Orthodox ritual, as you know, quite bright. Among its required attributes is the censing ceremony, which we will discuss in more detail below.
What is cense
The meaning of the word "censer" is quite simple.It means to smoke a fragrance in honor of any deity. Institution was used in religious ceremonies since ancient times and was a form of sacrifice. As a matter of fact, today nothing has changed. This rite came to Judaism, in all likelihood, from Middle Eastern paganism, where it was very popular. In the Tanakh, that is, in the Hebrew Bible, there are detailed instructions on how a censor should look, what kind of incense to put in it, and how to perform the ceremony itself. Kadil - for a believing Jew, it means to worship God, to proclaim his glory and to fulfill one of his commandments. However, only members of a priestly corporation were doing this by special right and at a particular time. The Bible also contains an instructive story of how two priests burned incense that was not supposed to, which made the Lord angry and cursed - that was how serious they were about it in antiquity. After the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed (and in the Jewish religion there can be only one temple in Jerusalem), this ritual was brought to oblivion, since the laity have no right to perform it. But he remained in Christianity, although originally he was not there. For the Christians of the first centuries of our era, Kadil meant to become like pagans, who were very fond of such a rite. It was precisely the attachment of the Greeks and Romans to this ritual that turned away from him the followers of Christ, who saw idolatry in him. Gradually, however, their position changed. It all began with a developed tradition of prayers of the dead, when an unbearable smell came from the decaying body. He began to drown during the dirge by burning incense, which soon became ritualistic. Thus, the censing penetrated into the Christian cult. Kadit is for the modern Orthodox the same thing as praying to God. Many believers are not only present when scoring in the temple, but they themselves make it at home with the help of special devices.
Parallels in other religions
Virtually all religions have something like this.cognition Kadit - this means to present a special gift to the deity, which is both material and spiritual. The closest parallel to the Christian censing is the tradition of burning incense sticks in Buddhism and Hinduism. Similar ceremonies are also known in the folk religions of the tribes of Africa and America.
