March 8, the history of the holiday Tojiki. "Workers" of the ancient profession

Date: 2012-03-07

From wrestling to romance

Today, March 8, is, first of all, a holiday of beautiful ladies, spring and love, which evokes the most romantic associations. But the beginning of this celebration was not at all romantic events.

The official year of the birth of the March 8 holiday was 1910 - it was then that the International Conference of Socialist Women took place in Copenhagen. Delegate Clara Zetkin (an activist of the German and international labor movement, one of the founders of the German Communist Party) proposed to define a day on which every year women would draw public attention to their problems and demands. The conference strongly supported this proposal, and thus the "International Day of Women's Solidarity in the Struggle for Economic, Social and Political Equality" was born.

However, this conference did not resolve main question: on which day women will attract public attention, and at first international women's day was celebrated in different days. In 1911, Women's Solidarity Day was held in Germany, Austria, Denmark and some other European countries on March 19, in 1912 on May 12. And only in 1914 the women's holiday took place on the usual day for us - on March 8 it was celebrated in six countries: Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia and Switzerland.

Why activists women's movement stopped on the date of March 8? There are different versions of this. According to one of them, it was on March 8 that the first demonstrations of women in the struggle for their rights took place. On March 8, 1857, in New York, workers of clothing and shoe factories gathered for a demonstration, who demanded that the working day be limited to 10 hours (then they had to work 16 hours a day), equal wages with men, and better working conditions. On the same day and again in New York, but already in 1908, a mass demonstration of women took place, who sought for themselves the right to vote in elections, protested against terrible working conditions and, in particular, against the labor of children.

Interesting Facts

- Paradoxically, until 1918, the year of the introduction of the new Gregorian calendar on the territory of the former Russian Empire, the "day of the struggle for the rights of women" was celebrated on February 23 - the day that is today associated as a men's holiday.

This is amazing, but it seems that it was thanks to Women's Day that the socialist revolution of 1917 took place! The armed uprising that led to the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne began precisely with the protests of women against the war, who took to the streets of Petrograd on Women's Day (then February 23).

Women's Day was still ancient Rome. There was a day on which freely born wives received gifts from their spouses, and slaves had something like a day off - the mistresses of the house allowed them to rest on this day. Why not a day of solidarity for women?

Far from all countries March 8 is International Women's Day. So, for example, in Syria, March 8 is celebrated as Revolution Day, and in the Republic of Liberia (the west coast of Africa) - as the Day of Remembrance of the Fallen.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, March 8 remained on the list of public holidays in Ukraine, Russian Federation. International Women's Day is also celebrated in other CIS countries: in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Belarus - as International Women's Day; in Uzbekistan as Mother's Day; in Armenia it is celebrated on April 7 as Motherhood and Beauty Day.

How Spring Day is celebrated in different countries peace?

Germany - March 8 is not a public holiday in this country. Here, as in Poland, this holiday has socialist roots. And before, while the Germans from East Germany congratulated women, in Western Germany they did not even hear about such a holiday. After the reunification of the two Germanys, March 8 gained some distribution in the country. But it has not become a tradition for the Western Germans to widely celebrate this day, and for the Eastern Germans it has been forgotten a little. And despite the fact that the media still mention March 8 as International Women's Day, women in Germany are honored on Mother's Day, which is celebrated in May. On this day, women-mothers are freed at home from all household chores.

Poland I also have not yet forgotten the tradition that has been established since Soviet times to congratulate women on March 8, but, like in Germany, this day is a working day for them.

Lithuania. Now in this country, March 8 is celebrated only where there is a large Russian-speaking population. status of the official public holiday There is no International Women's Day in Lithuania.

in Vietnam It has been customary to congratulate women for two thousand years. Only earlier this holiday was called Chyng Sisters Memorial Day. They were brave girls who led the Vietnamese people's liberation war against Chinese aggression. When their army was surrounded, the girls rushed into the river so as not to surrender. After the victory of socialism in Vietnam, the Day of Remembrance of the Trung sisters smoothly moved to March 8th.

