On May 28, Orthodox Christians celebrate the second day of Trinity - Holy Spiritual Day. What kind of holiday is this and what you need to do on this day, read in our material.
History of the holiday
Trinity and Spiritual Day are considered by the Orthodox Church as a single holiday of Pentecost - the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, which occurred on the 50th day after the Resurrection of Christ.
After the Resurrection of the Lord, his disciples lived in anticipation of the holiday. For 40 days the Lord appeared to them one by one and when they gathered together. In front of the disciples' eyes, he rose above the ground, giving hope that on the last day of the world he would return. When saying goodbye, the Lord promised to send them a comforter - the Holy Spirit, coming from God the Father.
On the tenth day after the ascension of Jesus Christ, when the disciples and the Virgin Mary were in the Zion Upper Room, they heard a loud noise. Bright, flickering tongues of fire appeared in the air, which was of the same nature as the Holy Fire. It shone without burning. Rushing over the heads of the apostles, tongues of fire descended on them and went out.
After this, everyone who was in the upper room felt an extraordinary force acting in them. The Holy Spirit descended on the apostles. They spoke in languages they had not previously spoken. This was the gift needed to preach the Gospel throughout the world.
What can and should be done on Holy Spirit Day
- Stock up on healing (medicinal) herbs and flowers. Plants collected and dried on this day have high healing properties. It is generally accepted that fire descends from the sky and destroys all evil spirits on this day. It was from the herbs collected on the Day of the Holy Spirit that the healers prepared (to exorcise demons) a special herbal powder.
- On this day you need to “feed the earth” - in the villages of the Spirits the day was considered a women's holiday. Married women they gathered on the outskirts of the village, laid a tablecloth on the ground, had fun, sang and danced in circles. This folk ritual is meant to show reverence and respect for the land.
- On the Day of the Holy Spirit, you need to wash away your sins with well water, but you couldn’t wash yourself in reservoirs (by the way, you can’t swim in open reservoirs on Trinity and three days after it, and therefore on Spiritual Day).
- On this day, it was customary to bring home from church blessed birch branches, which were placed in it for protection from evil forces. When the birch branches dried out, they were stored in a secluded corner.
- Also on this day, it was customary for people to worship the earth; to some of them it revealed its secrets. It was done like this: after evening prayer, they put their ears to the ground and listened to see if she would reveal her secrets to them.
- In conclusion, what you can or cannot do on the Holy Spirit Day cannot in any way affect folk sign weather related. Therefore, it is generally accepted that whatever the weather will be on this church day, it will be like that all summer.
Spirits Day is celebrated in Orthodoxy the day after Trinity. In Christianity, these days are inextricably linked, and among the people special traditions are associated with this holiday.
On the Day of the Holy Spirit, which in 2018 it will take place on May 28, believers remember the descent of the Holy Spirit on God's apostles. Trinity and Spiritual Day merged in the church into one holiday. The Holy Spirit gave the disciples the ability to understand a variety of languages so that they could preach the Word of God throughout the world. On this holy day, there are many prohibitions that are sacredly observed by believers.
What not to do on Holy Spirit Day
Spiritual Day has been celebrated since pagan times, and only after the adoption of Christianity were church customs woven into it. At this time, the Holy Spirit visits the earth and can bestow happiness on everyone.
Traditionally, on the holiday people refused to work related to the land. The ban applied to all types of activities: digging, planting seedlings, loosening the soil. It was believed that the earth gives rise to all living things, so it was treated with respect and not disturbed on major holidays.
On Spiritual Day, the souls of the departed descend to earth, so they must be remembered with a kind word, otherwise troubles will not linger. Since ancient times, people tried not to swim on this day, so that, according to ancient belief, mermaids or the merman himself would not be dragged under the water. They tried not to go into the forest so as not to anger the devil, who could make him angry and make him wander through the forest for a long time.
On Spiritual Day, you cannot break the branches of trees, pick flowers in the forest, or cause any harm to nature, otherwise the spirits of water, earth and air will cruelly take revenge on those who disturbed their peace.
On this day, girls who had not yet been married were careful not to look into the water. They did not go near open reservoirs or wells, so as not to remain as girls for life. Even conversations about “I’m going to get water” or “I went to get water” were also prohibited. These phrases can bring trouble to your family. Our ancestors believed that with these words the family “provides” for the drowned person. The phrase was replaced with “I am walking on water.”
On the holiday it was forbidden to run and move quickly; our ancestors believed that this way you would run away from luck, which simply would not have time to keep up with you.
On Spiritual Day, give up household chores, including needlework. At this time, evil spirits are walking the earth and can do you harm: tangling and tearing threads, breaking needles.
