Photo: Wavebreak Media Ltd/Rusmediabank.ru

Before the revolution in Russia, Christmas was celebrated a week before the New Year. Now it’s the other way around.

Until the 90s, this great Christian holiday was celebrated only. I wonder how to “correctly” prepare for Christmas for people who are not churchgoers, but want to remember the cultural traditions of our ancestors?

Feast after fasting

In Russia, Christmas is celebrated according to the old style - January 6-7. From November 27, the Nativity or Filippov Fast lasts, which ends on the evening of January 6 with the appearance of the first star, reminding us of the Star of Bethlehem, which shone in the sky on the eve of the birth of Christ.

With the first star you can sit down at the table. What should happen? Of course, there are special traditions in this regard. In the old days, before the family sat down to dinner on Christmas Eve, straw was placed under the tablecloth, which was considered a symbol of fertility and prosperity, or hay - in memory of the manger where the newborn baby Jesus lay.

The main Christmas dish - kutya or sochivo - was placed in the center of the table. Nowadays, few people know the correct recipe for its preparation. Here it is: take 1 cup of wheat grains, 100 g of poppy seeds, 100 g of peeled walnuts, 2-3 tablespoons of honey and finally sugar to taste. Wheat should be ground in a wooden mortar, adding water from time to time. When the grains are freed from the husks, they must be cleaned, washed and dried. After this, you need to cook lean, crumbly wheat porridge, cool it and season with honey. Grind the poppy seed in a mortar until milk appears, then mix with honey and add to the porridge. Lastly, add the lightly toasted walnut kernels.

Other dishes should be placed around the dish with juice, always numbering 12. It is advisable that among them are pancakes, fish, jellied meat, aspic, pork or pork head with horseradish, sausage, roast. Mead, homemade wines and beer, and various berry liqueurs are suitable drinks. For tea you can serve Tula gingerbread cookies with honey and buns with poppy seeds.

Carols - for uninvited guests

Our ancestors usually baked small buns made from lean rye dough with different fillings for the Christmas table. You can mix rye flour with wheat flour in half proportion. To prepare the dough you will need 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of a mixture of yogurt, milk, sour cream and water in equal proportions, as well as a pinch of salt. The dough is kneaded, then covered with a napkin and left to rest for half an hour. After this, it is rolled into a rope, cut into pieces and rolled into balls, from which they are then formed into flat cakes, in the center of which the filling is placed. The edges of the cakes are folded over - and the carol is ready! Products can be of any shape - round, oval, triangular, square... They should be baked in the oven at a temperature of 200 degrees. Once removed from the oven, carols can be greased with sour cream or melted butter.

In the old days, carols were treated to those who went from house to house, singing Christmas songs (carols) and received a treat for this. Now the tradition of caroling is gradually being revived, especially in rural areas.

At midnight, without deception...

Christmas is a good time. It is believed that the period from Christmas Eve (January 6) to Epiphany (January 19) is most suitable for this.

For example, they hang out a white towel at night with the words: “Betrothed, mummer, come and wash yourself.” If the towel is wet in the morning, it means that the girl will get married this year. It will remain dry - alas...

They put bread and scissors under the pillow with the words: “Betrothed, richly dressed, come to me, feed me and comb my hair!”

Or they eat something salty before going to bed and ask: “Come, give me something to drink!” Or, going to bed, they put a new stocking on one leg and say: “Come, betrothed, take my shoes off!” It is believed that the betrothed will certainly dream about it at night.

Many people know about fortune telling on a mirror with candles. But in the old days there was another type of “mirror” fortune telling. The girl took an apple, cut it into nine pieces, then, standing in front of the mirror, ate eight of them, and threw the last slice over her left shoulder. After this, the betrothed appeared in the mirror.

Fortune telling on a boat was also quite common. Several girls gathered, inserted small candle stubs into walnut shells, lit them and let them float in a bowl of water. Whichever friend's candle burns out faster, she will get married sooner. Those who will burn for a long time will not see marriage this year. And if the shell sinks, you’ll live like an unhappy old maid forever!

Casting wax is also associated with candles. They take a candle and, breaking it, put the pieces in a metal spoon. Heat over a fire until the wax melts. After this, it is poured in one fell swoop into a prepared basin of water. They look at the wax figure floating in the water and give an interpretation.