In France March 8 is not widely celebrated. Although it is referred to in the media as International Women's Day. Only communists and other leftists celebrate this holiday. The French honor women in May, on Mother's Day. Interestingly, this holiday has nothing to do with young girls. They are congratulated on Valentine's Day.

Italians perhaps those few Europeans who were not part of the former socialist camp, but relate to March 8 in the same way as Ukrainians and Russians. True, they do not have a day off on this day. Interestingly, Italian women do not celebrate March 8 together with men. They gather in women's groups and go to a restaurant or cafe. In the evening, all over Rome there are bars with male striptease, entry to which is free for women.

Japanese There are two holidays in March. The first holiday is Hina Matsuri celebrated on March 3rd and the other is the Peach Blossom and Girls Festival. And the holiday of March 14 is also Women's Day and it is designated as the so-called. "White Day". According to tradition, congratulations and gifts on this day are accepted only by those women who gave something to their loved ones during the celebration of St. Valentine's Day.

Sweep in Ukrainian.In our country, the spring festival has taken root well. He is loved and appreciated, both among the population and at the state level. In confirmation of this, let us cite the fact that the government of Ukraine for the celebration of March 8 this year has provided four days off.

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We will look at the historical roots of the March 8 holiday. Let's answer the question: When was the International Women's Day celebrated for the first time and when was the first holiday celebrated on March 8 in Russia.

It all began in the early spring of 1857 in New York, when textile workers marched through Manhattan in an "empty pot march." The women demanded better working conditions, higher wages and equality. Naturally, the demonstration was dispersed, but it made a lot of noise, because of which, in fact, this event was called women's day...

Fifty years later, in 1908, on the last Sunday of February, thousands of women again took to the streets of New York. This demonstration was timed, you guessed it, to that same Women's Day in 1857. Women again demanded the right to vote, opposed harsh working conditions. The police were ordered to disperse the demonstration. Law enforcement officers set in motion hoses with icy dirty water.

The following year, Women's Day was again marked by women's strikes and marches. In 1910, through the efforts of socialists and feminists, Women's Day was already held throughout the country. In the same year, but a little later, delegates went to Copenhagen from the USA to the Second International Conference of Socialist Women, where they met with Clara Zetkin.

Clara Zetkin, inspired by the actions of American women, came up with a proposal to raise the issue at the conference that women around the world could choose a certain day of the year when they could bring their problems to public attention. More than

100 women from 17 countries of the world, and all of them strongly supported this proposal. A vote was taken, as a result of which the emergence of " international day solidarity of women in the struggle for economic, social and political equality”. However, the exact date of this day at this conference was not named.

For the first time, International Women's Day was massively celebrated on March 19, 1911 in countries such as Austria, Germany, Denmark, and some other European countries. The day of March 19 was chosen by the women of Germany due to the fact that on this day in 1848 the King of Prussia, in connection with the threat of an armed uprising, was forced to promise to carry out reforms, one of which, the introduction of suffrage for women, was never carried out.

In 1912, International Women's Day was celebrated not on March 19, but on May 12. And only since 1914. this day began to be celebrated for unknown reasons on March 8th.

In Russia, International Women's Day began to be celebrated in 1913, however, not on March 8, but on February 23, since Russia, unlike all European states, lived at that time according to the Julian calendar.

In the USSR, until May 8, 1965, International Women's Day on March 8 remained a working day, but on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the Victory in the Great patriotic war this women's day in the USSR was declared a public holiday.

Over time, the historical roots of the holiday were forgotten. And although mass rallies of feminists still take place on this day in many countries and some women consider this day a day of struggle against the stronger sex, in Russia the holiday of March 8 has become just a holiday of spring, women's day. And it is on this day (at least once a year!) that Russian men remember that their women are not only "workhorses", but also lovely, fragile creatures who need care and attention, love and protection. Let at least once a year, but our women remember that they are the weaker sex, in need of a reliable male shoulder!