The Church does not recommend visiting the cemetery. It is believed that on this day all souls descend to earth and wander near their home. In former times, our ancestors always left them a treat either at the doorstep of the house, or invited them to a family dinner.
What can you do on a holiday?
On Spiritual Day, it is useful to walk barefoot on the grass to gain health. This should be done in the early hours, while the dew has not yet evaporated under the sun's rays. For the same purpose, you can strengthen the protection of the biofield, gain strength and energy for the whole year. Be sure to turn to the earth so that it shares its strength with you.
It is worth hanging several birch branches in front of the house. Our ancestors believed that at this time they come to your home to check if everything is fine with you. You can perform a ritual that will help activate the protection of the family and save you from troubles.
Don't forget about visiting the church, where you light candles for the repose of the souls of the departed and pray to the Lord for your health.
On Spiritual Day, young trees decorated the edges of the forest. To do this, multi-colored ribbons, beads, or self-made figurines of birds and insects were attached to the branches. This ritual promised happiness and prosperity. In order to protect themselves from evil spirits, pre-prepared wreaths of wildflowers were hung on young birch trees.
Be sure to protect yourself from mermaids on Spiritual Day. Special bags were made for this. They put in them fragrant herbs that the inhabitants of the water cannot stand: lavender, garlic, rosemary, wormwood.
You definitely need to have a family dinner at which you need to remember your relatives. In former times, feasts were held in the open air, inviting all the numerous relatives.
Married girls dreaming of procreation walked along the edge of the forest and through the fields on this day so that the energy of the earth would help them conceive and bear a healthy child.
On Spiritual Remembrance Day, even suicides are honored. They can be remembered with kind words. The clergy urge people to give up fighting and quarrels and spend time with their families in order to strengthen family ties. Be sure to pray to the Almighty, ask Him for blessings and remission of sins. We wish you a bright holiday and a great mood, and do not forget to press the buttons and
25.05.2018 07:08
The Feast of the Holy Trinity is an important day for every Orthodox person. According to legend, it was with this...
The Orthodox Christian Church, in addition to the general church holidays that are celebrated by all believers, defines for everyone its own personal, and therefore specially dear holiday - Angel's Day or Name Day.
On this day, the Orthodox Church holds a celebration in honor of the saint, whose name was given to us at baptism and which we bear.
In our time, by the time the Sacrament of Baptism is performed, the name of the person being baptized has usually already been chosen by his parents. And since the church is in honor of one of the holy saints of God, you need to choose a saint who bore such a name, especially in cases where there are several of them. To do this, the church calendar determines the closest day of celebration in honor of a saint with that name, following the birthday of the person being baptized. And further, throughout the life of the believer, it is this saint who will be his heavenly patron, and the day of memory of this saint will become the day of the Angel or the name day of the newly baptized. Using the same rule, you can find out your Angel Day if baptism took place in childhood, and today you do not remember your patron saint. However, in order not to make a mistake, it is best to contact the priest of the temple with a request to indicate your saint and accurately determine the date of the name day. Today in many Orthodox churches write out certificates confirming the completion of the Sacrament of Baptism, indicating the date of the day of the Angel and patron saint.
In some cases, it may be difficult to choose the name of the patron saint. . This happens if the name of the person being baptized is not in the calendar Orthodox Church. Examples include such common names as Stanislav, Eduard, Svetlana and Victoria. Sometimes such difficulties are solved by selecting an analogue in another language. Svetlana in this case can be called Photinia, from the Greek “photos”, which means light, and Victoria - Nika, from a combination of the Latin “victory” - victory and the Greek “nika” - victory. In other cases, as a rule, they select a church name for the person being baptized that is closest in sound to the already given civil name. Usually this choice is made by the parents of the person being baptized or by himself.
In most cases, the pronunciation of the church name given at baptism and the civil name used in everyday life differ in their sound. So, Ivan is called Ioann, Fyodor - Theodore, Sergei - Sergius, with the emphasis on the first syllable. Therefore, it is necessary to know and remember that when starting such church rites as the Sacrament of Confession and Communion, one should be called church name, not civilians.
The naming of a saint can only be done by a priest of the Orthodox Church, who blesses the person being baptized and reads a special prayer over him before the Sacrament of Baptism. The name that is given at baptism will be the name of a person before the face of the Lord throughout his life, until he follows into eternity.
How to celebrate your saint's day
It should be clearly understood that name days are not a birthday in the secular sense of this tradition. Angel Day is a day of remembrance of your heavenly patron, a day of celebration of a saint, and not an event dedicated to your birth. In former times in Rus', birthdays were not celebrated at all, but only name days. On such a day, believers tried to attend church services, confess and receive communion.
