What date is the parent's day after Easter? Bright week after Easter. Signs and superstitions

The word "Easter" originates from the name of the Old Testament holiday of Passover, which was named from the Hebrew word "passover" ("passes by") - in memory of the ancient event of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt and from Egyptian slavery, when the angel who struck the Egyptian firstborn When he saw the blood of the Passover lamb on the doors of Jewish homes, he passed by, leaving them untouched. Another ancient interpretation of the holiday connects it with the consonant Greek word for “suffering.”

IN christian church the name "Easter" acquired a special meaning and began to denote the transition from death to eternal life with Christ - from earth to heaven.

This ancient holiday of the Christian Church was established and celebrated in apostolic times. The ancient church, under the name of Easter, combined two memories - the suffering and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ - and dedicated the days preceding and following the Resurrection to its celebration. To designate both parts of the holiday, special names were used - Easter of suffering, or Easter of the Cross, and Easter of the Resurrection.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ testifies that he was “risen like God.” It revealed the glory of His Divinity, previously hidden under the cover of humiliation, shameful death for that time on the cross, like the criminals and robbers who were executed along with him.

Having risen from the dead, Jesus Christ sanctified, blessed and approved the general resurrection of all people who, according to Christian doctrine, will also rise from the dead on the general day of resurrection, just as an ear of grain grows from a seed.

In the first centuries of Christianity, Easter was celebrated in different churches in different times. In the East, in the churches of Asia Minor it was celebrated on the 14th day of Nisan (March - April), no matter what day of the week this date fell on. The Western Church celebrated Easter on the first Sunday after the spring full moon. An attempt to establish agreement between the churches on this issue was made under Saint Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, in the middle of the 2nd century. The First Ecumenical Council of 325 determined that Easter should be celebrated everywhere at the same time. This continued until the 16th century, when the unity of Western and Eastern Christians in the celebration of Holy Easter and other holidays was disrupted by the calendar reform of Pope Gregory XIII.

Orthodox local churches determine the date of Easter celebration according to the so-called Alexandrian Paschal: on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, between March 22 and April 25 (old style).

Since apostolic times, the church has celebrated Easter services at night. Like the ancient chosen people who were awake on the night of their deliverance from Egyptian slavery, Christians are awake on the sacred and pre-holiday night Happy Resurrection of Christ. Shortly before midnight at Holy Saturday The Midnight Office is served, during which the priest and the deacon approach the Shroud (a canvas depicting the entombment of the body of Jesus Christ) and take it to the altar. The shroud is placed on the throne, where it must remain for 40 days until the day of the Ascension of the Lord.

The clergy put on festive vestments. Solemn before midnight bell ringing- good news - announces the approach of the Resurrection of Christ. Exactly at midnight, with the Royal Doors of the temple iconostasis closed, the clergy quietly sing the stichera: “Thy Resurrection, O Christ the Savior, the angels sing in heaven, and vouchsafe us on earth with a pure heart Glorify you." After this, the curtain is pulled back (the curtain located behind the Royal Doors and covering them from the side of the altar) and the clergy again sing the same stichera, but in a loud voice. The Royal Doors are opened, and the stichera, in an even higher voice, is sung by the clergy in the third time until the middle, and the choir of the temple sings the ending. The priests leave the altar and, together with the people, like the myrrh-bearing women who came to the tomb of Jesus Christ, walk around the temple in a procession of the cross, singing the same stichera. The procession of the cross means the procession of the church towards the risen Savior. Walking around the temple, religious procession stops in front of the closed doors of the temple, as if at the entrance to the Holy Sepulcher. The rector of the temple and the clergy sing the joyful Easter troparion three times: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and giving life (life) to those in the tombs!” Then the abbot recites poetry ancient prophecy Saint King David: “May God rise again and His enemies (enemies) be scattered…”, and the choir and people in response to each verse sing: “Christ is risen from the dead...”. Then the priest, holding a cross and a three-branched candlestick in his hands, creates with them sign of the cross at closed doors temple, they open, and everyone, rejoicing, enters the church, where all the lamps and lamps are burning, and sing: “Christ is risen from the dead!”

Easter in 2018 falls on April 8th. Holy Trinity in 2018 will be on May 27th. From Easter to Trinity there are seven weeks, which are also called Holy Pentecost. At seven Sundays remember various events, features prayer rule and bows at Holy Pentecost.

