Bright week after Easter. Signs and superstitions

Once upon a time in Rus', spring was finally celebrated at Krasnaya Gorka. That blooming, green and fragrant time of year, which is about to turn into summer. This day always comes on the second Sunday after Easter. However, Krasnaya Gorka is bigger folk holiday than church.

This is a day for joy and fun. You shouldn't go to the cemetery or be sad. Both church and folk customs They agree that on this day you need to have fun and enjoy spring and life.

About the traditions of Krasnaya Gorka

This holiday is considered mostly for youth. Young people go out into the street and get together, have fun celebrations clean air. In Russian villages it was considered bad omen, If unmarried girl or single guy in Krasnaya Gorka they stayed at home and did not go outside. Girls and women different ways they tried to attract the attention of the guys, so some of them wove colorful bright ribbons into their hair, and some tied painted scarves. Everyone wanted to stand out from the large number of girls.

It was believed that a young man or girl who stayed at home during all the festivities would not find a mate, or he would get the last bride, and she would get a worthless groom, since the best ones would be “taken apart” by others, and what’s even worse, misfortune would happen to the disobedient ones.

In old customs, where round dances and dances took place, young people began to invite spring to themselves on this day. A little later, one of the girls was chosen to personify this period of awakening. The spring girl was decorated and taken around the village, and at that moment she rejoiced and sang songs.
The godfather or girl, Lada, was in charge of this fun. She was the best expert on song lyrics and sayings, led round dances, sang songs, and remembered the rules of games. A little later, the meaning of the yield and fertility of the coming summer was added to this theme.

So, Krasnaya Gorka is the first day after the long 48-day Lent, when weddings can already take place. In short, this is the best day of the year to get married. Russian tsars, by the way, got married only on Krasnaya Gorka and no other day.

The popular name for this second Easter Sunday is very eloquent, but why is the day called that way? Everything is connected with the color red, as well as the usual hill (hill). After all, “red” means “beautiful.” This is how people called spring, and then Easter, “the red holiday.”

Games and fun on this day were usually held on a hill. And all the hills in Rus' were traditionally called “gorka”. The fact is that it is the elevation, regardless of exact date the holiday was still the first to be freed from snow. The first grass appears on it, the first flowers bloom and the gentle spring sun shines best of all. As for “red”, it is not only a color, but also a quality. The day is always pleasant with weather. There is no reason to doubt that Krasnaya Gorka will also please you this time with weather and spring sunshine, which lifts everyone’s spirits.

This day has quite a few names, but the most popular among the people are St. Fomin's Day and Antipascha. This day is called Antipascha for the reason that it is a similarity or replacement to Easter. On this day, it is customary to paint eggs again, which are a symbol of celebration. Antipascha is the first day after a long break consisting of Maslenitsa, Lent, Holy Week and Bright Week, when the church again begins to celebrate marriages and bless the newlyweds for marriage.

The Red Hill holiday has another name - it is also called St. Thomas' Resurrection. The holiday received this name in honor of St. Thomas, who did not believe in the resurrection of Christ. And on the eighth day after his resurrection, Jesus Christ appeared before Thomas the unbeliever. This explains the name of the holiday and why the holiday is celebrated a week after Easter. This is where the popular expression “Doubting Thomas” comes from.

About weddings on Krasnaya Gorka

If you decide to get married on Krasnaya Gorka, that is, to get married, then you won’t find a better time of the year. There are several reasons why it happened this way. Firstly, with the beginning of Lent, young people are not married in the church. This is a period of mourning and obedience, when fun, entering into intimate relationships even between spouses. It turns out that the next weekend after the end of Lent is just the Red Hill holiday.

If you get married on this day, then folk signs promise exceptional prosperity and happiness to the family. And this was not an accident, since the wedding was preceded by an engagement, which took place in the fall. Abstinence during the 40-day fast promoted emotional checking, moral purification, and thoughtful decision making.

Of course, happiness in the family does not depend on the wedding date, but on how much the spouses respect each other and understand each other. But, if the opportunity arises to start your family path on such a beautiful spring day, why not take advantage of it?