The roots of the holiday of March 8, so beloved by the Soviet people in the past, lie in the Old Testament Jewish holiday of Purim. (For more details, see the article “Is it possible not to celebrate March 8?” Deacon Andrey Kuraev in the appendix). Purim is a holiday of unpunished beating of Persians by Jews under the Persian king Artaxerxes, organized by the king's wife Esther, who used the power of carnal connection with him.
Thanks to the strength of her influence on the king, she reversed the king's intention to beat the Jews, which arose at the suggestion of the Persian commander Aman, by 180 degrees. As a result, the intent to kill, which came from the Persian ruler, was realized by the strength and power of carnal connection on his own people, weakening the "body" of his state, actually undermining his strength and power as a ruler - this is the lesson of these events. On the moral side of the issue of celebrating March 8 / Purim by the uninitiated in its true meaning Russian citizens, and especially Orthodox, I will not touch. This part is described in detail in the article by A. Kuraev.
The conclusion of A. Kuraev's article is that it is not appropriate for Christians to celebrate the holiday of Purim, even under a different name - this is a holiday that wants Christians to become a thing of the past. This is right.
On the other hand, to watch how our relatives and friends, including the Orthodox, commemorate the great massacre with mimosas and booze, without knowing it… It hurts.
So is it possible not to give the enemy the strength of an already rooted folk tradition celebrate this holiday without sinning against truth and morality?
It is possible, if you figure out WHAT to mark and HOW to mark?
To do this, first of all, we must remember what distinguishes those who now profess Judaism and are waiting for their Moshiach from those who professed the One God for centuries before his appearance in the Flesh and continue to profess His Triune now in the bosom of the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church created by Him.
The main difference is that the latter are enlightened by the light of the Holy Gospel and they perceive the entire sacred history with its events in the Gospel's bright spiritual light.
The first have abandoned this Light and are content with the light of the memory of flesh and blood, which, in comparison with the Light of the Gospel, is darkness.
So, one of the shepherds of communism, Klara Zetkin, knew WHAT she was celebrating, slyly involving a blind herd in the feast.
Let us use the lessons of history for good and, being the new spiritual Israel, in the light of Christ, we will consider and mark this day. Let us remember that (according to the Apostle Paul) our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of the world and the powers of the darkness of this world.
Let's make the day of March 8 a holiday of the victory of the renewed flesh over the enemies of the human race - the spirits of malice in high places, murderers from the beginning.

The malicious slanderous plans of our spiritual enemy, planted in the king of our head - the mind, can lead to destruction of our race, because like the Jews (soul and flesh) we have something to be condemned by the mind (Persians). Especially if the enemy gives our mind a properly selected selection of negative facts about our relatives, our loved ones, our Church (such a one-sided selection of facts about a person’s iniquities with the assertion that this is the whole person is called slander).
Let us spiritually use the example of Esther.
So, on the day of March 8, let us unite ourselves, like Esther, the King of Kings Christ, through a carnal connection.
What kind of carnal connection is this that destroys the power of the devil and providentially turns the intrigues of the enemy on his own head and weakens the enemy army?
This connection is given to us by the Church in the sacrament of the Eucharist - Holy Communion of the Life-Giving Flesh and Blood of Christ.
And approaching the Holy Chalice, let us ask Him TO TURN ALL THE POWERS OF THE EARTH AND HEAVENLY IN SUPPORT TO US AGAINST THE SPIRIT OF HUMANKILLING, THE SPIRIT OF CONDEMNATION, THE UNCLEAN FORCES WISHING DEATH TO US AND OUR KIND. AND WE THANK THE NEW ESHER - THE HOLY VIRGIN, THE CHOOSED VOEVOD - THE MOTHER OF GOD, WHO GIVED THE FLESH TO THE BEGINNING GOD, FOR THE SALVATION OF EVERYONE BELIEVING HIM, IN THE BOSS OF HIS ONE HOLY CATHEDRAL APOSTOLIC CHURCH.
By doing so on this day, we will thereby celebrate the spiritual Purim / March 8 - the holiday of the victory of the new Israel, native in Christ, over its true enemy (the enemy of the human race).

