Church parental Saturdays of the year. parent saturday

The first parent memorial Saturday of 2017 is determined by the date of February 18th. On this day, the church charter provides for the celebration of worship ecumenical meat-fare Saturday. The name of this memorial day indicates the time of commemoration - the last Saturday before the holy Great Lent, on which the use of food of animal origin is allowed. After the meat-fare week, the cheese week begins, and then the believers enter the holy Forty Day.

During Great Lent in 2017, the dead are commemorated three times. The Charter assigns for this purpose the Sabbaths of the middle of Lent (in particular, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th). The strictest Orthodox fast implies a prayer not only for the personal salvation of the soul, but also the commemoration of dead people. Parental Saturdays that fall on Fortecost, 2017 falls on March 11th, 18th and 25th respectively.

One of the most famous memorial days in is considered Trinity parental Saturday. On this day in Orthodox churches a commemoration of all Orthodox Christians who have died from the century is performed, and the cemeteries are full of people as never before. In 2017, Trinity parental Saturday falls on June 3rd (the very next day on Sunday the Church celebrates in honor of the feast of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity).

In the fall of 2017, a service is performed Dimitriev parental Saturday. This memorial day falls on the last Saturday before the celebration of the great Christian martyr Demetrius, called Thessalonica. In 2017, Dimitrievskaya Saturday is determined by the calendar for November 4th.

It is especially worth mentioning about other significant parental days of 2017 that do not fall on Saturdays. First of all, this is the commemoration of the dead in the post-Easter period. April 25, the ninth day after Easter in 2017, is celebrated Radonitsa- the time when, after Easter joy, Orthodox people prayerfully commemorate the dead (always falls on Tuesday).

Another memorial date is May 9th. The date itself indicates the prayerful commemoration of the soldiers and the special honor given to the heroes - participants in the Great Patriotic War. The Gospel clearly says that the highest feat of love is the sacrificial slaughter of one's life for the sake of one's neighbor.

The Russian state has determined another significant day for the commemoration of the soldiers, which has become part of church liturgical practice. February 15th warriors are remembered. This day in 1989 was marked by the withdrawal of Russian troops from Afghanistan. Orthodox Church in Russia performs special memorial services on February 15 in memory of the deceased. Despite the fact that this day of the calendar is marked by the great twelfth feast of the Presentation of the Lord, in many Orthodox parishes, at the end of the liturgy, requiems are performed, where special petitions are inserted on the funeral litanies for the dead internationalist soldiers.

Dimitri's parental Saturday in 2017 does not fall in November, as is usually the case, but at the very end of October. Why?

In 2017, parental Saturday was postponed to October 28 due to the coincidence with the feast of the Kazan Icon Mother of God(November 4).

The day of commemoration of the dead on Saturday on the eve of the day of memory of the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica (November 8, according to New Style) was established after the Battle of Kulikovo, which took place on the holiday of Christmas Holy Mother of God in 1380.

Initially, according to the establishment of the Holy Prince Dimitry Donskoy, on this day all Russian soldiers who fell on the Kulikovo field were commemorated. Actually, this is another meaning of the name of the Saturday "Dimitrievskaya".

Over time, Demetrius Saturday became the day when all Christians “from the beginning (from the beginning of time) of the dead” are commemorated.

Dimitrievskaya Saturday is the last parental Saturday in 2017. The next parental Saturday will be February 10, 2018.

Dimitri's parental Saturday - what you need to know about memorial day

Dmitrievskaya parental Saturday falls on the next Saturday before the day of memory of the Great Martyr Dmitry of Thessalonica (the day of the angel Dmitry Donskoy). He was a warrior of the heavenly and earthly kings. He defended the earthly king from attacks, defended his country, people, history. And he loved, knew, worshiped and served the Heavenly King. He guarded the earthly king, and glorified the Heavenly one and led other people to worship God, to faith, so that, after sleeping, they could be united in the Kingdom of Heaven.