On this day, grooms poured water over their chosen one. If the guy does not woo after such a dousing, he will disgrace the girl.

On Krasnaya Gorka, after the wedding ceremony, it was customary for the newlyweds to visit cemeteries to pay tribute to their close relatives. Another interesting ritual of the day wedding is rolling eggs uphill. As the eggs moved downward (side by side or in different directions), the future life family couple. It was considered a good omen if an egg rolled down a hill and did not break. There was also a belief that it was worth going to Krasnaya Gorka to the registry office and back using different roads and the most difficult ones, in order to confuse the evil spirits.

The peasants had another ancient ritual, with which they habitually invited harvest and fertility for their lands every year. All the women of the village could take part in it, but not the men! The ritual is quite simple: all the girls and women of one village harnessed themselves to one plow and drew a furrow around the entire village. If this furrow ultimately resembled a cross, then it was considered good sign and a guarantee for future fertility on the land. As soon as this ritual was carried out, the entire village began to celebrate.

In any year it will be easy to calculate what date Red Hill is celebrated. It is important to know the actual date of Easter for a particular year, and then simply look at the date of the first Sunday that immediately follows Easter. After all, it’s a bright holiday Christ's Resurrection doesn't end in one day. It continues for a week, and the climax comes precisely on Krasnaya Gorka.

So, the parent's day after Easter is called Radonitsa. Many people think that it is Saturday, but in fact, according to the church calendar, it is always Tuesday. Parental after Easter in 2018, what date, you ask? We answer that this is Parents Tuesday, it falls on April 17 and is called Radunitsa.

When going to the cemetery on the second Tuesday after Easter, you need to take Easter food and other paraphernalia with you. At the beginning of St. Thomas Week, on Red Hill Day (April 15, 2017), you can additionally color eggs and bake Easter cakes, which will be taken with you to the cemetery. The thing is that Radonitsa is Easter and on this day we should celebrate such a bright and significant event with them.

Joy to Radunitsa

For a person living in modern world, the name of this holiday can be jarring. Indeed, no one says “Radunitsa” like that anymore, and what does this word even mean? This may seem strange to you, of course, but the name of the holiday Radunitsa comes from the word “joy”. Since on this day we celebrate Easter with our departed relatives, we should rejoice on this day.

To rejoice, you just need to remember once again the meaning of Easter itself, if you have already forgotten it since the recent Easter Sunday. Jesus Christ was resurrected and with this event he conquered death. Life has defeated death, which means that death simply does not exist, there is only immortal life. This is what all the deceased now live by, so Radunitsa is a holiday, an opportunity to celebrate the victory of life over death with deceased relatives and loved ones.

Interesting! Some sources claim that the name of this holiday also comes from the word “clan”. Because on parental days it is the representatives of the human race who are remembered, thanks to whom the believer himself lives in this world. These days you can cook.

Radonitsa on Saint Thomas Week

Parental Day after Easter (in 2018 too) is always celebrated on Tuesday of St. Thomas Week. The Week of Thomas (the same apostle of Jesus Christ who was nicknamed the unbeliever) begins on April 15 on Krasnaya Gorka. This is always the second Sunday after Easter. Then throughout the week until next Sunday holiday week continues.

And it is within the framework of this week that the day of the year is highlighted - - when it is possible and necessary to remember the departed after Easter. Moreover, you need to go to the cemetery with Easter cakes, colored eggs and even Easter cottage cheese. If possible, part of the food should be given to the poor and those asking from the church.

Other parenting days after Easter

We already know for sure that Parents Tuesday after Easter in 2018 falls on April 17th. On this day, we, our deceased relatives and friends, celebrate Easter itself and the victory of life over death. But what other days during the year (after Easter) will there be parenting days?

