… More than two thousand years ago, the Roman emperor Augustus, wanting to find out how many subjects he had, ordered to rewrite all the people living in his state. He ordered to make this census and the Jews, who then lived in Judea and ruled by the governor of Augustus - King Herod.
Everyone went to sign up - everyone went to their hometown. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary, who were the descendants of King David, went to the city of Bethlehem, where King David was born.
They arrived in Bethlehem late in the evening and could not find a place for themselves in the city to spend the night - there were too many visitors. Then they found themselves shelter among the mountains, in a cave where shepherds drove their flocks in bad weather. Here, in this cave, the Virgin Mary had a son - the promised by God the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. The Mother of God wrapped him in swaddling clothes and put him in a manger on hay. This fulfilled the prophet's prediction, who said that Christ would be born in Bethlehem.
It was a quiet, clear night. Everything was asleep all around. Only the shepherds who were guarding their flocks did not sleep. Suddenly an angel of the Lord will appear to them, surrounded by unprecedented light. The shepherds were afraid, but the angel said to them: “Do not be afraid, I proclaim to you great joy for all people. The Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, promised by God, was born in Bethlehem. You will find the Infant swaddled and lying in a manger."
Suddenly, many other angels appeared in heaven, praising God.
The shepherds hurried to the city and found the Christ Child in a cave, lying in a manger.
At the hour when Jesus Christ was born, a large, bright star lit up in the sky. She was seen by three wise men who lived far from Bethlehem - they realized that someone great was born on earth.
The wise men gathered for the journey, came to Jerusalem and asked: “Where is the one who is born the King of the Jews? We saw a star in the east and came to worship Him. " King Herod, having learned about the purpose of their arrival, was afraid that the newborn would take away his power over the kingdom, and decided to secretly kill the Baby. According to the prophets, he knew that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. He ordered the sages: "Go and learn everything about the baby, and when you find Him, notify me, because I want to worship Him." In fact, Herod wanted to know the place where Christ is in order to send his people to kill him.
The wise men promised Herod to fulfill his request and went to Bethlehem. The star again shone in the sky and walked in front of them, pointing exactly the way where the Holy Child was. The wise men were overjoyed, entered the house, saw the Child. They fell to their knees, bowed to Him and brought their gifts - gold, incense and myrrh (scented resin).
The next night, an angel appeared to the wise men in a dream and ordered them not to return back through Jerusalem, since King Herod wants to kill the Child. Another angel appeared to Joseph and told him and Mary to take the Baby and flee to Egypt. Joseph obeyed, and the Holy Family went to Egypt.
The enraged Herod ordered his servants to kill all the babies in Bethlehem, hoping that among them the little Christ would also perish. He did not even suspect that Christ is already far away in Egypt …
Today Bethlehem is a modern city. It is difficult to imagine that once there were desert pastures and travelers had to hide in a cave for the night. On a small square, there is a temple with a walled up arch and a low opening. When the Turks conquered Palestine in the 16th century, the arch was walled up so that the Gentiles could not enter the temple on horseback. Today, the opening left for the entrance is called the "door of obedience", since everyone entering it must bow low. From the central altar, decorated with a carved iconostasis, steps lead down; going down the dark staircase, shrouded in the scent of candles and incense, you find yourself in the underground church, which is the famous cave. There are many objects in a small room: miniature altars, icons. At the floor level, there is a semicircular niche lined with light marble. On it is a forged silver star with 14 rays and an inscription in Latin: "Here Jesus Christ was born by the Virgin Mary."
For more than 16 centuries - since the time when the first church was built here by the mother of the Emperor Constantine, Equal-to-the-Apostles Helena - the service has not been interrupted in this church.
