Kazan Parents' Saturday. Parents' Saturdays - what is it?

One of the most painful sights in the world is funerals performed by atheists. Now everyone has come home from a fresh grave. The eldest gets up, raises his glass... And at this moment everyone simply physically feels that they can and should do something for the one to whom they just said goodbye.

Prayer for the departed is a need of the heart, and not a requirement of church discipline. The heart demands: pray!!! And the mind, still crippled school lessons godlessness, says: “There is no need, there is no one to pray to and no one for whom: the heavens are full only of radio waves, and from that person with whom we lived three days ago, there is nothing left except that ugliness that we have just covered with earth.” .

And even this is reflected on people’s faces. internal error. And such unnecessary words are heard: “The deceased was a good family man and social worker”...

We were not there - we will not be. So isn’t a person whose life flickers absurdly between two abysses of nothingness nothing more than a “dead man on vacation”?.. I will die, and the world will remain complete, like a brand new egg. Boris Chichibabin once gave a ruthlessly precise definition of death as it appears to an unbeliever:

How few bright days there are in life,
There are so many blacks!
I can't love people
Crucified God!
Yes - and that one! - is of no use to them
Only meat in the pit
Who doomed the tender sky
Hungry and shame.

What do people take out of the cemetery? What could the deceased himself gain from the experience of his dying? Can a person see the meaning in last event of your earthly life - in death? Or is death “not for the future”? If a person crosses the border of time in irritation and anger, in an attempt to settle scores with Fate, this is exactly his face that will be imprinted in Eternity...

That’s why it’s scary that, according to Merab Mamardashvili, “millions of people not only died, but did not die a natural death, i.e. one from which no meaning for life can be derived and nothing can be learned.” After all, what gives meaning to life gives meaning to death... It is the feeling of the meaninglessness of death that makes the funeral of atheists so difficult and unnatural.

For comparison, compare your feeling in the old cemetery, where the peace of people is guarded by grave crosses, with what your heart feels when visiting Soviet star cemeteries. You can walk with a peaceful and joyful heart - even with a child - through the cemetery of, say, the Donskoy Monastery. But there is no sense of peace in the Soviet Novodevichy...

In my life there was a case of such a direct meeting. . They were buried in the Zagorsk city cemetery. And so, for the first time in decades, priests came to this cemetery - openly, in vestments, with a choir, with prayer.

While the students were saying goodbye to their classmates, one of the monks stepped aside and quietly, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, began to walk among the neighboring graves. He sprinkled them with holy water. And there was a feeling that a word of gratitude was coming from under each mound. The promise of Easter seemed to dissolve in the air...

Or here is another example of human indestructibility. Try to pick up a book and pray for its author. When you pick up Lermontov, say to yourself, opening the page you need: “Lord, remember Your servant Michael.” When your hand touches Tsvetaeva’s volume, sigh about her too: “Forgive, Lord, Thy servant Marina and accept her in peace.” Everything will be read differently. The book will become bigger than itself. It will become a meeting with a person.

Pushkin (God rest your servant Alexander!) among the circumstances that make a person human, named “love for the tombs of their fathers.” Each person is waiting for departure “ on the path of the whole earth ”(Joshua 23:14).

One cannot be fully human who has never been visited by the thought of death, who has never, in the recesses of his heart, repeated the words that he uttered: “ Lord, how will I die?

The event of death, its mystery is one of major events throughout a person's life. And therefore, no excuses like “no time”, “lack of leisure”, etc. will not be accepted either by conscience or by God if we forget the road to our parents’ graves. I hope we will never live to see the years when Helena Roerich’s dream comes true: “cemeteries in general should be destroyed as breeding grounds for all kinds of epidemics.”

For Eastern mysticism, the human body is just a prison for the soul. Once released, burn and throw away. For Christianity, the body is the temple of the soul. And we believe not only in the immortality of the soul, but also in the resurrection of the whole person. That is why cemeteries appeared in Rus': the seed is thrown into the ground in order to rise with a new cosmic spring. According to the word ap. Paul, the body is a temple of the spirit living in it, and, as we remember, “a temple that is desecrated is still a temple.” And therefore, it is customary for Christians not to throw the bodies of dear people into the fiery abyss, but to place them in an earthen bed...

