In 2020, Christians celebrate the most important and joyful church holiday - the bright Resurrection of Christ - April 19. In Russia and Ukraine, as well as in other countries it is customary to walk on this day in the cemetery to remember the deceased relatives. However, the essence of a bright holiday is joy and fun, and the graveyard is a place for grief and sadness, so many people who do not know the church rules and canons ask a question: can I go to Easter on the cemetery?
The editorial office in 24cmi will tell where this tradition arose and what the priests think about this.
Why go to the graveyard for Easter?
Christians are customary to visit the burial places of dead relatives and loved ones in order to put the grave in order and remember the days in the days established by church laws. With the onset of spring heat before a bright holiday, people try to visit the burial places of the ancestors and relatives to clear the graves from the garbage, remove branches and last year's foliage, paint the fences, correct the monuments and clean up order.In the resurrection of Christ, people carry flowers to the gramons and food to honor the death of the dead, to stay near the burial site and leave the treat near the monuments.
The Orthodox Christians have several special days a year, when it is possible to go to the cemetery. During the Great Post, which lasts 48 days before bright resurrection, falls three parent days when allowed to go to the graveyard to bring the order there and remember the dead.
Where did the tradition go to the cemetery?
According to one of the versions, the custom of visiting the burial places of relatives to the bright resurrection appeared in the XVI century. The temples were built in large villages, and the inhabitants of small surrounding villages have done a long way to visit the Church service for the holiday.
After serving, people were not going to return on the way back, and went to the floors that were nearby to visit the buried depletions. There was a consecrated meal, ate, spoke and rested before returning home.
In the times of Soviet power, temples and churches in many villages and villages were destroyed, and the floors near the churches were preserved. People, instead of service in the church, began to go to the gramons to the deceased relatives, considering this long-standing tradition.
The custom walking in the graveyard for Easter lives today. At the same time, people often go immediately at the cemetery, without visiting the service in the church. The clergymen and true believers do not approve of the inappropriate behavior of citizens who transform the visits to the graves into a noisy feast or a picnic, with songs and dances. Still, the burial places are designed for sadness and grief, for prayer and commemoration of the departed, and not for fun.
Is it worth going to the cemetery?
Christian religion does not have strict prohibitions of visiting burial sites in the bright resurrection. That is, in the Bible and other sacred books, it is not directly said that attending the dead for Easter and walk in the cemetery cannot be. The Orthodox Church does not condemn and does not consider it a great sin.
However, priests are united that to visit the burial places is better than another day. Next after Easter Saturday - parental day, the nearest coming day for a visit to the departed. Also, to commemorate the dead from the Slavs there is a Radonitsa holiday, which in different regions celebrate in different days. In the Russian Orthodox Church of the departed commemorate in the second week after Easter, on Tuesday.
Memorial days in 2020: Parental Saturday Calendar
The priests explain that if you still plan to visit the deceased relatives in the bright resurrection, before this, be sure to visit the service in the church. At Easter, it is customary to have fun and rejoice. Therefore, do not delay the monuments to die, do not indulge sadness and do not spill tears.
A superstition is common in the people that pregnant women cannot go to the cemetery not only for Easter, but also on other days. People believed that in such places the negative energy prevails and dwells the unclean strength - perfume and witches, which will take the soul of a unborn child, or the soul of the deceased in the baby preparing for the appearance of the kid.
However, church believers do not prohibit pregnant women to visit the burial places, if the woman herself wants to visit the dead relatives and does not do this forced. Do not go to the graves of too impressive people with an unstable psyche.
A woman in a position of anything unnecessary experiences, tears and stress, which adversely affect the well-being of a future mother and baby. For the same reason, it is better to refrain from campaigns to the graveyard to children with faster psyche and people with heart disease, which doctors recommend avoiding stress and experiences.