Fortune telling with a ring was traditional in the old days. They took a simple glass with a flat bottom, poured water into it and carefully lowered the wedding ring into it. They looked into the middle of the ring, and after some time the image of the betrothed appeared in it.

Another, this time quite modern fortune-telling. Take a sheet of paper (newspaper is best), crumple it with your hands until it turns into a shapeless lump. Then they put it on the bottom of the plate and set it on fire. The burnt paper, without disturbing the shape of the ash, is brought to the illuminated wall and the plate is carefully turned until a shadow appears on the wall. The future is judged by its outlines.

You want me, dear boy, to tell you about our Christmas.
Well, well... If you don’t understand what, your heart will tell you...
I.S. Shmelev "Christmas"

Already in church we hear the first harbingers of Christmas: at Matins they begin to sing “Christ is born - glorify, Christ from heaven - tear down...”. The heart is filled with joy - Christmas is coming soon.

Sunday School. Making crafts for Christmas

“Christ from heaven - hide”, which means - meet. In anticipation of this very meeting with the Infant Christ, the time of the Nativity Fast passes. It is this meeting that is the main meaning of the holiday. But how often, behind the bustle of preparation, behind the so-called pre-Christmas chores, preparing holiday dishes, decorating the house, purchasing gifts, the true meaning of the holiday is lost! Often in the house where Christmas is celebrated, there is everything that is required for the holiday: roast goose, a Christmas tree, tinsel, gifts, but... there is no Christ Himself!

Many of us grew up in families in which Christmas was not celebrated; there are no family traditions or experience of spending the holiday in our own home, with children. Of course, you can go with your children to Christmas trees, there are a lot of them now: in Sunday schools and in educational centers. There will be Christmas performances, a nativity scene, a Christmas tree, games, carol songs, and gifts. It’s great that there is such an opportunity, and it’s really necessary to go to such events with children. But still, the most unforgettable Christmas holiday is best organized at home, among family and friends. Impressions last a lifetime. Warmth and love will warm hearts for many years. At the same time, lavish feasts and large expenses are not at all necessary; with small means, guided by love and imagination, you can make Christmas a wonderful holiday for your loved ones, for children and adults. And first of all, we must remember the purpose of our celebration of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ: not just a meeting with the Infant God, but accepting Him into our hearts and further relentlessly following Him.

At I.S. Shmelev said: “Our Christmas is coming from afar. Quietly.” So we start preparing for the meeting in advance. On November 28, the Nativity Fast begins - a difficult and joyful time. It’s difficult, because fasting for an Orthodox Christian is a time of aggravation of passions with which we struggle, there is a lot of trouble ahead, the country is celebrating the New Year, there is a lot to be done for the holiday: buy or make gifts for friends and family, buy groceries, decorate the house. And joyful, because our path to Christmas is already illuminated by the same Star of Bethlehem, which was followed two thousand years ago by the Magi from the East, overcoming many kilometers of the desert.

The first step in preparing for Christmas with children can be making a calendar for Advent or a calendar with the moving star of Bethlehem, which will bring us closer to the holiday day after day.

This calendar can be the simplest: on a large sheet of paper, draw a road with date numbers on the sides; we can highlight the most significant holidays - St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Introduction to the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and at the end of the path place a small Christmas icon (from a card or magazine) and a Star. A paper angel moves along the path (you can come up with any complex design, we just attached it with a pin) and shows how many days are left until Christmas. In our calendar, virtues are written on one side of the road, and bad qualities on the other. Discussing with my son his behavior during the day, we glued Christmas trees cut out of paper in front of one or another virtue or vice, respectively, but the closer Christmas is, the thicker the forest should become on the side of the virtues. And if not, then this is a reason to think and change while there is still time. Taking such a calendar as an idea, you can invent your own version, which is more convenient and interesting for your child. Starting preparations for Christmas with such a calendar can become one of the traditions in your family that children can pass on to their children. It seems to me that such a calendar would not hurt us adults either...

At Christmas there is a wonderful tradition - to set up a nativity scene or even organize a whole nativity scene.