Application:

Kuraev Andrey, deacon

In religious studies and cultural studies there is such a genre of work: mythological reconstruction. Just as an archaeologist tries to restore the appearance of a temple from a fragment of a column, as a paleozoologist tries to restore the appearance of a dinosaur from a vertebra, so a historian of religion, by gesture, by a fragment, by a deaf mention, tries to reconstruct the belief that was once alive and determined the fate of people, and then withered and left. . Here there is a certain hymn, there is a strange name of a certain spirit or deity. But what kind of deity is this, why exactly did this person turn to him in this particular situation? What did this prayer mean to him? What would his universe have to be like in order for these strange words to be meaningful?
Such a fragment, a vertebra from a dinosaur, the celebration of March 8 has survived to this day. What is behind this tradition? Why is she so tenacious, despite the fact that she comes from that time, which today is customary to scold? What beliefs, associations, thoughts and hopes were associated with this date in those days when the celebration of March 8 was not a tradition, but an unheard-of novelty?
For many years, as this date approached, I began to ask everyone I met, including historians and journalists who prepared to write holiday essays: "why do we celebrate this particular day?" It would be natural to celebrate spring on March 1st. It would be logical to honor her on March 22 - the day spring equinox. Women's Day could be celebrated on any of the Sundays in spring. But why was the 8th of March chosen? No, no, I explained, I am not against the celebration of Women's Day, I am not against the beginning of spring being marked by a secular holiday, and not just a church carnival. But why was March 8 chosen for such a holiday? Why November 7 is celebrated - I understand. Why the day of class solidarity of workers is celebrated on May 1 is also known to everyone (at least the official version assures that this is a memory of a demonstration of workers in Chicago). But the choice of March 8 was not explained in any way. Neither official historiography nor folk legends have preserved anything about any event that once happened exactly on March 8, and turned out to be so significant and memorable for fiery revolutionaries that they decided to keep the memory of this day for centuries.
But if people celebrate a day about the motives for celebrating which they themselves do not know anything - isn't it strange? Doesn't this make it possible for some people (the extras invited to the party) to celebrate one thing, while others (the organizers) celebrate something completely different? Maybe the organizers decided not to disclose the secret of their joy? Like, we have great joy, and we do not mind the whole world congratulating us on this day. But we have our own, very private and not understandable reason for the holiday, and we want a universal holiday, and so that the whole world sincerely rejoices and sincerely congratulates us, we will give it a different, profane-exoteric interpretation of the holiday.
So what can be the secret, esoteric content of this holiday?
Is it true that March 8 is Women's Day? After all, everyone knows that March 8 is International Women's Day. Also, everyone knows that women live in all countries. In addition, almost everyone in recent years has become aware that March 8 was celebrated only in the USSR. Why didn't women in other countries celebrate it? - So, it was not the day of a woman as a woman. On this day, it was necessary to glorify women with certain qualities. And for some reason these qualities were not very appreciated in other countries.
The reason for this oddity is obvious: March 8 is not the day of a woman, but the day of a woman - a revolutionary. And therefore, in those countries where the revolutionary wave of the early twentieth century choked, the celebration of the Revolutionary did not take root.
The need of the revolutionary movement to have its own holidays instead of the traditional folk, church and state holidays is understandable. The desire to give a reason to once again cheer up and honor their comrades and comrades-in-arms is understandable. A very clever and effective idea was to involve not only working men, but also women in the revolutionary struggle, giving them their movement, their slogans and their holiday.
But why the day when the revolutionaries were supposed to take to the streets and declare the current infringement of their rights, as well as their unshakable conviction in the coming emancipation, was March 8 determined? Who got fired from their job that day? Who was thrown into jail? Which of the leaders of the democratic movement was born on this day? No answer.
This means that the motives for such a decision were not social, not historical, not public. The creators of this holiday associated something personal with this date. What? How could this day be dear to the leaders of the European revolutionary movement at the turn of the century?