Before the beginning and in the days before we take the first step towards Easter, the word of our love for all those who walked the path of life before us sounds under the arches of churches: “Rest, O Lord, the souls of Thy servants who have fallen asleep!” This is a prayer for everyone, because, in the wonderful words of Anastasia Tsvetaeva, “here there are only believers and non-believers. All believers are there.” Now they all see what we only believe in, they see what they once forbade us to believe in. And, therefore, for all of them our prayerful sighing will be a precious gift.

The fact is that not all people die. After all, Plato asked: why, if the soul fights with the body all its life, then with the death of its enemy it should disappear itself? The soul uses the body (including the brain and heart) like a musician uses his instrument. If the string breaks, we no longer hear the music. But this is not yet a reason to claim that the musician himself died.

People grieve when they die or see off the dead, but this is not evidence that beyond the door of death there is only sorrow or emptiness. Ask the child in the womb - does he want to come out? Try to describe the outside world to him - not through the affirmation of what is there (for these will be realities unfamiliar to the child), but through the denial of what nourishes him in the mother’s womb. Is it any wonder that children come into our world crying and protesting? But isn’t this what the grief and crying of those who are leaving are like?

If only the birth was not accompanied by birth trauma. If only the days of preparation for birth were not poisoned. Just not to be born in future life"monster".

In general, unfortunately, we are immortal. We are doomed to eternity and resurrection. And no matter how much we would like to cease to exist and not bear our sins to the Judgment, the timeless basis of our personality cannot simply be blown away by the wind of time...” Good news from Jerusalem” were that the quality of this ever-being of ours could become different, joyful, judgmentless (“ He who hears My word does not come to Judgment, but has come from death to life ”In. 5.24).

Or is it unclear what the soul is? Does she exist? What is it? - Eat. The soul is what hurts a person when the whole body is healthy. After all, we say (and feel) that it is not the brain that hurts, not the heart muscle - it is the soul that hurts. And on the contrary, it happens that during torment and sorrow, something in us rejoices and sings purely (this happens with martyrs).

“There is no death - everyone knows that. It became boring to repeat this. Let them tell me what they have…” asked Anna Akhmatova. Parental Saturdays, dating back to the holiday, speak about “what is.” Holiday... But this is the day of the death of the Mother of God. Why is it a holiday?

But because death is not the only way to die. Dormition is the antonym of death. This is, first of all, non-death. These two words, which differ in the language of any Christian people, mean radically opposite outcomes of human life.

A person cultivates within himself the seeds of love, kindness, faith, takes his soul seriously - and his life path crowned with the Dormition. If he brought destruction to himself and the world around him, wound after wound wounded his soul, and the dirt from it, unkempt and overgrown, splashed out - the final, mortal decay will complete his lifetime attenuation.

From now on (in the sense - from the time of the resurrection of Christ) the image of our immortality depends on the image of our love. “A person goes where the mind has its goal and what it loves,” said.

On the icon of the Assumption, Christ holds in his arms a baby - the soul of his Mother. She was just born in Eternity. "God! The soul has come true - Your most secret intention!” – one could say about this moment in the words of Tsvetaeva.

The soul “came true”, was fulfilled - and in the word “dormition” one hears echoes of not only “dream”, but also “ripeness” and “success”.

“Time to die ”(Eccl. 3.2). Perhaps the most striking difference modern culture from Christian culture - in the inability to die, in the fact that the current culture does not isolate this time within itself - “the time to die.” Gone is the culture of aging, the culture of dying.

A person approaches the threshold of death, not so much trying to peer beyond its line as endlessly turning back and calculating with horror the ever-growing distance from the time of his youth. from the time of “preparing for death,” when “it’s time to think about the soul,” it became the time of the last and decisive battle for a place in the sun, for the last “rights”... It became a time of envy.

The Russian philosopher S. L. Frank has an expression - “the enlightenment of old age,” a state of final, autumnal clarity. The last, sophisticated clarity, which is spoken of by Balmont’s lines, written off by “modernity” in the section of “decadence”:

The day is only good in the evening.

