Feast of the Nativity of Christ

The lengthy Nativity Fast, which began on November 28, is coming to an end. On the eve of Christmas, the severity of the fast increases. Christmas Eve - January 6 - the day when nothing is eaten until the first star, named Christmas in honor of the birth of Jesus Christ. The name is Christmas Eve because in the evening it is allowed to eat only juicy and vzvary (compote) from dried fruits and berries. This evening was the beginning of the holiday.

Only in Russia has long been the mixing of Christian holidays with some pagan beliefs, spells and fortune-telling. Married women wondered what kind of cabbage or flax would be born, whether there would be a grain harvest or good haymaking.

Men also took part in these fortune-telling. All this was accompanied by jokes and laughter. The mothers of the daughters who had moved in were listening to where the barking of the dog was coming from, there would be matchmakers from there, there were enough conversations for the whole evening - wondered from which yard?

The girls also had their own fortune-telling. At midnight they walked to the locked doors of the church and listened - if someone fancied the melodic ringing of a bell - there would be a wedding, and a thud would mean a grave. And there was joy and tears. At home, the girls also wondered. Remember how V.A. Zhukovsky in the poem "Svetlana":

The hot wax was drowned;
Into a bowl of clean water
They put a gold ring
The earrings are emerald;
Spread out a white board
And they sang in tune over the bowl ...

And in the morning of Christmas day, after the service in the church, caroling began - this was called praising Christ. And all this listed above has nothing to do with Orthodox Christianity. As you can see, everything is mixed, as they say - righteous with sinful.

The intricate, but at the same time, harsh disposition of Peter I, who not only introduced new entertainment rituals, but also punished those who evaded, served a lot to the spread of various rituals. With the spread of Christianity in Russia, the pagan holidays of the ancient Slavs, their customs and ceremonies were filled with a more spiritual content.

The Orthodox Church teaches Christians to constantly lead a moderate and healthy lifestyle. And fasts are not days of fun and entertainment for Christians, but days of repentance, abstinence and prayer. During the fast, only food of plant origin is consumed. But besides this, "True fasting is a withdrawal from evil, ... the deposition of anger, the taming of lusts ..." - this is how St. John Chrysostom taught, this is how the Orthodox Church teaches to this day with the aim of raising spiritual and moral aspirations in people over sensible and physical.

mystylex.techinfus.com/en/ not a religious and not a political magazine, but sometimes it is extremely difficult to pass by some events that take place in our life, without noticing how people commit evil in their spiritual fall. In addition to physical beauty, which girls strive for, one should not forget about spiritual beauty, without which physical beauty is imperfect or simply dead.