Since the motives were personal, it means that we need to look at personalities. And this portrait row is familiar to us from youth. It was only recently that we allowed ourselves to notice that these luminaries and heroes were related not only by belonging to the party of the revolution and devotion to the ideas of the International. They also had an ethnic relationship. The International, as it turned out, was extremely mononational. Well, today this is a fact without which a serious discussion about the history of the revolutionary movement in Europe at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries is impossible. It was the Jewish people who raised the world to fight the "world of violence" and called for it to be destroyed "to the ground".
Remembering this circumstance, let's try to get used to the world of these people. Imagine yourself in the place of, say, Clara Zetkin. You came up with a wonderful idea to create a women's revolutionary detachment, to use women's energy to fight the "exploiters". And for the consolidation and propaganda of this movement, you need a symbolic day, which would be the day of the Revolutionary Woman. What day should be given such importance?
The revolution, as we know, lives on religious pathos, it is itself a myth, and myth is characterized by thinking by precedents. The current action should reproduce some pattern, an archetype, first revealed to the world in the mythologically saturated "it time". We must imitate the model. And the myth-making instinct of the revolution demands that the question be put like this: Have there been women in history who raised the people to fight against tyranny and achieved success?
A German, a Frenchman, an Englishman, with such a formulation of the question, would immediately remember Joan of Arc. But Clara Zetkin is Jewish. And for her, associations with the history of her native people are quite natural. And in this story there was such a figure - Esther.
Centuries ago, she saved her people from a tyrant. The memory of those events has been preserved for centuries. And not only in the pages of the Bible. Esther is dedicated to the annual and most fun party Jewish people - the holiday of Purim. And it is celebrated just at the turn from winter to spring (the Jews retain moon calendar, and therefore the time of the celebration of Purim slides in relation to our solar calendar in almost the same way as the time of celebration slides in relation to it Orthodox Easter). Perhaps in the year when the decision was made to start celebrating International Women's Day, Purim fell on March 8th.
It would be both inconvenient and too frank to change the date of the Revolutionary holiday every year: it would be too noticeable that only Purim is celebrated. And therefore, it was decided to separate the celebration of the Destroyer Woman from the Purim holiday, fix it, and annually on March 8, regardless of the lunar cycles, call on all the peoples of the earth to glorify the Warrior Woman. Praise Esther. That is - to congratulate on Purim (even without realizing it).
This idea would only be ingenious if the Purim holiday were an ordinary holiday like Harvest Day or New Year's Day. But Purim is too unique. Perhaps none of modern peoples There is no holiday dedicated to this kind of event.
This is not a religious holiday. This is what the Jewish Encyclopedia says about it, emphasizing that this holiday "is not connected either with the temple or with any religious event" (Jewish Encyclopedia. A body of knowledge about Jewry and its culture in the past and present. Vol. 13. M ., Terra, 1991, page 123).
The Babylonian captivity of the Jews ended. Those who wished could return to Jerusalem. True, it turned out that there were much fewer people who wanted to return to their homeland than could be imagined from the cries and demands that preceded the liberation (from the cursed "prison of peoples" - Russia - when its borders were opened, much fewer Jews also left than the leaders of the Zionist movement would like). For many in the capital of the world empire (which was then Babylon), things went quite well, and a considerable number of Jews did not want to leave their homes, settled over a century, break their usual ties, trade contacts, lose their established clientele. Thousands of Jewish families remained to live in the cities of the Persian Empire, and in a position that was by no means slavish.
The current situation eventually began to surprise the Persians themselves. Looking around, they ceased to understand: who conquered whom. Did the Persians conquer Jerusalem, or did the Jews conquer Babylon? As usual in such situations, the last institution of power that is aware of the threat to national interests and tries to defend them is the "power structures". And just like Kryuchkov, who reported to Gorbachev about "agents of influence", the Persian Minister of Defense, General Aman, goes to the royal Xerxes (the events take place around 480 BC) and shares his sad observations.
As has just been noted, the times were still far from evangelical, and customs were by no means Christian. Xerxes' reaction was decidedly pagan: exterminate all the Jews. About the plan of Xerxes, his wife, Queen Esther, learns. The king does not know about her nationality. And now, in a moment of enthusiasm and promises, Esther draws confessions and promises from her husband: do you love me? Does that mean you love the ones I love? does that mean you love my people? does that mean you hate those who hate me? so you hate those who hate my friends and relatives? so you hate the haters of my people? So unleash your hate! Destroy my enemies, whom you consider to be your enemies! And Xerxes, who without much hesitation answered with his consent to all these questions, now discovers with surprise that he agreed to destroy all the enemies of the Jews he hated ...
