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Russian Orthodox Holidays 

“Foreigners should know about the  Russian Orthodox holidays, but it’s impossible if no one tells them anything about it”

I’ve just read the article about foreigners who live and sturdy in Russia , and who are not aware of the holidays which are celebrated in Russia. Now I’m ready to tell the people about our holidays. These piece of information will help people to acquaintance with our culture. 

Russia is the biggest country in the world. It has great history, amazing cities,  an interesting climate, tasty cuisine and so on. Everyone knows that the main religion in Russia is an Orthodox Christianity. Because of this reason our country is rich of Orthodox holidays. The main population of Russia celebrates that holidays as their ancestors used to commemorate the holidays as well. If you are a foreigner, and if you want to find out more information about Russian culture so  this article is specially  for you.

The history of the Orthodox Church in Russia started  in 988. The Grand Duke Vladimir the first baptized Russia. Firstly, people didn’t accept this revolution, as they used to believe in their Gods. The God of water, the God of harvest, the God of rain and many of them. It took a lot of time and potency to convince the citizen to accept this religion. Some of them even had started rebellions because they had no need in Christianity, and it was difficult for them to adopt to new traditions. But gradually they accepted the revolution and converted the Orthodox Christianity. You will see that Orthodox holidays are very interesting because they are connected with great Russian history and Bible , these holidays  also are passed down from generation to generation.

Now let’s learn about each Russian Orthodox holiday. It is important to know that the Russian Orthodoxy’s calendar differs from Protestants. Orthodox churches use the Julian calendar, but Christian churches use the more modern Gregorian calendar. There is a plenty of Russian Orthodox holidays: Christmas, Ascension, Paskha, Great Lent, Pentecost and others.

Christmas: The Russian Orthodox Christmas comes during the first or the second week in January. This holiday marks the birth of Jesus. On this day people gather with their nearest and dearest, they also attend a Christmas liturgy as well. Like on Paskha Russians fast for 40- days , excluding meat and dairy product from the diet. 

Ascension: This holiday represents the day when Jesus Christ returned to heaven. It is not used to think that this holiday is a sad one. In fact, people are waiting for this holiday impatiently and they are encouraged to see the Ascension as the day when Jesus left to open the doors of heaven to his followers.

Great Lent: Great lent is the 40- day holiday which occurs before Paskha. People who are the followers of the Orthodox Christians are now allowed to ear diary and meat product, and they are not able to drink alcohol drinks as well.

Pasha: Paskha is one of the greatest holidays in the Orthodox Church. It al has the other name as the  Orthodox Easter. People celebrate this holiday to mark the day when Jesus Christ was resurrected. Paskha always falls on Sunday in early spring, and it is you usually occurs one or two weeks after the Catholic Easter. Paskha consist of a vigil the night before, a procession, and a morning service of hymns. On Paskha Russians color and beautifully ornament eggs. They also make Russian pies “Kulichi” which are very delicious. Russians also congratulate their friends and relatives and write or say such phrase as “Christ is Risen”.

Pentecost: This holiday comes 50 days after the Paskha. It celebrates the day when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles for the first time.

Now you are acquainted wit  the Russian Orthodox holidays. We may say that these holidays are somehow devoted to each other. The holidays are celebrated annually in Russia and people always adore the Russian Orthodox traditions. In order not to forget about the exact day of each holiday,  people have special calendars with events. It is very useful and practical. I hope that this article helped you to enlarge you knowledge about the Russian orthodox holidays