I know many of you are frustrated with Russia right now because of the adoption accreditation delay. But you have to love a country that gives you two (or more) cracks at a birthday-style celebration every year.

In Russia, as in many countries of Western and Eastern Europe, people get to celebrate not only their own birthday, but something known as a name day. That is the day set aside on a church calendar for remembering the saint whose name they share.

I was first introduced to the concept of name days in my sophomore year of college, when my Italian-born roommate threw herself a name day party. In Italy, she explained, name days are often a bigger event than individual birthdays. I guess that explains why companies like Alitalia (which is now the object of a takeover bid from Aeroflot), gave her a holiday on her name day when she later went to work for them.

I've recently discovered that Russia is big on name days, too, with a twist (after all, Russia wouldn't be Russia without that). According to one Russian patron saint days calendar I found, the name day for Pavel is January 5--and January 23, January 28, March 20, May 31, June 16, July 11 and 12, July 29, August 30, September 23, November 19, December 20 and, drum roll please, December 28.

I'm thinking somebody ought to warn Aeroflot about the potential for large absences if it applies Alitalia's human resources policies to a merged company.

Actually, as you might have guessed, the Russian Orthodox church has recognized many different Pavels, from Saint Paul of Obnora to Saint Paul of Thebes and Saint Paul the Confessor, etc.

Today, April 12, is the day for saints Basil the Confessor and Ivan, and one that we could celebrate in my household. The latter is I think a reference to John of Palestine, a seventh century monk and martyr. The Russian Orthodox Church in America, which recently reached a reconciliation with the Russian Orthodox Church reporting to Moscow Patriarchate, has a lot of information on church feasts and saints here.