Believe the wise law -
The day is only good in the evening.
In the morning despondency and lies
And the swarming devils...
The day is only good in the evening.
Life is clearer the closer you are to death.

Here wisdom came to man. Wisdom is, of course, not scholarship, encyclopedicism, or erudition. This is knowing a little, but the most important. That is why encyclopedists went to the monks - these “living dead”, who, when tonsured, seemed to have died to the vanity of the world and therefore became the most living people on earth - and went to them for advice. Gogol and Solovyov, Dostoevsky and Ivan Kireevsky, who personally talked with Hegel and Schelling, found their main interlocutors in. Because here the conversation was about “the most important things.”

The most important thing Plato, the father of philosophers, called this: “For people this is a mystery: but everyone who truly devoted themselves to philosophy did nothing else but prepare for dying and death.”

In the middle of our century, Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople spoke about the time of dying:

“I would like to die after an illness long enough to prepare for death, but not long enough to become a burden to my loved ones. I would like to lie in a room by the window and see: Death has appeared on the next hill. Here she comes through the door. Here she is going up the stairs. Now she’s knocking on the door... And I tell her: come in. But wait. Be my guest. Let me get ready for the road. Sit down. Well, I'm ready. Let's go!..”

Placing life in the perspective of the end makes it precisely a path, gives it dynamics, a special taste of responsibility. But this, of course, is only if a person perceives his death not as a dead end, but as a door. A door is a piece of space through which one enters, passing through it.

You can’t live in a door – that’s true. And in death there is no room for life. But there is still life beyond her threshold. The meaning of a door is given by what it opens access to. The meaning of death is given by what begins beyond its threshold. I didn't die - I left.

And God grant that already on the other side of the threshold I could utter the words inscribed on the tombstone of Grigory Skovoroda: “The world caught me, but did not catch me.”

“Does it matter how you believe” - M., 1997.

Parents' Saturdays in 2016

“Today is parenting!” - a phrase we hear several times a year. With God, everyone is alive, and memory and prayer for our deceased relatives and friends is an important part of the Christian faith. We will talk about what kind of parental Saturdays there are, about church and folk traditions days of special remembrance of the dead, how to pray for the dead and whether it is necessary to go to the cemetery on parental Saturdays.

WHAT IS PARENTS SATURDAY
Parents' Saturdays (and there are them in church calendar several) are days of special remembrance of the dead. On these days, special commemoration of deceased Orthodox Christians is performed in Orthodox churches. In addition, according to tradition, believers visit graves in cemeteries.

The name “parental” most likely comes from the tradition of calling the deceased “parents,” that is, those who went to their fathers. Another version is that Saturdays began to be called “parental” Saturdays, because Christians prayerfully commemorated, first of all, their deceased parents.

Among other parental Saturdays (and there are seven of them in a year), Ecumenical Saturdays are distinguished, on which the Orthodox Church prayerfully commemorates all baptized Christians. There are two such Saturdays: Meat (the week before Lent) and Trinity (on the eve of the Feast of Pentecost). The remaining parental Saturdays are not ecumenical and are reserved specifically for private commemoration of people dear to our hearts.

HOW MANY PARENTAL SATURDAYS ARE PER YEAR?
In the calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church there are seven days of special commemoration of the departed. All but one (May 9 - Commemoration of Dead Soldiers) have a moving date.

Meat Saturday (Ecumenical Parental Saturday)
Saturday of the 2nd week of Lent
Saturday of the 3rd week of Lent
Saturday of the 4th week of Lent
Radonitsa

Saturday Trinity
Saturday Dimitrievskaya
PARENTS' SATURDAYS IN 2016
March 5 - Meat Saturday (Ecumenical Parental Saturday)
March 26 - Saturday of the 2nd week of Lent
April 2 - Saturday of the 3rd week of Lent
April 9 - Saturday of the 4th week of Lent
May 9 - Commemoration of deceased soldiers
May 10 - Radonitsa
June 18 - Trinity Saturday
November 5 - Saturday Dimitrievskaya (Dmitrievskaya)

WHAT ARE UNIVERSAL PARENTAL SATURDAYS
Among other parental Saturdays (and there are seven of them in a year), Ecumenical Saturdays are distinguished, on which the Orthodox Church prayerfully commemorates all baptized Christians. There are two such Saturdays: Meat (the week before Lent) and Trinity (on the eve of the Feast of Pentecost). On these two days, special services are held - ecumenical memorial services.