And the Dmitrievskaya parental Saturday was established after the battle on the Kulikovo field - by Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. After the victory over Mamai in 1380, Dmitry Donskoy visits the Trinity-Sergius Monastery to commemorate the fallen soldiers. A little earlier, the abbot of the monastery, St. Sergius of Radonezh, blessed two of his monks - Alexander Peresvet and Andrey Oslyabya - for the war against the Mongol-Tatar yoke. Both monks died in battle. And the monk himself during the war, when he lifted up his prayers to God, imbued with the Holy Spirit, saw how the soldiers fell and called each soldier killed by name.

Upon the arrival of Dmitry Donskoy to the monastery, a funeral service was performed, a commemoration of the Orthodox soldiers who fell on the battlefield, and a common meal were held.

Subsequently, such a tradition developed - to make such a commemoration annually, since there were 250 thousand dead in that battle and many families felt the bitterness of loss. A little later, they began to commemorate not only the soldiers, but also all the departed Orthodox Christians.

Parents Saturday - how to spend the day

On Dmitriev parental Saturday, people visit the graves of their relatives and loved ones. In churches and cemeteries, panikhidas, funeral litias (services) are performed, memorial dinners are arranged.

On the Dimitrov parental Saturday, Orthodox Christians go to churches, put candles to the Crucifixion, and not to icons, and write the names of their deceased loved ones in memorial notes. In notes, only the names of deceased relatives who were baptized during their lifetime can be mentioned.

You can pray for the unbaptized over their grave or at home. Another custom characteristic of Demetrius' parental Saturday is to bring food to the temple for the poor. During the service, this treat is consecrated and later distributed to those who wish. Also on this day, it is customary to give alms to the poor with a request to pray for the dead.

To commemorate your deceased relatives in church, you need to come to the temple for worship on the evening of Friday on the eve of parental Saturday. At this time, a great memorial service, or parastas, is performed. On Memorial Saturday morning, a funeral liturgy is performed, after which a common memorial service is served.

The commemoration of the departed is an apostolic institution, it is observed throughout the Church and the liturgy for the departed, the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice for their salvation is the most powerful and effective remedy to ask the departed for the mercy of God.

Church commemoration is performed only for those who were baptized in Orthodox faith.

Memorial services for suicides, as well as for those who are not baptized in the Orthodox faith, are not performed. Moreover, these persons cannot be commemorated at the liturgy. The Holy Church lifts up unceasing prayers for our departed fathers and brothers at every divine service, and especially at the liturgy.

It is imperative to commemorate the deceased on the day of his death, birth and name day.

The days of commemoration should be spent decorously, reverently, in prayer, doing good to the poor and loved ones, in thinking about our death and future life.

In the cemetery you can not arrange a feast and get drunk. There is an opinion that the commemoration of the deceased is an opportunity to skip a glass of another alcohol, but this is not so. The fate of the departed cannot be alleviated by this action. Only conscious prayer is able to convey our love to loved ones. It is also impossible on parental Saturday:

• swear;
• get drunk;
• swear;
• speak badly about the deceased;
• grieve and cry.

It is important to know that remembering does not mean sadness. To remember means to pray. The soul cannot die, it passes into another world - which one depends on the person during his lifetime. If he sinned, then the soul will suffer and languish. Only prayer, which is read by relatives with special trepidation, will help save her from this. Therefore, every parental Saturday it is necessary to remember your loved ones with a prayer from a pure heart. The one who reads it conveys the love and gratitude that he could not give to his loved one during his lifetime.

Saturdays of commemoration of those who introduced themselves are special. They are called parental, due to the fact that all the deceased went to their parents, ancestors. How to spend this day, and what not to do, read here.

What not to do on Dimitriev parental Saturday

On this day, it is forbidden to scold the dead. Only good things should be remembered about them, otherwise you can anger their soul.

It is believed that it is strictly forbidden to commemorate the dead alcoholic drinks. However, if your family has such a tradition, then try to do it in moderation. The souls of the dead may become angry because of drunkenness during the memorial meal.