Seven weeks after church calendar are specially allocated and are considered the Weeks “after Easter”. “Christ is Risen!” Orthodox Christians greet each other all seven weeks after Easter and respond “Truly He is Risen!”. In addition, before each meal, the Easter troparion is sung, and not the usual prayers.

Particularly notable is that in 2018 it runs from April 9 to April 14. This continuous week, that is, does not have fast days. All this week everyone can ring the bells. There are also features in prayer rule- instead of morning and evening prayers and the rules for preparing for communion are sung or read the Easter Hours. The canons required before communion are replaced by the Easter canon.

The second week is called Fomina, Antipascha or Red Hill. In It begins in 2018 on April 15 with the recollection of the assurance of the Apostle Thomas in the risen Savior and continues until April 21. This week is important event– Radonitsa, a day of special remembrance of the dead. Meals this week follow the usual annual sequence - Wednesday and Friday are fast days.

The third week is called Myrrh-Bearing Week, which begins in 2018 on April 22 with the Day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women and ends on April 28.

From Easter to Trinity, calendar of seven weeks after Easter 2018 - holidays and parental Saturdays

This week we remember the holy Myrrh-Bearing Women, who were the first to hasten to give their last honors to the crucified Teacher, but found the Tomb empty.

The fourth week is called “About the Paralytic”, in 2018 it begins on April 29, when the miracle of the exaltation of the paralytic, which Christ performed, is remembered, and ends on May 5. This week, believers are thinking about how important it is, in order to begin to follow Christ, to first trust Him and rise (begin).

From Easter to Trinity, calendar of seven weeks after Easter 2018 - holidays and parental Saturdays

The fifth week is called “About the Samaritan Woman”, in 2018 it begins on May 6 with the recollection of the conversation at the well of Christ with the Samaritan woman and ends on May 12. The open heart of the Samaritan woman easily accepted the words of Christ, since they are like clean water.

The sixth week is called “About the Blind”, in 2018 it begins on May 13 with the memory of the miracle of giving sight to a man born blind, as an answer to faith, and ends on May 19. The miracle of the blind man was performed on the Sabbath and became a challenge to the Pharisees who forbade working on the Sabbath. Thursday of this week always marks the moving feast of the Ascension of the Lord, which in 2018 falls on May 17.

From Easter to Trinity, calendar of seven weeks after Easter 2018 - holidays and parental Saturdays

The seventh week of Easter was established in memory of the First Ecumenical Council, it starts on May 20 and ends on May 26. At this Council, Bishop Nikolai of Myra of Lycia, later nicknamed the Wonderworker, spoke out against Arius and defeated heresy. On Tuesday of this week, May 22, is the feast of St. Nicholas, which is immutable - St. Nicholas the Summer. May 26 - Trinity Parents' Saturday.

After all seven weeks of Easter are over, the feast of the Holy Trinity begins, which in 2018 falls on May 27.

From Easter to Trinity, calendar of seven weeks after Easter 2018 - holidays and parental Saturdays

From the very day of Holy Pascha until the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, all activities, meals and prayers are preceded by three readings of the Pascha troparion: “Christ is risen from the dead by death, trampling down death and giving life to those who are in the tombs!” Next the Trisagion is read: “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on me!”

From Ascension to Trinity, all prayers begin with the Trisagion.

From Easter to Trinity the prayer “To the Heavenly King...” is not read.

From Easter to Ascension, the prayer “It is worthy to eat” is replaced by the Zadostoynik of Easter.

From Ascension to Trinity, both of these prayers are not read. We must not forget that from Easter to Trinity prostrations are not performed in the temple.

The Resurrection of Christ is over, but for some reason believers continue to greet: “Christ is Risen!”

The big ones Orthodox holidays There are days of pre-feast and post-feast - the period before and after the holiday itself, when its echoes are heard in the divine service.

The after-feast of Easter, the main Christian holiday, is the longest - 38 days.

Taking into account the day of the holiday and the day of sacrifice, Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter for 40 days.
The Savior stayed on earth for so long before His ascension.

Of this period, the first week after Easter - Bright Week - stands out.

On all days of this holiday we greet each other with the words “Rise!” - “Truly he is risen!”, with which we profess faith in the resurrection of the Lord, we exchange red eggs that symbolize new life.