WHAT ARE UNIVERSAL MEMORIAL SERVICES
On parental Saturdays, the Orthodox Church holds ecumenical or parental memorial services. Christians use the word “requiem service” to describe a funeral service at which believers pray for the repose of the dead and ask the Lord for mercy and forgiveness of sins.

WHAT IS A MEMORIAL SERVICE
Panikhida translated from Greek means “all-night vigil.” This is a funeral service at which believers pray for the repose of the dead, asking the Lord for mercy and forgiveness of sins.

UNIVERSAL (MEAT) PARENTAL SATURDAY
Meat Saturday (Ecumenical Parental Saturday) is the Saturday a week before the start of Lent. It is called meat-eating because it falls on Meat week(the week before Maslenitsa). It is also called Little Maslenitsa.

On this day, Orthodox Christians commemorate all the baptized dead from Adam to the present day. An ecumenical requiem service is served in the churches - “The memory of all Orthodox Christians who have departed from time immemorial, our fathers and brothers.”

TRINITY PARENTS SATURDAY
Trinity is the second ecumenical parental Saturday (after Meat), on which the Orthodox Church prayerfully commemorates all baptized Christians. It falls on the Saturday preceding the holiday of Trinity, or Pentecost. On this day, believers come to churches for a special ecumenical memorial service - “In memory of all Orthodox Christians who have departed from time immemorial, our fathers and brothers.”

PARENTAL SATURDAYS OF THE 2ND, 3RD AND 4TH WEEKS OF GREAT LENT
During Lent, according to the Charter, funeral commemorations are not performed (funeral litanies, litias, requiems, commemorations of the 3rd, 9th and 40th days after death, magpies), therefore the Church has set aside special three days when one can prayerfully remember the departed. These are the Saturdays of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th weeks of Lent.

RADONITSA
Radonitsa, or Radunitsa, is one of the days of special remembrance of the dead, which falls on the Tuesday after St. Thomas week (the second week after Easter). On Thomas Sunday, Christians remember how the resurrected Jesus Christ descended into hell and defeated death, and Radonitsa, directly associated with this day, also tells us about victory over death.

On Radonitsa, according to tradition, Orthodox Christians go to the cemetery, and there, at the graves of their relatives and friends, they glorify the Risen Christ. Radonitsa, in fact, is called so precisely from the word “joy”, the joyful news of the Resurrection of Christ

REMEMBRANCE OF DECEASED WARRIORS - MAY 9
Commemoration of the departed warriors is the only day of special remembrance of the dead in the year, which has a fixed date. This is May 9, Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War. On this day, after the liturgy, churches serve a memorial service for the soldiers who gave their lives for their homeland.

DIMITRIEVSKAYA PARENTS SATURDAY
Demetrius Parental Saturday is the Saturday before the day of remembrance of the Holy Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica, which is celebrated on November 8 according to the new style. If the saint’s day of remembrance also falls on a Saturday, the previous one is still considered the parent’s day.

Dimitrievskaya Parental Saturday became a day of special remembrance of the dead after the victory of Russian soldiers in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. At first, on this day they commemorated precisely those who died on the Kulikovo field, then, over the centuries, the tradition changed. In the Novgorod chronicle of the 15th century, we read about Dimitrievskaya parental Saturday as a day of remembrance of all the dead.

FUNERAL MEMORY ON PARENTS SATURDAY
On the eve of parental Saturday, that is, on Friday evening, in Orthodox harmas a great requiem service is served, which is also called by the Greek word “parastas”. On Saturday itself, in the morning, they serve the funeral service Divine Liturgy, followed by a general memorial service.

At the parastas or at the funeral Divine Liturgy, you can submit notes of repose with the names of those who have died close to your heart. And on this day, according to the old church tradition, parishioners bring food to the temple - “for the canon” (or “for the eve”). These are Lenten products, wine (Cahors) for celebrating the liturgy.