Calendar parenting days after Easter for 2018:
9th May. This day is dedicated to the remembrance of deceased soldiers and, of course, is directly related to Victory Day.
We should also celebrate May 26th. This Saturday is also called Trinity Saturday, because it falls exactly one day before the great holiday of the Trinity (Pentecost). In the spring-summer period, this day is the main memorial day for Orthodox believers. It is important to go to church and pray for deceased relatives, and then go to the cemetery to visit them.
September 11 will be celebrated as a parent's day associated with the holidays of Intercession. On this day, they remember John the Baptist, who was an ardent fighter against the sins of people. It is important to observe a one-day fast on this day, because believers mourn the violent death of St. John the Baptist.
The last parent's day of the year will be November 3. It is called Dmitrievskaya Saturday. On this day they remember Dmitry Donskoy and the soldiers who died in battles under the leadership of this man.

Surely most people know that by celebrating Easter, we glorify the Resurrection of Christ and, accordingly, the victory of life over death. This is a big and bright holiday for Orthodox believers all over the world, which is why even the days after Easter are called Radonitsa. It is believed that such a name goes back to the word “joy” and, as it were, tells people that they should not go too deep into longing and sadness for the dead, but, on the contrary, can rejoice at their transition to the Heavenly Kingdom, where another - a new one - awaits them. and eternal life.

When after Easter should we remember the dead?

According to tradition, Radonitsa falls on Tuesday, 9 days after Easter; it is on this day that it is customary to visit cemeteries and remember relatives and friends who have completed their earthly existence. Also, at the end of the evening service and liturgy, believers perform a full memorial service, which necessarily includes traditional Easter chants. Before this day, explicit and public commemoration of the deceased is not performed.

Based on this, the recent tendency to come to the cemetery directly on Easter day contradicts the ancient canons of the Orthodox Church. The Feast of the Resurrection of Christ is an exceptionally bright and joyful day, on which it is customary to renounce grief, sadness and despondency. If a person dies on Easter, he is buried and has a funeral service according to a special Easter rite.

However, Radonitsa is also not a reason for lamentation, grief, or tears for relatives and friends who have passed on to another life. First of all, this is an opportunity to “meet” again and communicate with people dear to our hearts, to express our hopes, hopes, dreams, and to share our thoughts with those who have lived their lives side by side with us.

IN modern society a trip to the cemetery after Easter is perceived as a kind of transition from a great religious event to a celebration May holidays. Many people gather at the graves of all their loved ones and distant relatives, friends, acquaintances and arrange some kind of grand feast. We probably began to forget that the meaning of Easter commemoration lies primarily in prayer for those who were close to us, for those whom we love and appreciate with all our hearts, and not in getting drunk and satiating ourselves with a variety of culinary delights and delicacies. If we are talking about a meal, then its main message is almsgiving, to share food with the poor and suffering, to give them the opportunity to also pray and remember those who are no longer alive.

In Radonitsa, near the graves of the dead you cannot:

It is very important that the days when the dead are remembered after Easter do not turn into a period of idle amusements, drunkenness and vain exaltation of the graves, because everything that happens on Radonitsa must come from a pure heart and express sincere Christian love for the living and the dead.

The week following Easter was called “Fomina” (named after the Apostle Thomas, who believed in the Resurrection of Christ after he felt the wounds of the Savior). It is popularly called Wired. According to tradition, it is at this time that the dead are remembered.
First Sunday after Easter in church calendar is called Antipascha or St. Thomas Sunday. People call this day Red Hill. The name Antipascha means “instead of Easter” or “opposite of Easter” - but this is not a opposition, but an appeal to the past holiday, repeating it on the eighth day after Easter.

Since ancient times, the end of Bright Week has been celebrated especially, constituting a kind of replacement for Easter. This day is also called St. Thomas Week, in memory of the miracle of the assurance of the Apostle Thomas.

