas Eve, are analyzed in connection with the Gospel motifs and para­bles, while the important role of the straw in all Christ­mas rituals is understood as an imitation of the setting of Bethlehem's cowshed.      Chapter V describes motifs and taboos of the Christmas rituals which, as the authors shows, were bor­row­ed from the corpus of superstitions and taboos surrounding preg­nancy, labour and a post-partum period. Here the author analyzes the images of the "woman mythology": the Mother of God, St. Anne, midwife Salome.      Chapter VI continues the dis­cussion of the "woman theme" and describes the images of the popular meteo­ro­logy which go back to the mytho-poetic­al understanding of the image and dance of Hero­di­ade's daughter.      Chapter VII discusses the peculiarities of people's be­havior during Christmas, explained, on one hand, by the end of the pre-Christmas Fast and, on the other, by the popular belief that the infant Christ has not yet been baptized during the first two weeks of Christmas-tide. The book further discusses in details the Christian attitude towards fasting and breaches of fasting, as well as toward the baptismal ceremonies.      Chapter VIII analyzes the popular beliefs of the written Christian tradition concerning the temporal relief of the sinful souls from their torments on the Christmas Eve. The author connects this idea with those elements of the European Christmas rituals that are usually explained by the pagan "cult of the ancestors."      The book presents highly rich material concerning not only the Christmas rituals themselves but also such problems as the solar myth in Christianity, the symbolic significance of the wheel in rituals and customs; various localities of the "other world" (and images inhabiting it); the popular vision of time and its sacralization; the popular understanding of such images, as "Tree of Life" and "Tree of Death", Agnus Dei, Herod, Herodias and her daughter, and Judas.      The author often uses unpublished material, recorded by him and his colleagues during the ethnographical expeditions in Belarus and Ukraine between 1975 and 1988. The extremely rich list of sources cited contains about 2000 positions. A detailed Summary (Christmas and Christmastide in the West and among the Slavs: Popular Christianity and Folk Belief) concludes the book.