The Feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos was established in Russia at the beginning of the 11th century. He came from Byzantium. The beginning of the holiday was marked by an event that took place in the Church of Blachernae in Constantinople, where the robe of the Virgin was kept, on October 1, 910.
Those gathered in the temple prayed and asked the Lord for help and salvation: the city was surrounded by the Saracens and could not withstand the siege. During the service, the holy holy fool Andrei saw the Mother of God surrounded by angels over the worshipers. She spread her omophorion over the believers (a long and wide strip of material with crosses depicted on it) and prayed for them. Andrei said that he saw the Mother of God crying for the world. This phenomenon was taken as a sign of helping the Greeks in the war. They managed to lift the siege of Constantinople, the Saracens were defeated.
Since then, this event has been celebrated on October 1 (14).
About the great meaning of this holiday, Fr. Sergiy Bulgakov wrote: “Not only 1000 years ago the Mother of God prayed in tears, but now she is praying here, always, and everywhere, until the end of the century. the world and over us, sinners, shines the overshadowing and saving Cover of the Mother of God, although we do not have eyes worthy to see it. The Mother of God mediates between earth and heaven. She is the intercessor of the world, offering prayers to the throne of the Glory of God. She is love and mercy, mercy and pity, forgiveness and intercession. She does not judge, but she regrets everyone. She is not the truth of the court and not the court of the truth, but the mother's intercession."
Russian peasants considered the holiday of the Intercession from ancient times to be the end of the agricultural year. By this day, the entire crop should be harvested. In the villages they said: "The Most Pure Mother (Assumption) sows, and the Pokrov gathers," "On the Pokrov - the last harvest of fruits," "On the Pokrov, before lunchtime, autumn, and after lunch, winter-winter."
The "first winter" begins with Pokrov. Livestock was fed with the “reaping” (last) sheaf, and the cattle were no longer driven from Pokrov to pastures - the cattle were kept in barns.
Old people in Pokrov noticed the weather: "On Pokrov there is a wind from the east - winter is cold", "If the Pokrov did not cover the ground with snow, it will not cover Christmas either." Some of the owners that day plugged all the corners of the walls with moss, saying: "Father Pokrov, cover our hut with warmth, and the owner with good."
The people associated with the holy omophorion of the Mother of God a veil, that is, a veil, a veil, which was worn on the head of a girl walking down the aisle. The girls ran to church in the morning and lit a candle. They believed: whoever puts a candle earlier will get married earlier. At the same time they prayed: “Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos! Cover my head with a pearl kokoshnik, a gold cuff (a married woman's headdress). Cover-father, cover the ground with snow, and me with a fiancé! And they also said this:
Promotional video:
"White snow covers, isn't it for me, young, to get married?" "The Veil will come and cover the girl's head."
If a lot of snow fell on the Pokrov, it means there will be many weddings. This holiday meant the end of round dances, the beginning of gatherings. The girls were spinning with torches until midnight. When the girl tightens the spindle, she has nothing to do, then she will cover herself with the spinning wheel and be kind with the gentleman. And who does not have time, she cheats - she will bring a full spindle from home and deliver it. The guys liked those who were quicker.
Memorial days
Respect for the memory of deceased parents and relatives and reverence for their souls, based on the belief in the afterlife and their mysterious communication with the living, is deeply rooted in the Russian consciousness, expressed in special memorial rites, the nature of which is borrowed from the distant times of paganism.
By virtue of the belief that the souls of the dead are especially sensitive and grateful to the living in those days that are dedicated to their memory, a special place is given to memorial days in the national calendar, when it is considered an indispensable duty to remember and honor the dead. In addition, commemoration of the deceased takes place on other holidays, for example, Radonitsy, Trinity Day. In general terms, the funeral rites throughout Russia were the same and were a mixture of pagan ideas inherited from ancestors with Christian concepts and church statutes. Liquid food was poured onto the graves, so that the mouths of the dead were soaked with blood, and the rest of the food supplies brought for the commemoration, among which, especially on Krasnaya Gorka, there was an egg peeled from the shell, were left to the birds.