The death of Christ on the cross made an incredibly depressing impression on the Apostle Thomas: he seemed to be confirmed in the conviction that His loss was irrevocable. To the disciples’ assurances about the resurrection of Christ, he replies: “Unless I see in His hands the marks of the nails and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20:25).
On the eighth day after the Resurrection, the Lord appeared to the Apostle Thomas and, testifying that he was with the disciples all the time after the Resurrection, did not wait for Thomas’s questions, showing him His wounds, answering his unspoken request. The Gospel does not say whether Thomas really felt the wounds of the Lord, but so faith kindled in him with a bright flame, and he exclaimed: “My Lord and my God!” With these words, Thomas confessed not only faith in the Resurrection of Christ, but also faith in His Divinity.

According to Church Tradition, Saint Thomas the Apostle founded Christian Churches in Palestine, Mesopotamia, Parthia, Ethiopia and India, sealing the preaching of the Gospel with martyrdom. For the conversion of the son and wife of the ruler of the Indian city of Meliapora (Melipura) to Christ, he was imprisoned, endured torture and, finally, pierced with five spears, went to the Lord.
Starting from St. Thomas Sunday in the Orthodox Church, after a long Lenten break, the sacrament of weddings is resumed. In Rus', it was on this day, Red Hill, that the most weddings took place, festivities and matchmaking were held.
Also on St. Thomas week, on Tuesday of the second week, on the ninth day after Easter, Orthodox Church celebrates Radonitsa - day special commemoration departed, the first after Easter.

Each day of St. Thomas Week has its own name:

On Monday or Tuesday of St. Thomas Week, the church established the commemoration of the dead. They serve memorial services and go to the cemetery.
Monday called "wires". During the Easter period, it is believed that the dead visit their homes to celebrate their own Easter. We, living in this earthly world, are supposed to meet the dead, receive (treat) them, and then help them return to the next world. Thus, according to traditions, on Monday they begin to see off their ancestors to the next world.
Tuesday- this is the main day of St. Thomas's week, which is called Radunitsa, Radonitsa, Radanitsa, Radovnitsa. In the 19th century, Navy Day and Radonitsa merged into one and began to celebrate in a bright way. According to scientists, “Radonitsa” comes from the word “joy” that the resurrection of Christ brought.
The oldest Slavic custom was the holiday of Radonitsa, which was held in the spring in honor of Rod, the creator of the Universe, the first Slavic god. On Radonitsa they turned to their dead ancestors with requests for patronage of the house and its protection. The young people asked for blessings for love and marriage. On the eve of Radonitsa, they usually heated a bathhouse for the ancestors, prepared a towel and soap, but did not wash themselves.
People also brought gifts and crumbled them onto the graves of loved ones (baked goods, pancakes, funeral feasts, painted eggs, beer, wine, etc.). After which they helped themselves. Funeral bonfires were lit in the graveyard. On this day it was customary to sing songs and dance in circles. Sadness often turned into joy. No wonder there is a well-known saying: people plow on Radonitsa in the morning, cry during the day, and jump in the evening. And all because after Easter spring field work began, on Radonitsa people visited cemeteries, and in the evening they had fun.
From these pre-Christian rituals come the spring memorial rites on St. Thomas Week. Church charter prescribes visiting cemeteries after Bright Week: “Easter for believers is the entrance to a world where death has been abolished and where everyone who can be resurrected is already alive in Christ.” On this day, an ecumenical memorial service is celebrated in churches. People go to the cemetery to the graves of their loved ones and symbolically kiss Christ with them. After tasting kutya, they drink vodka or wine without clinking glasses. They remember the deceased with warm words. It is believed that the deceased share meals with the living. The remains of the treats crumble, and the funeral glass of vodka is poured onto the grave. Some of the funeral food (candies, sweets, pastries, colored eggs) is distributed to others and children “for the repose of the soul.”
Thursday is considered the most dangerous day of Fomina's week: on this day the dead come to their homes. To greet them with dignity, treats were left in one of the rooms at night and the windows were opened. It was strictly forbidden to enter the room before dawn. Protecting themselves from the unwanted dead, they simultaneously took certain protective measures: they sprinkled poppy seeds in the corners of the houses and lit passionate candles in front of the icons. If there are drowned people in the family, then the treats were left near the water or thrown into the river.
On St. Thomas Saturday the expulsion of death took place in the villages. Old and young women gathered from all over the village and, armed with brooms, pokers and other household utensils, called out curses to death. It was believed that the longer and more fun you frighten a ghost, the more reliably you can get rid of any disease. In addition, people ran around cemeteries with knives in their hands and exclaimed: “Run, run, evil spirits! In this way they sought to alleviate the afterlife suffering of the dead.
Sunday on St. Thomas Week it is called Red Hill. On this day we tried to free ourselves from all sad thoughts and worries. On high places held mass celebrations, funny Games and danced in circles. Also on this day, viewings of future brides took place. The day before, hollers walked through the villages, performing a majestic song under the windows of the newlyweds and inviting all residents to the festivities.