For a believer, Angel Day is a special day. Righteous John of Kronstadt says that a believer celebrates the day of his patron saint here on earth, so that our saints “remember and intercede for us before God... Our birthdays should come before all other weekdays. To turn our hearts and eyes to heaven, with grateful feelings to the Creator, Provider and Savior, with the thought that there is our fatherland and Father, that the earth is not a fatherland, but a place of coming and wandering, that clinging to perishable things is reckless, sinful... It is disgusting that one must cleave to God with all one’s heart.”
On Angel's Day, the birthday person is given gifts. These signs of attention can be very diverse. Today in churches you can buy very good greeting cards for Angel's Day. The texts in them are approximately as follows: “Please accept my most sincere congratulations on your Angel’s Day. I wish you all the best and pray to the Lord for the peaceful course of your life, your long life and good health through the prayers of your patron saint.” To such greeting cards You can also include other gifts of various contents.
Of course, name days are not complete without a festive friendly feast. However, you should remember that if your Angel Day falls on a fasting day, then the treat on the table should correspond to the fast. During Lent, name days falling on a weekday are moved to the next Saturday or Sunday, and it would be better if the feast on this occasion was moved altogether to Bright Week. The days of “small name days” will not be so solemn in this case, but visiting the temple on this day is still mandatory. In church, one who prays to the Lord, the Mother of God, the Angels and the saints must think first of all about correcting his own heart and his own life, and only after that strive to imitate them. For it is written: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36); Be holy, because I am holy (1 Pet. 1:16).”
However, this bright holiday for a believer should not be celebrated only with a feast. On your name day, you should definitely visit the temple, having spiritually prepared for such a visit in advance. You need to spiritually prepare yourself in advance for pure communication with your patron saint, whose name was given to you at baptism. While staying in church, you should confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Coming from church, you need to sit in silence for a while and reflect on the communication that you had with your saint in the temple.
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt says that those who pray to the Mother of God should strive to imitate Her unimaginable purity, humility, patience and devotion to the will of God. Those who pray to angels are obliged to think about spirituality and heavenly life, gradually denying carnal passions. And they must pray for ardent love for God and their neighbor. If people pray to the saints, then they should imitate their love for God and contempt for vain worldly goods, abstinence, non-covetousness and patience. Otherwise, prayer will be a simple shaking of the air.
The Orthodox Confession says that during prayer we call upon the saints to be mediators between us and God. We ask them to pray to Him for us and address them as our friends who serve Him, glorify Him and worship Him. We ask for the help of the saints not in their own strength, but we pray for their intercession for us before God to send grace upon us. Usually we do not give divine honor to the saints, but we pray to them as our brothers and friends, so that they ask for God’s help for us and intercede for us before the Lord.
Saint John Chrysostom tells us that prayers addressed to the saints have great power, but only if we ourselves sincerely repent of our sins and correct ourselves. Because a believer must, first of all, be sincere himself, and only then ask for help from a saint, who will open up to a pure soul much faster. We should strive with all our hearts to ensure that the prayer in our heart sounds sincere. Only in this case will our appeal be heard.
Which is imposed on a person at baptism, he wears throughout his life. With this name he passes into eternity, and this name is mentioned by the Church when offering prayers for the repose of the soul. Even if the parents gave the child a name that is not mentioned in the calendar of the Church, then at baptism an Orthodox name that is consonant with it is chosen. In this case, all memorial notes should indicate the name given at baptism.
Saint Theodore of Edessa writes that the Lord gives each of us two angels. One of them is our Guardian Angel, who protects us from evil, misfortune and helps us do good. The other is a holy saint of God who intercedes for us before the Lord and prays for us. This is his name we bear. His prayers are more quickly accepted by God, because they are more worthy than our sinners.
A believing Christian should know well the life of his patron saint. You are obliged to have his icon in your home and pray to him. The simplest prayer here is: “Pray to God for me, holy servant of God (name), as I diligently resort to you, a quick helper and prayer book for my soul.” It should be read in the morning and before bed. In addition to the troparion prayer, it is also good to learn the kontakion prayer. This is a short Orthodox prayer chant that briefly outlines the historical or dogmatic significance of the person being celebrated and the event being celebrated. With all my life Orthodox man obliged to show that he is worthy of the name of his patron saint. The Monk Ambrose of Optina said about this: “Let your life be according to your name.”