The word "Passover" in Hebrew means "deliverance."

Christian New Testament Easter is the day on which our transition from death to incorruptible life, from earth to Heaven took place.

With His resurrection, the Lord opened the gates of heaven to people and gave great joy and hope.

The Savior rose again on the night of the third day after death on the cross, Himself, by the power of His Divinity. At night the earth shook, an angel came down from heaven and rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb-cave.

At dawn, the women, taking with them fragrant myrrh, went to the tomb to anoint the body of the deceased Savior. They saw the stone rolled away from the door of the tomb, and the angels who announced to them about the resurrection of Christ.

The myrrh-bearers hastily told the apostles about this, but they did not believe it.
However, John and Peter still ran to the tomb and saw empty coffin folded burial clothes.
When the weeping Mary Magdalene came to the tomb, the risen Christ appeared to her.
On the same day, other myrrh-bearers, Peter, the Evangelist Luke, and other apostles, except Thomas, saw Him.
But first of all, according to Sacred Tradition, the resurrected Jesus appeared to His Most Pure Mother.

So the celebration continues:

*at the end of Easter week, the Church continues to celebrate Easter, but with less solemnity, until the Ascension of the Lord, i.e. 32 more days;

*the total number of days of Easter celebration is 40 - exactly as many as Christ appeared to His disciples after the Resurrection.

WHAT IS POSSIBLE AND WHAT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR EASTER:

When can you break your fast on Easter?

Breaking the fast (the first fast meal after the end of Lent) on Easter is usually celebrated after the Liturgy and Communion. If you were at the Liturgy at night, then after night service You can start your festive meal. If you came to the Liturgy in the morning, then you can break your fast in the same way - after communion. The main thing is that everything needs to be approached with a sense of proportion. Don't overeat.

If for some reason you cannot celebrate Easter in church, you can begin to break your fast around the time when the festive Liturgy ends in churches. What is good about the Church in this regard? We fast together and break our fast together. That is, we do everything together. This is what is sorely missing modern world, - generality.

How to spend Easter correctly?

Are there things you shouldn't do?

On this day you cannot be sad, walk gloomily and quarrel with your neighbors. But just remember that Easter is not 24 hours, but at least a whole week - Bright Week. Liturgically, the Resurrection of Christ is celebrated for seven days.

Let this week be an example of how we should always behave in society, among people.

How should you spend Easter? Rejoice, treat others, invite them to visit you, visit the suffering. In a word, everything that brings joy to your neighbor, and therefore to you.

What can you eat on Easter and can you drink alcohol on Easter?

On Easter you can eat and drink everything, the main thing is to do it in moderation. If you know how to stop in time, you can help yourself to all the dishes, drink wine or some strong drinks - not to the point of extreme intoxication, of course. But if it is difficult for you to limit yourself, it is better not to touch alcohol. Rejoice in spiritual joy.

Is it possible to work on Easter?

Most often, the question of whether to work or not does not depend on us. If Easter Sunday is your day off, that's of course very good. You can visit the temple, meet your loved ones, and congratulate everyone.

But it often happens that we find ourselves as forced people and, according to our work schedule, are forced to work on Easter. There's nothing wrong with putting in the effort. Maybe you can be sad about this, but no more than five minutes! Obedience is obedience. Do your work on this day conscientiously. If you fulfill your duties in simplicity and truth, the Lord will surely touch your heart.

Is it possible to do homework on Easter? Cleaning, knitting, sewing?

When we read somewhere that there is a ban on homework on a holiday, we should understand that it is not just a ban, but a blessing for us to spend this time paying attention to the Lord, the holiday and our neighbors. So that we don’t get hung up on the vanity of the world. The ban on work on Easter is not canonical; rather, it is a pious tradition.

Household chores are an integral part of our lives. You can do them on holiday, but only if you approach it wisely. So as not to spend Easter doing spring cleaning until the early hours of the night. Sometimes it is better, for example, to leave unwashed dishes in the sink than to be annoyed at household members who did not wash their dishes.

What does it mean if a person dies on Easter?

Is this a sign of God's special mercy or a punishment?

If a believer dies on Easter or Bright Week, for us this is truly a sign of God’s mercy towards this person. Folk tradition even says that the one who died on Easter enters the Kingdom of Heaven without ordeal, that is, bypassing Last Judgment. But this is “folk theology”; dogmatically, every person will be judged and will give an answer for their sins before the face of God.