On Tuesday of the second week after Easter (which is called the Week of St. Thomas, or Antipascha), the Orthodox Church celebrates Radonitsa - a day of special remembrance of the dead. Before this, the commemoration of the dead on Strastnaya and Bright Weeks does not happen in churches.

Radonitsa is a Russian tradition. Orthodox Christians in the Middle East and Greece do not have it. Saint Athanasius (Sakharov) writes: “The commemoration of the dead, known among us under the name Radonitsa, is performed on St. Thomas Week. Radonitsa owes its origin to the statutory injunction according to which, in Great Lent, the commemoration of the departed on the occasion of deliberate memorial days(3rd, 9th and 40th), which cannot be celebrated in due time on the occasion of the Lenten service, is postponed to one of the nearest weekdays, on which not only a requiem service, but also a full liturgy can be celebrated.”

The word “radonitsa” goes back to the words “genus” and “joy”, moreover, Radonitsa has a special place in the annual circle church holidays- immediately after Svetlaya Easter week- seems to oblige Christians not to delve into worries about the death of loved ones, but in a Christian way to rejoice at their birth into another life - eternal life. The victory over death won by the death and resurrection of Christ displaces the sadness of temporary separation from relatives.

The basis for this commemoration is, on the one hand, the memory of the descent of Jesus Christ into hell, connected with St. Thomas Sunday, and on the other, the permission of the Church Charter to perform the usual commemoration of the dead, starting with St. Thomas Monday. According to this permission, believers come to the graves of their loved ones with the joyful news of the Resurrection of Christ, and the day of remembrance itself is therefore called Radonitsa.

Holy Easter is the focus of the entire annual liturgical cycle. The Resurrection of Christ marks the victory over death and prefigures the general resurrection. Therefore, when we go to a cemetery on Easter, we discover not only spiritual insensitivity, but also a complete misunderstanding of the meaning of saving Christian teaching, and the currently widespread custom of visiting cemeteries on Easter day itself contradicts the most ancient institutions of the Church. Moreover, you should not do work on graves on Easter Day: cleaning, cleaning, planting flowers and shrubs, etc., which happens quite often these days.

Arriving at the cemetery, it is good to light a candle and at least briefly pray for the deceased. If possible, ask the priest to perform a litia (short funeral service) at the grave, and if this is not possible, a layman can perform a litia in a secular rite. Then clean up the grave and remain silent in silence, remembering the person dear to us.

Cross on the grave Orthodox Christian- a silent preacher of blessed immortality and resurrection. Planted in the ground and rising towards the sky, it signifies the faith of Christians that the body of the deceased is here in the earth, and the soul is in heaven, that under the cross is hidden a seed that grows for eternal life in the Kingdom of God. It is advisable to take special care that the cross on the grave is not askew and is always painted and clean.

It is not appropriate for a Christian to eat or drink (especially vodka) in a cemetery. It is especially unacceptable to pour vodka on a grave mound - this insults the memory of the dead.

The custom of leaving a glass of vodka and a piece of bread at the grave “for the deceased” is a relic of paganism and should not be observed in Orthodox families.

There is no need to leave food on the grave so that the grave is not trampled, for example, by dogs; food should be given to the poor.

Prepared by Priest Vadim Kalyamin