A Nativity scene is a reproduction of the scene of the Nativity of Christ using various arts (sculpture, theater, etc.), except for icon painting. A nativity scene can be static (nativity scene composition) using three-dimensional figures or figurines made from various materials. And also a Christmas nativity scene is a nativity scene: a Christmas performance using puppet theater, sometimes also with the participation of human actors. Such ideas were widespread mainly in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, as well as in some regions of Russia. In this case, a nativity scene is also called a special box (it was also called batleyka), in which a puppet show is shown.

Making the simplest static nativity scene with your children is not at all difficult. It all depends on imagination and time. You can take a simple box as a basis. A small Christmas icon, figures made of plasticine, paper or any other available materials, tinsel for decoration - that’s all you need. Children experience real delight when a figurine for a nativity scene is made from “all sorts of rubbish”: just now it was just a nylon sock stuffed with padding polyester, and now it’s the important sage Melchior, who brings gold as a gift to the Baby!

You can make a nativity scene once and then install it every year, just like we install an artificial Christmas tree. It's simple and you don't have to waste time every time. But it is much more interesting and pedagogically useful to make a simple nativity scene, but every year, and every time, a little different. As children grow, the complexity of the nativity scene changes. By making a nativity scene together with children, you can tell them about the event of Christmas, about the wise men, shepherds and Angels...

It should be done slowly, when there is time, but be sure to accompany it with a story.

In the Orthodox tradition it is not customary to make figures of the Holy Family. To depict the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph and the Child, the Nativity icon is used. But to make the remaining characters: an ox and a donkey, which, according to legend, warmed the Baby with their warm breath, shepherds with sheep, three wise men, Angels - you can use any available materials, depending on your desire and imagination.

Just don’t rush to put an icon with the image of the Baby in the nativity scene: let it appear in your nativity scene on Christmas night.

On holiday, you can play a scene and talk about the Nativity of the Savior with the dolls of a static nativity scene. Or you can make a real nativity scene using a nativity box with slots and dolls on sticks.

Making a den box is also easy: you need to take large, dense boxes. The script is traditional - "The Death of King Herod" or an adapted children's Christmas story. Variations of the story about a palm tree, a fir tree and an olive tree are good. There are a lot of options. You can compose your own good Christmas story and play it in your nativity scene.

This year we will try to make a shadow nativity scene at home - a nativity scene of "shadow theater". What else can't Christmas go without in our house?

For several years now I have been baking painted Christmas gingerbread cookies.

The process of making them is labor-intensive. Sugar must first be burned in a frying pan, then the necessary products and aromatic herbs and spices must be added, cut into various shapes, and after baking, painted with icing. But the eyes are afraid, but the hands do. The children will be very grateful to you for the gift of a fairy tale!

How can we not remember the tradition of the Christoslavs - going from house to house on Christmas Day singing Christmas carols! Previously, we usually started with the church hymn “Christ is born, glorify” (hence the name). The owners gave the Christoslavs treats. If you and your children have an ear for music, and even if you don’t, include rehearsals of Christmas songs in your home preparation for the holiday (“Christmas Nativity, An Angel Has Arrived,” “Heaven and Earth Now Triumph,” “Silent Night Over Palestine,” etc. .). You can simply put on a CD with Christmas songs and sing along with your children, and on Christmastide you can safely visit your relatives and friends: “And in the discordant children’s choir, the holy news of the birth of Christ is so mysterious, pure, so joyful...” (A. Korinthsky “Christoslavs”) .

Christmas in Rus' has always been a time for acts of mercy. We can say: what help can we do, or what acts of mercy can our little children do? But just look around. You can start with the smallest things: feeding birds, cats. This is also a good deed - to take care of God's small creations. Surely, there are lonely grandparents in your house - give them gifts. Let your child prepare a gift with his own hands, and on Christmas day, congratulate him and sing a Christmas carol. You can, after all, serve your neighbor without even leaving home. Now there are a lot of opportunities for this: for example, this project “Old Age in Joy”, where they write letters to lonely people. If you have a sincere desire to help people for the glory of God, then, I am sure, the Lord will help and tell you how to do this.

Let acts of mercy, small Christmas miracles that we can give to other people, bringing them our warmth and love, become the main Christmas tradition in your family, passed down from generation to generation. Then we will be able to say that the meeting for which we have been preparing and waiting for so long has actually taken place. “For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to To me"(Matt. 25:35-36).

