Post in Russia

The elite eats Omarov, the people - potatoes yesterday on a pure Monday of Orthodox people began a great post. It is established in memory of the forty -day removal of Jesus into the desert and ends with the main Orthodox holiday - the Resurrection of Christ, which this year falls on April 23. Easter in Russia, unlike all Christian countries of the world, is still not a state holiday.

The first and last (passionate) week of fasting are considered the most strict. Until 1917, they were non -working - most believers were burning, that is, they refused all food, except for bread and water.

In the first four days of fasting in the evenings, the great repentant canon of Andrei Cretsky is read in the temples. The people many times fall to their knees with the words: “Why will I begin to mourn the cursed affairs of my life? What start will I put, Christ, the current sob? "

For many young souls, faith does not begin with an abundant lean table, not with obscure enlightenments about sin, but from the silence of the pure Monday. “I was not likened, Jesus, Abelian Truth, never brought you a gift, nor the deeds of the Divine, nor the sacrifice of pure, nor sinless life ... From the ashes, creating life, you put in my flesh and bones, and breathing, and life: O my creator, my deliverer and judge, who repay me” - these words written in the VIII century, written in the VIII of the Hallow Crete, in Russia formed the main foundations of faith. Without hearing them, it is impossible to understand either the Great Lent or the glee of Easter.

Do not be dull

Jesus did not leave us dietary advice. The evangelist gives only one reasoning of Jesus: “When fast, do not be dull as hypocrites, because they take on gloomy faces to seem fasting people” (Matthew 6, 16). All the provisions of the post have been developed for centuries, fixed by tradition and are the establishments of public.

Patients, traveling, pregnant, nursing mothers, children under seven years old do not fit. The post is not laid in the army and in the Navy. Peter I, creating a regular army, confirmed this rule.

It is not accepted at a party where the fast table has been set, to demonstrate their post -streaming.

In pre -revolutionary times, before Easter did not play weddings, did not suit balls, amusements, fairs, and theaters were closed. Publicly faded, to appear drunk, to openly demonstrate non -compliance with the post was considered obscene.

By the beginning of the post, it was customary to resolve lawsuits and debt obligations, to forgive debtors burdened with families and ailments. During the post, people sacrificed the poor, orphans, poorly visited prisons and mentally ill. Russian kings and queens walked on foot in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

Political Post -in -law

Today, compliance with the post is a kind of public manifestation of political loyalty. The lean menu in the Duma and the Presidential Administration is a very characteristic document of the era. The television operators of the news chronicle carefully monitor what the president eats and drinks with a great post. And then the camera crawls through the lean faces of officials to a sunbringing voice, reporting, as a bureaucratic spirit with the restrictions of the table successfully copes. Which does not interfere with the same VIP persons in the night programs to "light" in entertainment institutions. However, many casinos and strip bares now also offer a lean menu.

Not observing the post - if not a revolutionary, then the frontier is for sure.

Women's day, often falling at the beginning of the post, with its truly Babylonian scope, is not at all embarrassed by the "Orthodox" bureaucracy, as, indeed, the New Year's booze, coinciding with the posture of Rozhdestvensky. And Easter in Russia, unlike all Christian countries of the world, is neither a public holiday, nor the time of the holidays for schoolchildren.

Table restrictions

In the days of Great Lent, meat, milk, eggs and everything that contains elements of these products is not eaten. Vegetable oil and grape wine are allowed on Saturdays and Sundays. On the Annunciation (April 7) and on Palm Sunday (April 16) they cook fish. In Lazarev, Saturday (April 15) is allowed caviar. Modern competent and monetary posttaken eats vegetables, fruits, nuts, zuccats, seeds, herbs, honey, pickles and jams. He drinks juices, mineral and sweet water, kvass, fruit drink, jelly, compote. In stores, lean (without milk and oil) chocolate, bread, gingerbread and crackers are sold. The people lean on cereals, legumes, pasta, potatoes and sauerkraut.

The church does not consider the post a diet or a way to “cleanse the body of toxins”, therefore it does not make judgments on such issues as whether there are soy substitutes for meat, oil, milk or lobsters and oysters. Formally, this is “no fish, no meat,” there is no ban.

Not all people can afford fruits, juices, nuts and delicacies. The restriction on meat, which is relatively cheap, for most ordinary people - a real restriction of the table.

Routine

The first Sunday of the post is dedicated to the triumph of Orthodoxy - in memory of overcoming the iconocraticism in the Byzantine Empire. The cross -worship week (third Sunday) denotes the middle of the post. The second, third and fourth Saturdays are devoted to the commemoration of the deceased. It is on these days (and not on Easter!) It is customary to pray for late relatives.

03/06/2006 / Nadezhda Kevorkov, the material was published in the newspaper No. 38 dated 07.03.2006.