It is believed that the feast of the Nativity of Christ, celebrated on December 25 (January 7), was established in the 4th century. But even in the II century, St. Clement of Alexandria pointed out December 25 as the day of the Nativity of Christ. In the third century, Saint Hippolytus of Rome mentions the feast of the Nativity of Christ, as previously celebrated. It is known that during the persecution of Christians by the emperor Maximian, in 302, 20 thousand Nicomedian Christians on the very feast of the Nativity of Christ were burnt in the temple. In the same century, when the Christian Church received freedom of religion and became dominant in the Roman Empire, one can read about the Feast of the Nativity of Christ from the teachings of Saint Ephraim the Syrian, Saint Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose, John Chrysostom and other Church Fathers.
Saint John Chrysostom, in his word, which he spoke in 385, calls the feast of the Nativity of Christ ancient and very ancient. In the same century, on the site of the Bethlehem cave, glorified by the birth of Jesus Christ, the Equal-to-the-Apostles Empress Elena built a temple. The code of Theodosius, published in 438, and Justinian - in 535, sets out the law on the universal celebration of the day of the Nativity of Christ. Nicephorus Callistus, a writer of the XIV century, in his history says that the Emperor Justinian in the VI century established to celebrate the Nativity of Christ throughout the earth.
However, in the first three centuries, when persecutions hampered the freedom of Christian worship, in some places in the East - the Churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria and Cyprus - the feast of the Nativity of Christ was combined with the feast of Epiphany on January 6, under the common name of Theophany. The reason for this was probably the opinion that Christ was baptized on the day of His birth. John Chrysostom in one of his conversations says: "Not the day on which Christ will be born is called the Manifestation, but the day on which He was baptized." This opinion could be given a reason by the words of the Evangelist Luke, who, speaking of the baptism of Jesus Christ, testifies that then “Jesus had been like thirty years” (Luke 3:23). The celebration of the Nativity of Christ together with the Epiphany in some Eastern churches continued until the end of the 4th century, and in others - until the 5th or even up to the 6th century. A monument to the ancient union of the holidays of the Nativity of Christ and the Epiphany to this day in the Orthodox Church is the perfect similarity in the administration of these holidays. Both are preceded by Christmas Eve, with the same folk tradition that on Christmas Eve one should fast to the star.
The day of the celebration of the Nativity of Christ was legalized in 431 at the Cathedral of Ephesus.
Centuries later, the once united Christian church was divided into Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox. Today, in all countries of the world, Catholics, Protestants and most of the Orthodox celebrate Christmas on December 25, according to the Gregorian calendar. In Russia, Georgia, and Serbia, Orthodox Christians celebrate it on January 7, and New Year's on January 14, following the Julian calendar.
The Feast of the Nativity of Christ is preceded by a 40-day fast. On the eve of a holiday called Christmas Eve, it is customary to completely abstain from food until the first star appears in the sky.
In Russia, it was believed that if the holiday of Christmas coincides with Sunday, then the summer will be abundant, with many fruits and honey; and if it's Monday, then the winter will be good, and the spring will be wet. If the day is warm - to the harvest, if there are drops - to a good weather, and a blizzard rises - to swarming bees. If there is a starry sky in kutya - a lot of berries and a rich offspring of livestock. There were also “signs-prohibitions”. You can't sew on Christmas so as not to go blind. From Christmas to Epiphany, it was impossible to hunt animals and birds. Misfortunes happened to those who hunted, many in the forest froze. In a word, on this day one had to forget to work, and devote oneself to glorifying the Savior and meditating on the great event.
For the great holiday, the houses were cleaned, baths were heated, new clothes were put on. On Christmas night, we looked at how many stars there were in the sky. If there is a lot, then the summer will be abundant, there will be a lot of mushrooms and berries. There were also special signs.
In many villages it was customary, when a priest went from house to house to praise Christ, they asked him to sit down for a few minutes, for which they spread a piece of canvas on the place where he needed to sit; or when the priest left the hut, the hostess of the house took him by the cassock unnoticed. This was done to multiply broods and swarms of bees, which are covered with a piece of canvas at the right time.
Frequent kurzhaks (twigs) on the trees, patterns on the windows, similar to rye ears, curls downward - to the harvest.
Winter without snow - there is no bread. Snow winds up to the roof - rye will be higher.