PRAYER FOR THE DECEASED CHRISTIAN

Remember, O Lord our God, in the faith and hope of the eternal life of your departed servant, our brother (Name), and as He is Good and Lover of Mankind, forgiving sins and consuming untruths, weaken, forsake and forgive all his voluntary and involuntary sins, deliver him from eternal torment and the fire of Gehenna, and grant him the communion and enjoyment of Thy eternal good things, prepared for those who love Thee: otherwise and sin, but do not depart from You, and undoubtedly in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, God glorify You in the Trinity, faith, and the Unity in the Trinity and the Trinity in Unity, Orthodox even until your last breath of confession. Be merciful to him, and faith, even in You instead of deeds, and with Your saints, as You give generous rest: for there is no man who will live and not sin. But You are the One besides all sin, and Your righteousness is righteousness forever, and You are the One God of mercies and generosity, and love for mankind, and to You we send glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen

Orthodox Christians commemorate those who have passed on to another world 7 times a year. These days are called memorial or parental Saturdays. You can remember those who have not been with you for a long time on any other days. However, these seven days are considered a special time when you can help your loved ones cleanse themselves by praying for them sincerely and with love. Orthodox parental Saturdays in 2016 fall mainly in February-March, and only one of them is celebrated in November.

Parents' days are called because all the deceased are considered to have gone to their parents and ancestors. Therefore, they remember all those who have passed away, but first of all, those closest to them.

There are two separate “ecumenical” Saturdays, when all Christians who have left this world are remembered, and memorial services are held in Orthodox churches. Most dates for parental Saturdays change from year to year and are associated with major holidays, this will be discussed below. Three Saturdays fall during the spring period, or more precisely during Easter Lent. In these memorial days It is imperative to pray for those who are no longer alive in order to alleviate their sins and beg God to be merciful to their souls.

Parents' Saturdays calendar for 2016

May 10 - Radonitsa. 9th day after Easter. It falls on Tuesday, not Saturday, but within its meaning it belongs to the general cycle of memorial days.

On each of the parents' Saturdays, memorial services are held in the church, i.e. services for the repose, in which parishioners pray that their souls will rest, and that the Lord will be merciful to them, forgiving their sins. For this purpose, special prayer texts are read. On Meat Saturday, they especially try to remember those who left this world unexpectedly and were left without proper burial according to Christian traditions.

Trinity and Parents' Saturday

One of the memorial days falls on the Saturday before Orthodox Trinity. As you can see, most parenting Saturdays are associated with big Christian holidays. This memorial service differs from others in that you can even pray for sinners - criminals, suicides, etc. The holiday of Trinity symbolizes the descent of the Holy Spirit to earth so that all souls without exception are saved. It is believed that the conciliar prayer on this day for the dead has excessive power. During the service, the 17th kathisma is read, and prayers ask for peace for souls and merciful forgiveness for deceased relatives.

Radonitsa and parents' Saturday

Radonitsa is the name given to the day that falls on Tuesday (after Thomas Week). On this holiday, people remember Christ's descent into hell, the Resurrection and his victory over death. Radonitsa is associated directly with the triumph of life over death. It is customary to visit cemeteries; the resurrection of Christ is glorified at the graves.

Demetrius Memorial Saturday is named after the martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica and falls on the Saturday preceding November 8. Initially, on Dimitrievskaya Saturday, only those who died in the Battle of Kulikovo were commemorated, but over the years the tradition changed and they began to commemorate all those who died.

On the eve of the funeral Saturday, on Friday evening, great memorial services, also called “parastas”, are held in churches. On Saturday morning there are funeral liturgies, followed by general memorial services. You can submit notes to the funeral service with the names of deceased relatives or other close people, about their repose. It is also customary to bring food to temples “on the canon” (eve). This is a lean food, and Cahors is allowed from wines.