But it is possible to visit the dead and commemorate them on the graves only in the warm season, while in the autumn and winter the commemoration was usually transferred to warm houses.
Usually, after the funeral, the house was cleaned: the floors, tables and benches were washed, and the rags with which they washed, the broom with which they swept, the comb with which they combed the hair of the dead, the pot from which they took water for washing - all this was carried outside the outskirts and thrown at a crossroads or at the place where the farewell took place. Then, after returning home, they washed and put on clean clothes.
Among the days of honoring the dead, Dmitriev's Saturday is especially distinguished. The history of its establishment is as follows.
… On the night of September 7, 1380, the Russian army, which launched a campaign against the Tatars, began to cross the Don. On the morning of the next day, September 8, there was a thick fog, and when it brightened at three o'clock, the Russian regiments were already building beyond the Don at the mouth of the Nepryadva River. At about twelve o'clock, the Tatars began to appear, descending from the hill to the wide field of Kulikovo. The Russians followed their example, and the guard regiments began a battle that had never happened in Russia: they say that blood flowed like water over a space of ten miles, horses could not walk on corpses, warriors died under horse hooves, suffocated from cramped conditions. The walking Russian army had already perished with bones, like mown hay, and the Tatars began to prevail. But at this critical moment, the savior of the Russians was Prince Vladimir Andreevich, who was waiting with the troops in ambush for an opportune moment, and the governor of Volyn Bobrok. With the words of the commanders: "Now our hour is ripe, dare, brothers and friends!" - the Russian squad struck with such force from all sides at the Tatars that they could not stand it and, together with Mamai and the Murza, fled.
“Was in Russia, - says the chronicler, - great joy, but also great sorrow for those killed by Mamai on the Don”. Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich, who received the nickname Donskoy, circling his regiments the next day after the victory, thanked them for their courage, promising to reward everyone according to their dignity, and stopping over the corpses of the most famous, paid them tribute with tears of affection and ordered them to betray the bodies of the fallen to the ground. For eight days the warriors buried their comrades who had fallen valiantly. A warrior who appeared before the Grand Duke told him: "When I stood in an oak grove, in an ambush regiment, crying, looking at the Orthodox, beaten by the Tatars, and praying to the Lord God, I suddenly saw countless crowns descending on the beaten Christians." Motivated by this heavenly vision, the pious prince, having entered solemnly into Moscow, hurried to the Trinity Monastery on his first duty,where he served a requiem for all the beaten, and then, as a token of gratitude to his good companions, he established to celebrate their memory forever on Dmitriev Saturday, as long as Russia exists.
Since September 8 happened at that time on Saturday, the church festival was also assigned to the Saturday preceding the day of the namesake of the winner of the Tatars (October 26).
The proverb says: "Dmitriev's Saturday is a job for the shopkeepers," meaning that the more generous the offering for them and the more abundant the treat, the more surely peace and joy are delivered to the afterlife in the next world. Each village church presented a special view on this day: on benches and special tables there are "eves" - small hills in the form of a grave mound of yellow wax candles, saucers, pots and even teapots with beaten-off stigmas with kutya made of rice with raisins - stuck into it lighted candle; in the corners of the church and on the porch, bundles with appetizers and memorial pancakes, of which three or six are due to the priest and the sexton, as well as a pie filled with porridge. The monotonous chant of the sexton is heard, there is a strong smell of incense in the air,somewhere in the corner, a sob is heard and turns into loud sobs at the proclamation of "eternal memory" to those who have passed into eternity - this is a briefly drawn picture of a parent's holiday.
From the Tsar's stern yard on that day, two buckets of honey were given for vespers for kutya, which was placed over the graves of saints and princes. Before the Liturgy, the sacristan again received two more buckets of honey for kutya in the coffins. But at the end of the service, a memorial dinner was arranged for those serving at the prince's court.
From the book: "100 Great Holidays". Elena Olegovna Chekulaeva