/ / Return to basics: how Easter was celebrated in Russia in the old days

Return to the origins: how to celebrate Easter in Russia in the old days

Easter, along with Christmas and Pentecost, isone of the three main holidays of Christianity. She began to celebrate in Russia immediately after the baptism of all the people. Later, the feast of the Resurrection of Christ became dominant in Orthodoxy. After all, if the Son of God death is trampled, then the whole people of Israel can escape the grave and go into the light of eternal life.

How to meet this bright holiday toto become involved in its main meaning - the resurrection from the dead? Now, in an age of secularity, everything often comes down to baking cakes and egg dyeing. And how to celebrate Easter in the old days? Let's explore this issue in more detail.

How to celebrate Easter in Russia

Easter day calculation

The feast of the Resurrection of Christ is not a calendar one. This means that it is not tied to a specific date, such as Christmas, which is celebrated in Orthodoxy always on January 7th.

How to celebrate Easter in Russia?This day is calculated by the moon. After March 21, a full moon is waited by the church calendar, and the Sunday following it (if it does not coincide with the Jewish holiday of Passover) is Easter. Thus, the date is changing every year. Sometimes it coincides with the Catholic Easter, as in 2014, but most often follows it, being late for one or three weeks. This holiday is fundamental for other dates in the church calendar. So, Maslenitsa, Palm Sunday, Ascension and Pentecost were calculated according to Easter.

How to celebrate Easter in the old days

Holiday eve

What does tradition tell us?Easter was preceded by a long post, called the people of the Great. It began immediately after Maslenitsa. Restrictions on food concerned not only priests and the clergy, but also laymen. It was not allowed to eat animal products during this period (except for fish, which was considered a gift of the sea).

За неделю до Пасхи отмечалось Пальмовое (Вербное) Sunday. This is the date of the solemn entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. After Palm Sunday, the Passion Week began. This week was called light every day. Especially important for the believer Christian, Holy Thursday - the date of the Last Supper and the imprisonment of Christ.

How to celebrate Easter in Russia (or rather,preparing for it) on this day? It was necessary to get up before dawn and swim. It demonstrated a willingness to cleanse sins and a soul. Then the believers went to the church, where they confessed and received communion. And then, after returning home, they started cleaning. By the day of Bright Sunday, everything was supposed to shine with purity.

As Easter is celebrated in Russia

How to celebrate Easter in Russia

This tradition is over a thousand years old, and thereforeovergrown with its cultural features. Even among such close nations as Russians and Ukrainians, the celebration of Easter is somewhat different. But everywhere, and among Catholics, also, on the eve of Bright Sunday, on Holy Saturday, people go to the temple. Believers carry baked cakes and krashanki (colored boiled eggs). In churches, processions and all-night services take place.

We know from the chronicles how Easter was celebrated.in Russia. The priest, and his flock behind him, walked around the stations of passion, stopping in front of each one and telling about the thorny path of ascent to Calvary, after which he blessed Artos (prosphora). This is a yeast-free unleavened bread, a small loaf, on which a cross was placed during baking. Later, the tradition proskurok transformed into the sprinkling of Easter cakes with boiled water.

Essence of Easter

It should be remembered that this is still a religiouscelebration. Its meaning for the believer is to feel belonging to the Christian Salvation. The entire Easter period, which lasted until Ascension (forty days after this holiday), the believers greeted with the words "Christ is Risen!". Everyone knows the answer. This is "Truly risen!" Having defended all the vigil in the church and exchanged the kiss of peace with each other, the believers went with blessed Easter cakes and eggs to their homes. On the way, it was customary to “christovatsya” with everyone he met - to kiss three times in the face.

How celebrated Easter in Russia yet?The original, no one else has a meeting tradition is the constant ringing of the bells. Joyful noise did not subside until the evening. On this day, everyone could climb the bell tower and ring as much as you want.

How to celebrate Easter in Russia

Festive table

On this bright morning it was customary to break his fastafter a long post. Different nations have their own traditional meat dishes for this day. And how was Easter celebrated in Russia? Started a meal with sweatshirt. Then they ate eggs - this is the beginning of everything, as the Romans said. They were painted in different tones of red. Kulich was considered the crown ritual. It was cut across, keeping the top of the head. And only the Russians prepare a curd Easter for the Holiday of the Resurrection - a high cone, sprinkled with powdered sugar, with a cross on top. By the way, believers were supposed to bake kulichs enough. At Holy Week, we went to visit the guests, giving friends, relatives and friends small pasochka. Also on Krasnaya Gorka (the Sunday following the holiday) they went to the cemetery, where they also put cakes for the dead ancestors on the grave. And, finally, bestowed upon the poor, for Christ walked forty days on the earth, taking on the appearance of a beggar.