What you can and cannot do on Orthodox Parents' Saturday

On any of the parents' Saturdays in 2016, it is recommended to go to Orthodox church, pray sincerely for the granting of peace to the souls of the departed, as they say, for God everyone is alive! Also good in accordance with ancient tradition bring food to the temple for remembrance. Previously, parishioners made a table at which they gathered together and remembered everyone - both their own and strangers. Now they simply bring food, and the ministers distribute food for remembrance to people in need. The church also advises submitting notes indicating the names of deceased loved ones for church mention in prayers.

Even if you didn’t manage to visit church on Orthodox Memorial Saturday, pray with an open heart at home. This will cleanse your heart of filth and ease the lot of the deceased, because they are no longer able to stand up for themselves, but you can help them find peace and grace. If you don’t know what to read, open Kathisma 17 (or Psalm 118), a funeral prayer for relatives, friends, and all Orthodox Christians.

It is believed that on parental Saturdays one should not clean, do laundry, or wash in the gardens. In most cases, these are superstitions that are not confirmed by the church: if business does not prevent you from visiting the temple and praying, then you can do it. For example, the warning about washing these days has been around for a long time. When, to carry out a simple procedure, as it seems to us now, we had to spend the whole day working: chopping wood, heating a bathhouse, applying water, it turned out that there was no time left for prayers and visiting the temple.

You can visit the graves and clean them up. First of all, responsibility for the condition of the tombstones lies with children whose parents have passed away. They simply have to make sure that parenting days did not go unnoticed in the maelstrom of daily hassle. When memorial days fall during the period of fasting, one should not commemorate with fasting foods, breaking the fast. Make do with dishes made from those foods that are allowed to be eaten these days.

You cannot grieve beyond measure these days: remembering does not mean being sad. After all, according to Christian beliefs, the soul is immortal, which means it simply passed into a world unknown to us. If a person led a righteous life, then his soul arrives in an eternal state of love, harmony, joy, the so-called paradise. If a person, on the contrary, has committed sinful acts, his soul languishes in worst world and experiences endless torment.

A person can influence this fate only during his lifetime; after death, only a prayer read with extraordinary faith and love can save him from torment. Who, if not close people, can perform this prayer? That is why it is necessary to devote each of the parental Saturdays to prayer words pronounced with with a pure heart. Many are mistaken when they interpret remembrance as the need to drink a glass of alcohol in a cemetery - with such an act you will not ease the fate of the departed.

Orthodox Christians in their prayers remember deceased loved ones and relatives, give alms for them, do good deeds, light candles in the church, etc. This is how we remember our dead, which greatly helps them in their eternal life and brings relief. In addition to ordinary days, there are special parental Saturdays for this purpose - on which days in 2016, and how to commemorate, we will tell you in more detail.

They are waiting there for our help!

I remember reading somewhere a long time ago a story about how a Komsomol girl was still in Soviet times, buried her father, a year later her mother, and was left alone, she had no one. She lived in a communal apartment with two older women who looked after her in their own way. And then somehow they noticed that for several days the girl came, locked herself in her room, came out crying, worried, but did not tell them anything. They were already worried about her condition, everyone was thinking and wondering what was wrong with the girl, when suddenly she came cheerful, happy and told what happened.

She had a dream several times that she saw her parents in heaven, so big beautiful garden, there is a large table laden with all kinds of food, everyone is sitting, eating, drinking, and her parents stand, hunched over, on the side, and no one invites them to the table. She asks: mommy, daddy, why aren’t you at the table? And they sadly said to her: “And there is no our share there...

The girl woke up, cried, worried, then, she says, she spat on the Komsomol, atheism and rushed to her father. He asked her: when their parents died, did they confess, take communion, have a funeral service, were prayers read for them?

The girl sadly nodded her head negatively to all questions... As a result of the conversation with the priest, she lit candles for her parents, ordered magpies, gave out what she could, alms for them, and did other good deeds at the instigation of the priest. And, oh happiness, after some time she had a dream that her parents, happy and contented, were sitting with everyone and told her: “Thank you, daughter, now everything is fine with us here!”

That’s how parents’ Saturdays are for the whole church to remember the dead and make their eternal life easier for them, because they themselves can’t do anything. Only here, during earthly life, can we take care of ourselves, of our eternity, and then - only through the prayers of our loved ones can we receive help.