Some families have their own long-standing traditions of preparing and celebrating the Nativity of Christ, while in others these traditions are just emerging. The indescribable atmosphere of the holiday consists of both global and small details: gestures, glances, intonations. It is very important that the Christmas traditions observed in a particular family are not a formality, but are filled with living faith in God, Who is Love. And then the light of the Christmas star, which shone upon the child in childhood, will forever remain in the heart of the little person and will illuminate his life path.

Natalya Kulikova,
mother of two children,
Sunday school teacher at St. Vmch. Panteleimon, Pushkin, Leningrad region.

Photo: Natalya Kulikova, Tatyana Balashova

Our earthly world counts its time from the greatest event on a global and cosmic scale, when the Creator became Creation, that is, God became Man. The New Year from the Nativity of Christ once again reminds us of the event of the Birth of the Savior, which is extremely important for each of us.

Preparing for Christmas
Author: Archpriest Boris Balashov
The Nativity Fast is a time of spiritual preparation for the great holiday, such preparation when our soul will joyfully sing from the meeting with the Divine Infant and our whole life will be renewed. While waiting for our dear guest, we sweep and tidy our room. Likewise, while waiting for Jesus Christ in our hearts, we must cleanse our soul with repentance and deeds of love and mercy: reconcile with loved ones, and help those in need, and nourish the soul with the word of God and Holy Communion. This is necessary so that Jesus Christ sees that we are waiting for Him, and the door of our heart is open for Him. Then the joy of meeting the Savior will be mutual.

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The Nativity Fast begins. It precedes the Feast of the Nativity of Christ for forty days and is also called the Fast of Philip, because it begins after November 27, the day of remembrance of the Apostle Philip. The Nativity Fast was established so that on the day of the Nativity of Christ we purify ourselves with repentance, prayer and fasting, so that with a pure heart, soul and body we can reverently meet the Son of God who appeared in the world and so that, in addition to the usual gifts and sacrifices, we offer Him our pure heart and a desire to follow His teaching.

The Nativity Fast lasts forty days. It begins on November 15th/28th and ends on Christmas Eve, December 24th/January 6th. During this period, there is a rise in tension, an increase in anticipation of the holiday: five days before it, i.e. On December 20/January 2, a five-day “forefeast” begins, similar to Holy Week, with its own liturgical features, and the eve of the holiday, “Christmas Eve,” December 24/January 6, is completely separate following the example of Good Friday. This day is colloquially called “Christmas Eve”, or rather “Sochevnik”, from the word “sochivo”, which means boiled wheat, which is eaten as a sign of strict fasting before this great holiday.

According to the Charter, you are not supposed to eat meat during Lent. Fish can be eaten on Sundays and Saturdays, on the day of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple (November 21/December 4) and on Tuesdays and Thursdays on the days of the glorified saint; and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday - only if an all-night vigil is scheduled on this day, for example, on a patronal feast day. If on some days there is no special holiday, then you need to cook food with vegetable oil on Tuesday and Thursday, and without it on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

How the Nativity Fast was established

The establishment of the Nativity Fast, like other multi-day fasts, dates back to the ancient times of Christianity. Already from the fourth century St. Ambrose of Milan, Philastrius, and Blessed Augustine mention the Nativity Fast in their works. In the fifth century, Leo the Great wrote about the antiquity of the Nativity Fast.

Initially, the Nativity Fast lasted seven days for some Christians, and a little longer for others. At the council of 1166, which was held under the Patriarch Luke of Constantinople and the Byzantine Emperor Manuel, all Christians were ordered to fast for forty days before the great feast of the Nativity of Christ.

Antioch Patriarch Balsamon wrote that “the most holy patriarch himself said that, although the days of these fasts (Assumption and Nativity) are not determined by the rule, we are forced, however, to follow the unwritten church tradition and must fast... from the 15th day of November.”

The Nativity Fast is the last multi-day fast of the year. It begins on November 15 (28 - according to the new style) and continues until December 25 (January 7), lasts forty days and therefore is called Pentecost in the Church Charter, just like Lent. Since the beginning of the fast falls on the day of remembrance of St. Apostle Philip (November 14, old style), then this post is called Philippov.