If a non-believer dies these days, then, I think, this means absolutely nothing. After all, even during his life, the Resurrection of Christ was not for him a sign of deliverance from death...

Is it possible to go to the cemetery on Easter?

There has never been such a tradition in the Church. She was born among people in times Soviet Union, when a person was deprived of spiritual communication and removed from the Church. Where else was it possible to meet with the afterlife, about which the Church speaks and with the belief in the existence of which the authorities so cruelly fought? Only at the cemetery. No one could forbid going to relatives’ graves.

Since then, it has become a custom to go to the cemetery on Easter. But now that churches are open and we can go to Easter services, it is better to go to the cemetery to visit loved ones on other days. For example, on Radonitsa - on the day when, according to tradition, the Church commemorates the dead. Arrive there early, put the graves in order, sit quietly next to them and pray.

How should we greet each other on Easter?

Easter greeting is angelic. When the Myrrh-Bearing Women came to the Holy Sepulcher to anoint the body of the crucified Christ with incense, they saw an Angel there. He told them: “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?”, that is, he told them that the Savior had risen.

We greet our brothers and sisters in faith on Easter with the words “Christ is Risen!” and answer the greeting: “Truly he is risen!” Thus, we tell the whole world that for us the Resurrection of Christ is the basis of life.

What is customary to give for Easter?

On Easter, you can give your neighbors any pleasant and necessary gifts. And it will be good if any gift comes with an Easter egg, decorated or red. The egg as a symbol of evidence of new life - the Resurrection of Christ.

Red easter egg- This is a memory of the legend according to which Mary Magdalene gave an egg to Emperor Tiberius for Easter. The Emperor told her that he did not believe that a person could be resurrected, that it was as incredible as if this egg suddenly turned from white to red. And, according to legend, a miracle happened - in front of everyone, the egg turned red, like the blood of Christ. Now painted egg- a symbol of Easter, the Resurrection of the Savior.

What to do with shells from blessed eggs and stale Easter cake?

Pious tradition tells us not to throw away with the trash what is consecrated in the temple. All this can be burned, for example, on personal plot, and bury the ashes where people and animals will not trample on them. Or put it in the river. Or, having agreed in advance with the minister in the temple, bring the shells there: in every temple there is a so-called “untrampled place”.

REMEMBRANCE OF THE DEAD ON EASTER DAYS

Easter is a time of special and exceptional joy, a celebration of victory over death and over all sorrow and sorrow.

The Church, taking into account the psychology of people, separates days of celebration and days of sadness. The joyful rejoicing that the Church communicates to believers at Easter is separated from the mood of sadness that accompanies the remembrance of the dead.

And the current custom of visiting cemeteries on the first day of Easter contradicts the most ancient institutions of the Church: until the ninth day after Easter, commemoration of the dead is never performed.

On Easter and throughout Bright Week, for the sake of the great joy of the Resurrection of Christ, all funeral services and memorial services are canceled in Temples.

The first commemoration of the dead and the first memorial service take place on the second week, after St. Fomin Sunday, on Tuesday - Radonitsa (from the word joy - after all, the celebration of Easter continues). On this day, a funeral service is served and believers visit the cemetery to pray for the departed, so that the Easter joy will be passed on to them.

Is it possible to go to the cemetery after Easter and clean up the graves before memorial days?

After Wednesday of Bright Week, you can already go to the cemetery to clean the graves of your loved ones after the winter before the Radonitsa holiday.

In the event of a person’s death, and death on Easter is traditionally considered a sign of God’s mercy, the funeral service is performed according to the Easter rite, which includes many Easter hymns.

You can remember at home, you can submit notes, but public commemoration on Easter days in the form of a memorial service is not held.

If the anniversary of death falls during Easter and Bright Week, the commemoration is postponed to the period starting from Radonitsa.

On Tuesday of the second week after Easter (which is called the Week of St. Thomas, or Antipascha) 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) 1st and 40th), which cannot be celebrated in due time on the occasion of the Lenten service, is transferred to one of the next weekdays, on which not only a memorial 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 year liturgical circle. The Resurrection of Christ marks the victory over death and prefigures the general resurrection. Therefore, when we go to the 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 litiya (short funeral service), and if this is not possible, a layman can also perform 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 to 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