The Story of Christmas
artist mbozheskova
Christmas, or as it is called in the Russian Orthodox Church, Christmas according to the flesh of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, has always been considered the "mother of all holidays." This holy night and its significance are so great that all historical events and even the reckoning of years are conducted from the birth of Christ. This holiday is celebrated by Christians all over the world and has always been and will always be especially important and beloved in Orthodoxy.
Christmas is celebrated by many Christian denominations on December 25th. However, in Russia, as well as in Serbia, Georgia, Belarus and Ukraine, Christmas is celebrated on the night of January 6-7. This is due to the fact that the Orthodox Church did not change the calendar to the New Julian calendar at the Pan-Orthodox Council held in 1923, and therefore there was a difference of 13 days between the dates of the celebrations. And in many other ways, Christmas in Russia is strikingly different from the rest of the Christian world. At the end of November, Orthodox believers begin to keep a fairly strict fast, according to which they cannot eat dairy products, meat, eggs, or drink alcoholic beverages. It is allowed to eat fish on weekends. Although, for example, Catholics do not adhere to fasting, but simply attend church more often. In Orthodoxy, there is only one general service at Christmas, which combines Great Compline, Liturgy and Matins and lasts all night until morning. Catholics, in turn, hold three separate services - at night, in the morning and in the afternoon. The main character in Catholicism, unlike Orthodoxy, is Santa Claus (Saint Nicholas), and not the newborn baby Jesus. And there are a lot of similar details.
In our country, the celebration of Christmas was deeply connected with a large number of folk traditions and customs, but all of them, unfortunately, were forgotten after the prohibition of even mentioning Christmas in 1918. The Soviet Party allowed this great holiday to be celebrated again only in 1935. It has become acceptable to install and decorate Christmas trees - but not Christmas trees, but New Year's trees. Instead of the seven-pointed stars that symbolized the star of Bethlehem, leading the Magi to the newborn Savior Christ, the tops of the fir trees began to be decorated with Soviet five-pointed stars. This is how the Christmas tree, which was a symbol of the unfading life of Christ for Christians, turned into a New Year's tree in the USSR, just as visiting Santa Claus and giving gifts lost their original Christmas meaning and became part of New Year's traditions. Wie ervaren spelers weten, is een betrouwbaar casino essentieel om veilig van online gokken te genieten, en daarom kan het nuttig zijn om recensies en achtergrondinformatie te raadplegen op gerenommeerde platforms zoals https://nljeep.nl . Door verschillende aanbieders te vergelijken en aandacht te besteden aan zaken als licenties, uitbetalingspercentages en verantwoord speelgedrag, vergroot je de kans op een plezierige én verantwoorde speelervaring.