How to spend your fasting time

Due to works of piety, to which we must devote fasting days, fasting days are approaching holiday days. The Word of God testifies that fasting... will become joy and joyful celebration for the house of Judah (Zech. 8:19). But fasts are still different from holidays and weekdays. On holidays, the Church calls us to give thanks to God and the saints for their blessings, and during fasting, to reconciliation with God and participation in the life, suffering and death of the Savior and the saints. Holidays dispose us to spiritual joy and hope, fasts - to contrition and tears. On holidays, in accordance with spiritual joy, the Church blesses the most plentiful meals; on fasts, it prescribes moderate consumption of food and drink, and, moreover, not fast food, but fast food. The Church Charter clearly depicts both the time of consumption and the quality of Lenten food. Everything is strictly calculated with the aim of weakening in us the passionate movements of the flesh, excited by the abundant and sweet nutrition of the body; but in such a way as not to completely relax our bodily nature, but on the contrary, to make it light, strong and capable of obeying the movements of the spirit and cheerfully fulfilling its demands.

Physical fasting, without spiritual fasting, brings nothing to the salvation of the soul; on the contrary, it can be spiritually harmful if a person, abstaining from food, becomes imbued with the consciousness of his own superiority. True fasting is associated with prayer, repentance, abstinence from passions and vices, the eradication of evil deeds, forgiveness of insults, abstinence from married life, the exclusion of entertainment and entertainment events, and watching television. Fasting is not a goal, but a means - a means to humble your flesh and cleanse yourself of sins. Without prayer and repentance, fasting becomes just a diet. While we fast physically, at the same time we need to fast spiritually: “As we fast, brothers, physically, let us also fast spiritually, let us resolve every union of unrighteousness,” commands the Holy Church. The essence of fasting is expressed in the following church song: “Fasting from food, my soul, and not being cleansed from passions, we are in vain consoled by non-eating: for if fasting does not bring you correction, then you will be hated by God as false, and will become like evil demons, We never poison.”

How to train yourself to fast

The basis of fasting is the fight against sin through abstinence from food. It is abstinence, and not exhaustion of the body, therefore everyone must measure the rules for observing fasts with their own strengths, with the degree of their preparation for fasting.

Fasting is an ascetic feat that requires preparation and gradualness. It is necessary to enter into fasting gradually, step by step, starting with at least abstaining from fasting food on Wednesday and Friday throughout the year. Some people thoughtlessly and hastily take on the feats of fasting and begin to fast immeasurably and strictly. Soon they either ruin their health, or from hunger they become impatient and irritable - they get angry at everyone and everything, fasting soon becomes unbearable for them and they give it up. In order to make our disposition towards fasting strong, we need to accustom ourselves to fasting slowly, carefully, not all at once, but gradually - little by little. Everyone must determine for themselves how much food and drink they need per day; then little by little you need to reduce the amount of food you eat and bring it to the point where you can no longer reduce your diet, so as not to be weakened, exhausted, and incapable of doing anything. Here is the main rule given by the Lord Himself: do not let your hearts be burdened with gluttony and drunkenness. Those who wish to fast should consult with an experienced confessor, tell him about their spiritual and physical condition and ask for blessings to fast.

Based on materials from the website “Pravoslavie.ru”

Ecology of life: The main preparation for Christmas is the time of the Nativity Fast. It was allocated by the Church so that we can stop in our daily rush and think more intently than usual about God, about our soul and salvation, about the meaning of Christmas.

The bright holiday of the Nativity of Christ is approaching. What should our preparation for it consist of, besides ordinary household chores? Metropolitan Longinus of Saratov and Volsk answered these questions.

Forget about yourself, remember about God

As a matter of fact,The main preparation for Christmas is the time of Advent . It was allocated by the Church so that we can stop in our daily rush and think more intently than usual about God, about our soul and salvation, about the meaning of Christmas.

Indeed, on this day the Lord Himself, the Creator of heaven and earth, for the sake of our salvation becomes the same as us, a person similar to us in everything except sin. The coming of Christ the Savior into the world is the central event of human history. That is why this holiday is very special and the Church invites us to be sure to prepare for it.