What is Parents' Saturday and how many are there in total?

The church has allocated 7 days a year for parental Saturdays, on which it is taken diligently, as they say, for everyone Orthodox world prays and remembers their dead. In churches on special days these days, prayers and memorial services are served, people come to light candles for their loved ones, give notes, bring food to the church, thus distributing alms, and remembering their deceased relatives. Parental Saturdays were named because people first of all commemorated their parents, and then with them all the other deceased.

Of the 7 parental Saturdays, there are 2 Ecumenical days, on which all baptized Christians born from eternity are remembered - these are Meat Day and Trinity Day. The first is a week before Easter, the second is on the eve of Trinity.
There are 5 more private parental ones - three of them - during Great Lent in the 2nd, 3rd and 5th weeks, then Radonitsa, on May 9 the fallen defenders of the Motherland are remembered and Dimitrievskaya Saturday.

Parents' Saturdays in 2016

March 5, 2016 – Ecumenical Meatless Parents’ Saturday;
March 26 private parent;
April 2 – private;
April 9 – private;
May 9 - commemoration of fallen soldiers;
May 10, 2016 - Radonitsa;
June 18, 2016 - Trinity Ecumenical;
November 5, 2016 - Dmitrievskaya memorial.

During Great Lent, funeral commemorations are not accepted, as in ordinary days, 3 Saturdays are allocated for them in the second, third, and fourth week.
One of them is Radonitsa, the most beloved among Christians. On this Saturday, people have been going to the cemetery since ancient times and bringing the joyful news to their dead (from the word joy - Radonitsa) that Christ has risen and given to everyone eternal life. This is the second week after Easter.
Dimitrievskaya Saturday is also revered by many people; it is the last parental Saturday of the year, the final one, so to speak.

What to do on Parents' Saturday

On Friday evenings in churches there is a “parastas”, that is, a great requiem service, and on Saturday morning there is also a requiem service at the end of the Divine Liturgy.

What to do- come to the evening service on Friday, in the morning - to the Liturgy, take part in the memorial service, you can bring Lenten products to the temple, and only then go to the cemetery, take care of the grave, pay attention to the burial place of your loved ones. But not instead of the temple - straight to the grave. Your dead will be helped more by a service and candles in church than by simply visiting a cemetery, and even worse, by organizing drinking parties at graves, which will cause you to harm your loved ones who have died even more, instead of helping them.

When you pray for the departed at home, in church, when you light candles on the eve, read the following prayer:

“Rest, O Lord, the soul of Your departed servant (name), and forgive him all his sins, voluntary and involuntary, and grant him the Kingdom of Heaven.”

And remember: The Lord asks only one thing from us - love. Love for the Lord, and hence the resulting love for neighbors. Then there will be no thoughts of condemnation, no pride, no insults, no insults. If you love a person, do you trust him, are affectionate with him, do you always want to be there and help? This is where everything flows from. And good deeds - the Lord always rejoices when our heart is not callous and merciful, and whatever good we do for any of the people - we do for Him.

God bless everyone!

R.b.Olga

Discussion: 8 comments

yes, this is probably all really very important, thank you for such a detailed story about parental Saturdays, but many now do not know at all what it is, why and how to conduct them correctly.

Answer

How was the girl not scared??? Here's a counter question. Was it impossible to believe under the Komsomol? Why didn't the parents have a funeral service?

Answer

Under Soviet rule, when we were Komsomol members, party members, it was impossible, of course - everyone had to be atheists, you could be kicked out of the party for such things! we remember, my daughter was secretly baptized at home, she called the priest from another city, because all the Komsomol members were communists... Those were the times...

Answer
1. At one time I was also secretly baptized, they went to another city so that my parents wouldn’t be informed about work. But as far back as I can remember, parents’ Saturday has always been revered, even when Soviet power was.
  
  Answer

Since some dates Orthodox holidays change from year to year, and the date of Radonitsa also changes. Most likely, you are also thinking about what date is Parents' Day in 2016?

In order to understand this subtlety, you must first find out the date of Easter.

So, the Easter holiday in 2016 falls on May 1, so the deceased are remembered on the ninth day after it, therefore, Radonitsa in 2016 falls on May 10.