Also, during the commemoration, one cannot laugh or sing songs. Despite the fact that the holiday is not of a mourning nature, do not forget that on this day you remember loved ones who are no longer among the living. Therefore, the fun will be inappropriate.

If your deceased relative committed suicide or was not a believer during his lifetime, then you will not be able to commemorate him in the church and put a candle for the repose of his soul. In this case, you can pray for him at home.

What Not to Do on Parents' Saturday

Many superstitions are associated with the prohibitions on the memorial day. It is not forbidden these days to do housework and gardening, but only after going to church and reading a memorial prayer.

Most believers, when visiting a cemetery, pour alcohol into a glass at the grave or pour vodka over it, believing that if the deceased liked to drink, then they help him so much. It is unacceptable to do this, since the soul of the deceased may suffer for the sin of drinking wine even after death.

In the cemetery you can not arrange a feast and get drunk.

The Orthodox calendar is an obligatory and integral part of the life of believers.

Looking into it, you can find out the dates of great fasts and holidays, as well as plan your schedule for the next year - working, weekends, planting, fasting and memorial days.

Parental Saturdays in 2017 have clearly set dates. If there is no time to go to church and light a candle, then you must definitely go to the graves of the dead. Deliver flowers, tidy up and pay your respects. There are not many parental Saturdays during the year, but they allow us to stop in the daily hustle and bustle and remember, at least for a minute, those people who were and remain very dear to us. It is important to have the whole meaning of Great Lent in your heart, and limit yourself to weaknesses.

Parental Saturdays in 2017

Parental days are called special days on which it is customary to remember the departed people.

. May 9, 2017, Tuesday - Memorial Day for those who died in the Great Patriotic War.

June parent saturday precedes the great feast of the Trinity and falls on June 3rd.

1September 1, 2017, Monday - the day of commemoration of the departed Orthodox soldiers

What to do on parent's day

Enough a large number of people visit relatives and friends at the cemetery on Easter. Many, unfortunately, adhere to the blasphemous custom of accompanying visits to the dead with drunken wild revelry. And those who do not do this very often do not even know when it is possible (and necessary) to commemorate the dead on Easter days.

The first commemoration of the deceased after Easter takes place on the second Easter week (week), after Fomin Sunday, on Tuesday. And the spreading tradition of going to the cemetery on the Easter holiday itself, sharply contradicts the establishment of the Church: until the ninth day from Easter, the commemoration of the dead cannot be performed. If a person goes to another world on Easter, then he is buried according to a special Easter rite.

Like many Orthodox clergy, priest Valery Chislov, rector of the church in honor of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Assumption Cemetery in Chelyabinsk, warns against rash acts and other actions committed out of ignorance on the feast of Radonitsa:

“It should be remembered that a cemetery is a place where one should behave with reverence. It is sad to see how some people drink vodka there and sing worldly songs. Someone crumbles bread and eggs on the grave mound, pours alcohol. Sometimes they arrange a real revelry. All this is more reminiscent of pagan feasts and is unacceptable for Christians. If we have already taken food from the cemetery, it is better to distribute it to the poor. Let them pray for our dead, and then the Lord, perhaps, will send some consolation to our relatives.”

Arriving at the cemetery on the feast of Radonitsa, you need to light a candle and make a lithium (pray hard). To perform litia during the commemoration of the dead, a priest should be invited. You can also read the Akathist about the repose of the dead. Then you need to clean up the grave, be silent for a while, remembering the deceased.

It is not necessary to drink and eat in the cemetery, it is unacceptable to pour alcohol on the grave mound - these actions offend the memory of the dead. The tradition of leaving a glass of vodka with bread on the grave is a relic of pagan culture and should not be observed in Christian Orthodox families. It is better to give food to the poor or the hungry.

