Patriarch Kirill will release pigeons on the Cathedral Square on the Cathedral Square

The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill on Sunday, on the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, will make a solemn service in the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin and, according to the current tradition, will release into the sky above the Cathedral Square of white pigeons, RIA Novosti reports.

Annunciation is one of the 12 main church holidays. It is based in memory of how the Archangel Gabriel brought to the Virgin Mary the good news of the upcoming birth of Jesus Christ - the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

"On April seventh, the 3rd of the Great Lent, the Cross-worship of the Blessings of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', will perform the liturgy of St. Vasily the Great in the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Starting at 9:30," the Patriarchal press service will perform.

From a long time ago in Rus' there was a tradition on the day of the Annunciation to let the birds be released. The "native custom of antiquity", as Alexander Pushkin wrote about him, after the revolution faded away and was revived only in 1995 by the efforts of the Orthodox Society "Radonezh". Since then, annually on April 7 after the liturgy in the Blagoveshchensk Cathedral of the Kremlin, the Patriarch on the steps of the cathedral released pigeons from cells.

According to the clergy, the revived custom symbolizes the desire of the human soul to free itself from the bonds of sin and unite with the sky. This year, the festival of the Annunciation coincides with the beginning of the cross -worship week. In the cross -ward week (the third week of the Great Lent), the Orthodox Church in a special way glorifying the cross, on which Christ was crucified according to the gospel legend. The cross in this case is revered by believers not as an instrument of execution, but as a symbol of the redemption and sacrificial feat of the Savior, who took the painful death for the sins of all mankind.