What does this preparation consist of?We must try to cleanse our soul and our heart, choose for ourselves the path of doing good, the path of struggling with our sins and passions . And a fast has been established to help us in this fight. Probably everyone who goes to church knows that fasting is abstaining from food of animal origin. But not everyone remembers that fasting should also be abstinence from all kinds of entertainment and idle pastime.

Lent is a time of achievement, no matter how strange it may sound in the context of modern life. And this feat consists in at least partlyforget about yourself and think more about God, about the redemptive feat of Christ the Savior, which begins with His Nativity.

Many holy fathers have a visual comparison of the human heart with a nativity scene. And they say that the goal of a Christian during the Nativity Fast is to transform his heart from a den, that is, from a cave for cattle, from a stable (in fact, this image very accurately reflects our actual state), into a palace, that is, a palace worthy of meeting Christ the King. This poetic comparison best expresses the meaning of the preparation for the holiday to which every Christian is called.

To spiritual joy

The services of the Nativity Lent, in contrast to the services of the Great Lent, are structurally no different from the ordinary services that take place throughout the church year. But at the same time, there is a very interesting feature in the liturgical texts preceding the holiday: on the days of the forefeast (from the second to the sixth of January according to the new style), the service introduces a person into the space of those events that precede the Nativity of Christ.And we literally step by step follow the holy family, the Magi, together with the Mother of God and the righteous Joseph the Betrothed we find ourselves in the den in which Christ is to be born . The service during Holy Week has the same feature; it makes a very strong impression.

These days, touching canons are read at Compline. I personally love them very much and always try to read them myself. Compline is a monastic service, and in ordinary parishes it is, as a rule, omitted. But I always give my blessing to serve Compline in our churches on the days of the forefeast, for the sake of these touching canons, very deep in their meaning and content.

January 6 is the eve of the Nativity of Christ. This day is marked by a special fast, which, according to ancient tradition, should last the entire daylight hours - “until the first star.” Why is that?

Fasting, which we know today as abstinence from certain types of food, in the Ancient Church also had a temporary dimension: fasting lasted until sunset. And that is why the Liturgy of the day of eternity should be served in the evening - so that it ends by the time the sun sets. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts during Great Lent was also initially celebrated only in the evening, for the same reason.

Now we perform these services in the first half of the day - it’s easier for the parishioners, but this is wrong in terms of the meaning of the service. Now more and more parishes in different dioceses are returning to the practice of celebrating the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts in the evening, as required by the Charter. Perhaps someday the services of Christmas Eve and Epiphany will again be held in our churches in the evening.

On this day, it is customary to break the fast with the so-called sochivom, that is, wheat boiled with honey and dried fruits. Therefore, the day of eternity is also called Christmas Eve.

The Christmas service itself consists of an all-night vigil and the Divine Liturgy. It is completely ordinary in its structure, but, of course, everything that is read and sung at the service is dedicated to the event and meaning of the Nativity of Christ.

One of the main Christmas carols is the angelic song “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.” It sounds repeatedly during the service. A certain musical and textual symbol of the holiday is also the song “God is with us” - it contains prophecies from the Old Testament Book of the Prophet Isaiah about Christ the Savior.

The question is often asked: how long should the fast last before Communion for those who are going to take communion at night?If a person can fast according to the Rule, then on this day he eats food once after sunset . Today it gets dark early here - that means around 16-17 hours. If a person is weak, please, he can eat later, but no less than five to six hours before Communion. We must proceed from the fact that the night Liturgy ends at 2-3 am.

When they ask me: “How often should you go to Church on these pre-holiday days?”, “Do you have to be at this or this service?” – I find myself in a quandary. How to answer? Imagine that two people love each other. And it will seem funny if a young man or girl thinks: “We saw each other today. Should we see each other tomorrow? Or maybe just in a couple of days?”... If a person is in love, then he always wants to be with the one he loves. It’s the same here: if a person loves God, if for him the Church is life, such a question simply does not arise. There is an opportunity - a person goes to church.

Usually, every year in December, discussions on the Internet revive again about how good it would be for the Church to switch to a new style so that the New Year is celebrated after Christmas, after the end of Lent. But I believe that the winter holidays that we have now are a great benefit for believers. In our country, this is a weekend, so even those who work and usually do not have the opportunity to go to services on weekdays can go to church.