February 18 - Ecumenical meat-and-fat parental Saturday. It is so named because of the ban on the use of meat products. The holiday begins 7 days before the start of Lent before Easter. The people called Saturday the Small Maslenitsa, because it takes place a week before Maslenitsa. On this day, all Orthodox believers serve a memorial service for all the dead since the creation of the world. According to tradition, a special dish is prepared - kutya. It is a porridge with nuts, candied fruits or dried fruits, smeared with honey. The special meaning of this dish is that the grain, in order to give bread, must first decay, and then be reborn. Similarly, the human body must be interred in the earth so that the immortal soul can continue its journey in the Kingdom of Heaven. On this day, they visit the church, illuminate the kutya, and going to the cemetery is undesirable. In a temple or at home, it is worth praying for all the dead to help them ascend to the Lord:

"Lord Jesus! Your servants pray to you for the repose of all those who have died now and who live in the Kingdom of Heaven. Rest the souls of the unburied, and grant them eternal rest under Your gaze. From the beginning of the created world to this day. We pray for everyone, for everyone who has died on earth and in water, in air and fire. Amen".

March 25 is the parental Saturday of the fourth week (or week) of Lent. During Lent, the Orthodox continue to pray for the souls of their dead relatives, visit the cemetery, where they also ask the Lord to have mercy on all the dead. During the fasting period, if parental Saturdays do not fall on significant church holidays, services are short. The Church has established 3 days of prayer, corresponding to each parental Saturday. Orthodox carry notes with the names of everyone they want to remember, and also bring food to the canon. This ancient tradition commemoration of the dead through the proposed treat.

April 25 - Radonitsa. The name comes from the word "rejoice", because Holy holiday Easter continues. This day falls on a Tuesday, and after a memorial service and Easter hymns, Orthodox Christians visit the graves of their deceased relatives to commemorate the memory and pray for their souls:

“Our Lord Almighty. We believe in You and hope for the Kingdom of Heaven. Take to yourself the souls of our relatives (names), and guide us on the true path, and deliver us from the evil one, unclean thoughts, malice and grief inappropriate. Let us rejoice together, so that the souls of our loved ones ascend to You. Amen".

On May 9, all the dead warriors are commemorated. This great day is celebrated all over the country. Celebrating the main holiday of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, all Orthodox Christians pray for the souls of the defenders who fell in battle. The liturgy also mentions all military personnel who gave their lives for the human race, for its prosperity and well-being.

June 3 - Trinity parental Saturday. It is celebrated on the eve of the fast, just like the meat-packing one. On this day, a memorial service (night vigil) takes place, where they pray for the souls of all the departed Orthodox Christians since the creation of the world. The great martyrs are mentioned, who accepted death from unbelievers, without departing from their faith in Jesus Christ. This day also precedes the feast of the Trinity, or, as it is also called, Pentecost.

October 28 - Dmitrievskaya parental Saturday. The holiday is named in honor of Demetrius of Thessalonica, the holy great martyr. This day was originally reserved for the commemoration of the deceased soldiers who fought at the Battle of Kulikovo. Now Dmitrievskaya parental Saturday is the day of commemoration of all the dead Orthodox Christians.

We invariably show a craving for paying honors to the deceased relatives and friends. After all, it is so important to pay tribute to them and respect them. This helps to keep the connection between generations and is prerequisite spiritual life. Very little is required of us - to know when these days will be celebrated, only in this case we can adequately prepare for their holding.

What is Radonitsa?

Called Radonitsa or sometimes Radunitsa, this day is one of the special holidays set aside by the church to honor the dead. Such special days (there are 8 of them in a year) are celebrated on Saturdays, hence their name - "parental Saturdays".

However, Radonitsa stands apart in a series of these memorable days, since for the most part it almost always falls on Tuesday. The peculiarity of this most important parental day of the year is not only that it is celebrated on Tuesday, but also that, in terms of its importance, it ranks first among all memorial days.

There is no fixed date for Radonitsa, every year the time of this day changes depending on when Easter is celebrated. It is only necessary to count 9 days from the Bright Sunday of Christ and we will actually get the exact date Radonitsa. That is, in other words, this is the first Tuesday after Krasnaya Gorka (Fomin Sunday). Thus, the date of parental day in 2017 falls on April 25th.

memorial days

In order to be able to honor the memory of the deceased relatives and friends in time, taking care of their souls by reading prayers and visiting the cemetery in order to maintain order at the graves, you just need to know exact days commemorations. Orthodox parental days in 2017 fall on the following dates:

Now, knowing the parental days of visiting the cemetery in 2017, you will be able to competently prepare and arrange a memorial ceremony worthy of your deceased relatives and friends.