On the day of the Angel, coming to the temple of God, we turn to all the saints with a sincere request that they pray for us before the Lord, but more than others we must ask for this from the saint whose name we bear. It is he who loves us more than others, it is he who rushes to our aid in times of need, and that is why we must turn to him first of all.
On the day of the Angel, we ask God to fulfill our prayer and do this, taking advantage of the fraternal help of our patron saint. And he will always support and help us.
St. Nicholas Day is celebrated annually on December 19th. This is not only one of the most favorite holidays for children of the year, but also a rather important religious celebration, on which many prohibitions and other beliefs apply. That is why we decided to tell you what you definitely need to do on St. Nicholas Day.
What to do on St. Nicholas Day
Since this is a religious holiday, you should definitely go to church on St. Nicholas Day. If you can't do it in the morning, then go after work. Usually in churches there is a midnight office, a Liturgy and an evening service. It’s very good if you manage to attend all these events on December 19, but if you don’t, then nothing bad will happen. But on St. Nicholas Day, the church should be given as much time as possible.
Nicholas the Wonderworker helped children in need and secretly brought them gifts. Hence the tradition of putting sweets and toys under children’s pillows.
That is why it is customary to follow the example of St. Nicholas and not only give gifts to children, but help everyone in need on this day.
In villages it is believed that on St. Nicholas Day the owner of the house should be the first to walk around his yard. If he doesn’t do this, then big troubles will await him for a whole year. That is why on December 19, men often woke up very early.
In addition, on St. Nicholas Day you need to make peace with everyone. There was even a minimal ceremony for this. It was necessary to say: “Invite a friend to Nikolshchina, invite your enemy, both will be friends.”
In the old days, St. Nicholas Day was always celebrated cheerfully: they organized festivities, set a sumptuous table, and invited guests. This is a fun holiday, so December 19 should be spent in joy and fun.
Angel Day what is customary to do. On this day you need to go to church in the morning and take communion. If you can’t go to the temple, then pray to your guardian angel. Throughout your life, he protects you and leads you along the right path, if, of course, you understand all his tips. On this day you cannot swear or use foul language, but it is better to do only good deeds.
On this day, the birthday boy should be presented with all kinds of gifts, souvenirs, and a celebration should be organized. Gifts should be thought out in advance, based on the hobbies of the hero of the occasion. The surprise does not have to be expensive, the main thing is your attention to the birthday person.
Nowadays, you rarely see people celebrating Angel Day. In the old days, this holiday was celebrated with all the pomp of the Russian spirit. On this day, pies were baked and tables were set. The pies were sent to relatives and friends so that they would eat them for the health of the birthday boy. The pies differed in size depending on who they were sent to. A sweet pie was sent to godmothers and fathers as a sign of sincere respect.
Guests who came to celebrate the day of the angel brought gifts and souvenirs with them. The priest blessed with images, and civilians gave pieces of fabric, cups, and beautiful postcards with the image of a guardian angel. The children, in turn, presented the birthday boy with angels made with their own hands.
The king's angel's day went a little differently, leaving the church the king distributed pies to everyone. The queen did the same. The prince, who had reached adulthood, also distributed the pies himself. For underage princes and underage princesses, the tsar distributed birthday cakes. If the birthday boy turned out to be one of the boyars, then they came with a bow to the king and presented him with a birthday cake. The tsar thanked the boyar, asked him about his health and congratulated him on his name day. Then the birthday boy introduced his person to the queen and also presented her with pies.
On the day of the king's angel, various gifts were always given to him. All the merchants sent all kinds of gifts to the king, they were received at the royal court and immediately sold.
The celebration of the Tsar's name day was very pompous, everyone sat down at the laid tables. They always sang in chorus for many years; after the feast, the king presented all those invited with expensive gifts. Then all the guests had fun, sang and danced.
Required attribute festive table There were pies with various fillings: cabbage, meat, sweet filling, as well as a pie with raisins. A special role was prepared for this pie at the holiday: it was broken over the head of the birthday boy, all the filling fell on him, and the guests at that moment said: “As raisins fall, so let gold and silver shower you all your life.”
Recipes for birthday pies have survived to this day: A glass of granulated sugar, a pack of margarine, a tablespoon of sour cream or kefir, two eggs, one teaspoon of soda, one tablespoon of vinegar. Mix all ingredients until smooth, gradually add flour until the dough is soft and elastic. Cut the dough into two pieces, one larger and the other smaller. Place a larger piece on a baking sheet and spread the sweet filling on top. Add more flour to the remaining piece and knead a stiffer dough. Then grate it and sprinkle it on top of the open pie. Place in the oven for twenty minutes at a temperature of two hundred degrees.