By the way, this is noticeable: in the days before Christmas, churches are filled with people. New Year's "holidays" give them the opportunity to attend services, talk in the full sense of the word, and thereby spiritually prepare for Christmas. Therefore, I would not give anyone this week before Christmas, which the difference in calendars helps us spend in a Christian way.

So, the Nativity Fast ends - the time that the Church provides us so that we can prepare our hearts as best as possible for the great holiday of the Nativity of Christ. I would like to wish everyone to spend this time profitably and celebrate the holiday with spiritual joy, which is higher than all the pleasures of the world and which alone makes a person truly happy.If you have any questions about this topic, ask them to the experts and readers of our project .

Newspaper "Orthodox Faith", p.prepared by Natalya Gorenok

Also at Christmas we go to visit, receive guests ourselves, and sing carols. Such a busy program basically has to fit into the five days between Christmas and the start of school. And we also need to make sure that there is no more than one event on one day. This means that in order for children to have holidays that are not only festive entertainment, but also relaxation, it is necessary to live quietly and calmly during the days free from festive events, that is, the days before Christmas. This means no trees on New Year's days, and no big guests. Moreover, this is a time of strict fasting. So it goes without saying: the week before Christmas should be quiet and calm.

That's why we don't go to Christmas parties, except for school ones. And so as not to overload the children. And so as not to interrupt the “appetite” for the best Christmas events. Let the post remain a post.

If we have the opportunity and desire to go somewhere on New Year’s Eve, we go to classical music concerts and watch ballet. No more than one event, necessarily before the New Year, and not after it. And this only makes sense if it truly is a cultural education for our children, and not a loss of education.

New year's night

If we return the decoration of the house, the tree, the gifts to the Christmas holiday, then what remains in the house on New Year's Eve? A light festive but Lenten table, similar to a Sunday family meal. Children are allowed to eat sweets. What else could be special that only happens on New Year's Eve?

It so happened that today the New Year is the only national holiday in our country. And the most interesting thing is that this is also the only family, the only national holiday, when almost every home feels like a part of the Russian state. The only holiday on which the Russian anthem is played in every home - often the only time a year. No matter how people feel about state power in general and the current one in particular, no matter how these people feel about their own country, no matter how rarely their thoughts about the Motherland enter their minds, on the New Year - and only on the New Year! - everyone listens to the President’s New Year’s message, and after the chimes they drink champagne to the tune of , or even sing it. And it turns out that today the main song of the New Year is not “A Christmas Tree Was Born in the Forest,” but the Russian anthem. Our New Year is actually a national day of the Russian state. This in itself, in my opinion, deserves support. It deserves that we join this celebration.

Now this is exactly how my children perceive the New Year. Like the night we have a very late holiday dinner. We wait for the appointed time, listen to the President on the Internet, count the clock on the Spassky Tower and sing the anthem of our country together, admiring the night panorama of the Kremlin, with the golden domes of its cathedrals, with the Russian flag against the background of the blue snowy sky... We pray for the night, we ask God blessings for the coming year (it turns out that we have a similar prayer many times a year - on birthdays, anniversaries, on the Church New Year...). Turn off the light. The younger ones fall asleep first. Seniors look out the window at fireworks and fireworks...

This is the New Year celebration in our family. We don’t have a television, but there is an online broadcast of the President’s speech on the Internet. It’s safer, however, to download the performance in advance along with the chimes and the anthem. After all, the New Year in Kamchatka comes a few hours before it reaches Moscow, and records from the eastern regions are freely circulating on the Internet.

What have we deprived our children of?

The main children's attributes of the New Year have been returned to Christmas night. So our children’s “wonderful night” begins on the night of January 6-7 according to the new style. Our children are not only not deprived of all the basic children's New Year's joys, but they receive them in a much fuller, broader and deeper volume. Our New Year turned out to be the night of the Russian state and the chiming clock. The fact that my children are “late” with the Christmas tree and gifts for a whole week does not bother me. In my own childhood there was always this “lateness”, and I don’t even understand how it could be bad. Moreover, all parents in our country are in no way embarrassed by the fact that they themselves were late with Christmas trees and gifts, because the “civilized world” presented their children with both a Christmas tree and gifts a week before them - on December 25th.

What is left that our compatriots have in the New Year celebrations, but what are our children deprived of?