Origins and meaning of Radonitsa

According to many scientists and biblical figures, including John Chrysostom, the history of Radonitsa goes back to ancient times. Even in pagan times, it was a great feast of remembrance of the dead, held on a large scale. People, gathering on grave mounds, arranged a trizna (memorial feast) and noisy festivities, trying to appease the souls of the deceased. This holiday is so deeply rooted in the people's minds that the official church, after a long time, recognized this day, raising it to a special rank.

The meaning of this holiday is hidden in its name, which different Slavic peoples may sound different. These are Radovnitsa (some regions of Russia), and Graves, and Grobki (Ukraine), and Navi Day (Belarus).

The joy of resurrection on special days

However, in any case, "Radonitsa" in its origin is equated with the word "joy" and the concept of "kindred". What kind of joy can we talk about on such a mournful day? The Church explains: when visiting the temple and the graves of our ancestors on Radonitsa, we should not fall into despondency and longing, but rejoice for loved ones who have come before the face of the Lord. They are now close to God and their souls rejoice, being in love and happiness.

So, why shouldn't we, their descendants, rejoice for them by offering prayers? Putting the grave in order, we also perform some ritual action, symbolically meaning preparation for the resurrection of the soul.

The main thing that we must and can do on this day for deceased relatives is to devote sufficient time to prayers. If it is not possible to invite a priest to the grave in order to read the litia (funeral prayer service), then you can do it yourself. It is prayers that our relatives and friends need, and not excessive eating and drinking alcohol. This is what the Church teaches, and this must be done according to conscience and the dictates of the heart.

Procedure and basic rules

In the morning on any parental day, the Orthodox go to church, taking with them a Lenten lunch, which is donated either to the church or to poor people who are in dire need of help. Having defended the funeral service, they usually go to cemeteries, where they also read prayers, clean up. Still very strong are such traditions as commemoration with food and drink right on the graves. Traditionally, this can be understood, but the church is against such actions. In principle, everyone acts according to their own ideas, but still it is not a charitable thing to arrange a drunken feast on the graves.

Radonitsa in Russia

By the way, in Russia, on Radonitsa, towels and tablecloths were spread directly on the grave hill, and, having laid out plentiful food, they were given a meal by the whole family. They ate and drank so much that sometimes they immediately fell asleep. The list of obligatory dishes included dyed yellow or green color eggs, dry pies according to a special recipe, pancakes, porridge.

Before the feast began, the head of the family rolled eggs over the grave and then buried one of them in the ground, as if allowing the deceased to join the Easter meal. Be sure to pour a glass of vodka on the grave, which is also not welcome modern church. After dinner, to which the beggars were necessarily invited and treated, they remained at the cemetery for a short time, peacefully spending time in conversations, and only then they went home. In the evening, young people organized festivities with songs, dances and merry amusements.

Signs and beliefs for parent's day

among the people great importance attached importance to the weather that fell on Radunitsa. Especially looking forward to rain.

• It was believed that the rain on this day had a special power - to preserve and prolong youth and health, beauty, prosperity, happiness. Small children sang special songs calling for rain. In the event that it really rained, they washed themselves with its water, exposing their faces to the downpour. And the girls did it in a special way, passing rain water through a gold or silver ring to be beautiful and happy.
• The rain foreshadowed a year rich in harvest.
• It was strictly forbidden to plant or sow anything - this led to the fact that it was possible to lose the entire crop.
• If the weather was warm on Radonitsa, they said "the parents breathed warmly."

Now we can take a different look at the meaning that this feast of commemoration has. And showing correct example to our children, we can hope that this tradition will continue to be passed on, uniting the representatives of the family into a single whole.