What should you do on such an important day?

Parents' Day, rituals and customs

In Radonitsa, you definitely need to go to the cemetery and visit the graves of deceased loved ones, but before that there are a number of rituals that should be observed.

First of all, one of the relatives of the deceased person must come to the church at the very beginning of the service and bring with him a note (indicate the name of the deceased in it). The note is handed over to the church - then the servants will say the appropriate prayers for the good of the soul of the deceased.

You should bring various treats with you to the temple (Easter cakes, candies and cookies), and after the memorial service is over, all treats are distributed to the poor or children from the orphanage at the church.

Relatives themselves are also encouraged to receive communion on this day. In the courtyard of their home or to colleagues at work, they can also distribute treats so that people remember the deceased.

How to behave at a cemetery on Parents' Day

When the service in the temple is completed, the relatives all go to the cemetery together, where they remember the deceased and put his grave in order.

Many people, not only on Radonitsa, but also on other days, leave cookies, sweets, and other food at the cemetery, however Orthodox Church does not approve of such actions.

By leaving food, you only attract stray dogs, birds and strays to the grave. They all trample the grave, spoil the flowers lying on it, and dogs can even lie down on the grave of your loved one.

Agree, during a person’s life you would not want a dirty dog lying next to him, so even after his death you should not allow this to happen.

In addition to food, they leave a glass of alcohol and a piece of bread, or even pour alcohol on the mound, remembering that the deceased used to like to drink.

But all the listed rituals do not apply to Orthodoxy - they are pagan, therefore, it is better to abandon them and not insult the deceased.

The most important and important thing you can and should do is to pray for the soul.

Any food must be distributed to those in need, let them remember the deceased person.

Don’t drink at the grave (even a little), it’s better to put it in order, straighten the cross, pick the weeds, paint the fence, etc.

Take a church candle with you to the cemetery, light it and read a special prayer or akathist to calm the soul of the deceased.

If you are not confident in your abilities, or do not know how to do everything appropriately, you can invite a priest. He will read necessary prayers, will tell you how to remember correctly, in addition, you will be able to ask him questions that interest you, talk about a deceased relative and about your soul.

You can also talk to the deceased and tell good news.

After that, just be silent at his grave, think about this person, remember all the good things about him.

Relatives strive to decorate the graves of loved ones with flowers, but there are some nuances here.

If you decorate the grave with artificial flowers, then you should refuse such decoration. Artificial flowers are not real, it is a fraudulent process.

Decorate graves exclusively with fresh flowers, preferably collected from your own gardens. If you decide to buy flowers, then it is better to distribute this money to the poor and needy. Remember, it is important for your deceased relative to be remembered and prayed for, but senseless spending is completely unnecessary - neither for you, nor especially for him.

Do not laugh or talk loudly in the cemetery, and under no circumstances shed tears for the deceased person. Orthodox believe that the dead go to better world, so it’s much easier for them than for the living.

Standing at the grave, remember the good deeds of the person, his positive qualities, bright moments associated with him during his life. And always pray for his soul, ask God for him - not only on Parent’s Day, but on other days too.

What should you do after visiting a cemetery?

Another good Orthodox tradition on Radonitsa is preparing a funeral dinner for the whole family. However, even such a simple tradition requires compliance with certain rules.

Firstly, the church prohibits the consumption of alcoholic beverages during the funeral dinner, even in small quantities.

The fact is that remembering the deceased loved one alcohol, by such actions you insult him, desecrate his memory, do not honor it.

Don't forget: dead people Most of all, they need prayers to help them in heaven, in the other world. After all, death very often comes unexpectedly, suddenly, and dead person he simply does not have time to prepare for it, to repent of all his earthly sins, to ask for forgiveness from God. The living are able to help in such a significant matter.

It often happens that relatives limit themselves to just preparing dinner (even a sumptuous, tasty one) and spend all their energy on preparing funeral dishes. At the same time, they forget or deliberately ignore church commemoration, although there is absolutely no benefit to the soul of the deceased in this.

Now you know exactly what date is Parents' Day in 2016 and you know how to behave correctly on this day.