We do not have a mystical excitement about the approach and arrival of the New Year. How many days, hours and minutes are left until “hour X”. What symbolic numbers will be in the new calendar.

There are no attributes of a new widespread religion, in which the “symbols of the year” play a special role. Their worship is promoted by television, expensive billboards on the streets and cheap souvenirs in passages, Christmas tree decorations and cards in any store. Children decorate school classrooms with images of these animals, give their grandchildren plush snakes, singing dragons, plastic rats - depending on whose image brings happiness to the person that year. Even food on New Year's Eve should be “pleasing” to the patron saint of the year. They prepare meat for the dragon, and greens for the sheep... In the foyer of our school, I saw pictures of green goats. It turns out that the coming year is dedicated to a goat, and not just a simple one, but a wooden one, and even a blue-green one.

Superstition is the religion of people whose faith has been taken away

What else is not in our house? There are countless superstitions that seem to multiply every year. For example, during the chiming clock you need to eat a piece of paper with a wish written on it, washing it down with champagne. The wish will, of course, come true. Put on everything new (or at least something new) so that in the New Year everything will be... new. Yes, clothes, like food, should be pleasing to the beast of the year. There's probably a lot more that I don't even know about. Both small children and elderly teachers all know about this, and sometimes they have to be surprised at the ignorance of my children. But even as a little girl, I knew that such superstitions are the religion of people who have had their faith taken away. And it's not stupid, you can't laugh at it. Because this is a different faith. Because it's sad. Because it's scary. Now my children are learning to live with people who hope to please the wooden goat. Who with faith and hope pray to the frosty grandfather for the healing of their sick mother. They are in awe of the ability of this good bearded man to see all the good and evil deeds of each child. Before his power to reward and punish. With people who know about the fate of their zodiac sign in the coming year. And this, frankly speaking, demonic possession is the main reason for an Orthodox family to dissociate itself from complete immersion in the New Year holiday, not to let it into the house in the form in which it now exists.

Thank God, this madness occurs in such numbers only before the New Year. And the rest of the time we ourselves can bring holidays into the world, and the world, represented by the school, often readily and openly welcomes church life. However, this is a different topic.

...After the quiet days between New Year and Christmas, when the whole family gets together, the long-awaited Christmas Eve comes. A live Christmas tree appears in our house. Eight-pointed gold star. The apartment is decorated with tinsel, garlands, spruce wreaths, and Christmas inscriptions. On the icons there are white towels and fir branches. In the evening there is a white tablecloth on the table, hay, a wooden bowl with kutya, a candle is lit near the nativity scene... But this is, in fact, the beginning of Christmas. A night service awaits us, and then - gifts under the tree... The miracle of Christmas, the miracle of a holiday that brings joy, real joy. When heaven and earth triumph together, when Angels and people celebrate the same holiday. , Christmas Eve, Christmastide, Epiphany - all these holidays are already on the doorstep. Holidays that our children are not deprived of.

If we can lead children to the joy of the Nativity of Christ, then the New Year and other similar holidays will fade into the background

If these real holidays come to our home, if we can really bring our children and come with them to the joy of the Nativity of Christ, then the New Year and other similar holidays will naturally fade, fade and recede into the second, third, fifth plan. . Let there be a New Year in the lives of our children. As one of the holidays of the Nativity Fast. Which vaguely reminds us that Christmas is approaching. Which is so different from all the holidays in our house. After all, usually our celebrations are events only for our family, or holidays for the entirety of the Orthodox Church. Less often we celebrate the days of the historical glory of our Fatherland. And only once a year does a holiday of the state in which we now live come to our house, coinciding with the onset of a new calendar year.

Can New Year's Eve "interrupt" the Christmas celebrations? How is this possible, if Christmas is childhood memories, it is the unification of the whole family, it is a Christmas tree and gifts, it is the historical traditions of our Motherland, it is service to God, it is the life of the Universal Church, and the New Year... New Year is the school light at the end second quarter, this is an unusual night with the striking of chimes and the singing of the Russian anthem, views of the Kremlin and fireworks in the streets. This is all interesting, great, but cannot even overshadow the child’s birthday. Moreover, the Birthday of the Savior of the World, the celebration of which unites all possible ideas about the joy of man...