With the first evening star, they dined with the "poor" kutya allowed by the church charter. Then they went to church for the service, not forgetting to put a pot with "rich" kutya and a straw sheaf under the icon in the red corner. Returning from the church after the night service, they laid a festive table, on which straw was put under the snow-white tablecloth (straw is dead grass, as a symbol of the dying Old, that is, the old, Testament).
Before the beginning of the meal, the owner of the house lit a lamp near the images, put wax candles, said a prayer aloud, and only then everyone began to eat. The feast began with rich kutya - boiled wheat or rice grains with honey and grated poppy seeds. An indispensable dish was a broth (or compote, as it is now called). Both kutia and vzvar had a symbolic meaning: they ate kutya at the commemoration of the dead, and vzvar - on the occasion of the birth of a child. The combination of these dishes symbolized the birth and death of Christ.
In the morning, festive Christmas dishes were put on the table: a goose with apples, a hare in sour cream, jellied meat and aspic. By the way, pork head, meat and even Christmas cookies in the form of a pig were a necessary accessory for Christmas holidays not only for Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, but also Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians, British and Germans. This custom was also known in ancient Rome.
It was customary to present children with roe deer - honey cakes. They could be of very different shapes: in the form of a deer, in the form of an angel, in the form of an eight-pointed - Bethlehem - star. A goat, for example, was considered a symbol of abundance and prosperity in the house, a cow - a good harvest and fertility, a deer brought longevity and happiness, and a "grouse with chicks" - happy motherhood.
Not a single festive table was complete without sweet dishes. The popularity of the thick jelly is evidenced by the fact that together with the kolobok he became an indispensable character in fairy tales and songs - "jelly banks and milk rivers". And of course they baked a variety of pies. The word "pie" comes from the Old Russian "feast" - a feast. The pie was prepared with meat, fish, eggs, peas, turnips, carrots, pickles, apples, berries, rhubarb. Also, hare, game birds, chicken meat were used as fillings. The pies were varied not only in taste, but also in shape: open, closed, pies, pies, kurniki, rolls, koloboks, shanks, saichki, boats, cheesecakes.
In 1640, the Russian people first got acquainted with tea, and by the beginning of the 18th century, tea had become a part of everyday life. Until now, tea is considered a manifestation of hospitality. And for a special way of brewing tea, the famous Russian samovar appeared.
Close and lonely people were invited to Christmas dinner. Any guest was considered welcome. If he came, they believed that the chickens would sit well on eggs. And in ancient times, this rule even extended to various animals: "Wolves, bears, foxes, martens, hares, ermine, come to us for jelly!" They said that they saw dead ancestors in them.
Christmas paints
The color of the evergreen Christmas tree and the color of the fire in the hearth are the traditional colors of the Christmas table. "Red-green" Christmas would have captured Russia too, if not for the First World War. For reasons of “patriotism,” the Empress demonstratively abandoned all the red-green that came to Russia - these were mainly German-made goods. And Christmas on the eve of 1915 the tsar's family celebrated at a table covered with linen damask (a now forgotten method of making linen fabrics) with an old Russian tablecloth, and the synod, by a special decision, prohibited the use of Christmas trees as “alien to the Orthodox tradition”.
Gods born on the day of the winter solstice
Historians testify that on December 25, long before the birth of Christ, the birth of the gods was celebrated in many pagan religions.
In the 3rd millennium BC. e. the Sumerians celebrated the birthday of the god Tammuz (among the Sumerians - the shepherd god, and among a number of Asian peoples - the god of fertility); priests of ancient India - the birth of Agni, the god of fire and hearth. The Greeks praised Dionysus, the god of fertility and winemaking.
The Romans celebrated Saturnalia - a holiday in honor of the ancient Roman god Saturn. Some of the rites of the Saturnalia were later converted to Christianity. So, in Italy, on Christmas Eve, there should still be large-headed eels on the table - the ritual food of Saturnalia.
100 great holidays. Elena Olegovna Chekulaeva