As a result, on the day of Adar 13 (this month of the Jewish calendar falls at the end of February - the beginning of March), a royal command regarding pogroms comes to all cities of the empire. But everything was prepared for the massacre of the Jews. And the messengers brought a completely different decree. It turned out that the king allowed Esther and her cousin and the educator Mordecai draw up a decree on the upcoming pogroms: “write about the Jews, whatever you like, on behalf of the king, and fasten it with the royal ring ... And the royal scribes were called and everything was written as Mordecai ordered to the rulers of one hundred and twenty-seven regions on behalf of the king - that the king allows the Jews who are in every city to gather and stand in defense of their lives, to exterminate, kill and destroy all the strong among the people and in the region that are at enmity with them, children and wives, and plunder their possessions" (Esther 8:8-11)
And for two days "all the princes in the regions, and the satraps, and the executors of the king's affairs supported the Jews. And the Jews beat all their enemies, and exterminated, and dealt with the enemies according to their own will" (Esther 9:3-5). Haman was hanged with ten of his children. In total, 75,000 Persians were destroyed. Elite of the country. All who could be competitors. The fate of the Persian Empire was sealed.
I am not writing a theological study now, I am not engaged in the interpretation and apology of the Old Testament. I will not say a word of condemnation against the characters of the Sacred History. I will only note that the Hebrew text of the book of Esther never mentions the word of God. This is a historical legend, not a revelation of God.
My bewilderment about something else: how is it possible, millennia later, to celebrate the events of that day ... Is there another people on earth who celebrates with joy the day of massacres that are known to go unpunished? I understand the holiday in honor of the military victory. It was an open and risky clash, and victory day is a masculine and honest holiday. But how to celebrate the day of the pogrom? How to celebrate the day of the murder of thousands of children? And how can one write about the "merry holiday of Purim"?
And this holiday is very cheerful. This is the only day on which the sober and pedantic Talmud prescribes getting drunk: "After noon, they eat a festive meal and drink alcoholic beverages until they no longer distinguish between the words" cursed Haman "and" Weekdays, Saturdays and Holidays, Translation, Commentary and Explanation of the Order of Prayers, edited by Pinchas Polonsky, Jerusalem-Moscow, 1993, p.664). The festive meal includes pies with the poetic name "Haman's ears" (Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 13, st. 126). Such a sweet family scene: the parent, who no longer distinguishes the name of Haman from the name of Mordecai, offers his little son: "Dear, do you still want to eat the flesh of our enemy?"
And this holiday is considered the greatest. Among the Talmudic sages "there is even an opinion that when all the books of the prophets and hagiographers are forgotten, the book of Esther will still not be forgotten, and the Purim holiday will not cease to be observed" (ibid., st. 124).
Is it so unfounded the assumption that in the minds of the Jewish leaders of the International, the women's revolutionary movement was associated with the name of Esther, and March 8 was chosen by them due to their habit of celebrating these days? family celebration Purim?
The International also had international, planetary goals. They had something to say to all nations. Purim is the holiday of slaughtering enemies. And who are the enemies for the Jews? Is it only the tribesmen of the unfortunate Haman? In the medieval "Disputation of Nachmanides" a Jew interprets the psalm "The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies at your footstool." The Jew agrees that we are talking about the Messiah. And he explains: “God will help the messiah until he puts all nations under his feet, for they are all his enemies - they enslave him, they deny his coming and his power, and some of them created another messiah for themselves” (Disputation of Nachmanides. Jerusalem-Moscow, 1992, p. 48). So, in the history of Jewish thought there is a trend that believes that all peoples are enemies of the Jews. The events of Purim remind us exactly how to deal with enemies. This is the enormity of this "jolly holiday": from generation to generation it reproduces the model of treatment of those whom the Jews will one day consider their enemy. No history, no progress. There is no growth of spiritual consciousness and morality. The bloodthirstiness of the Old Testament has not changed. Those rules are still alive today. The archetype has not been cancelled. It continues to be regarded as a model worthy of reproduction (so far - ritually symbolic, on occasion - real) ...
Now it only remains for us to remember that the coming of the International to power in Russia was associated with a change in the calendar, and to ask: when was the day celebrated today called "the eighth of March" in the revolutionary circles of pre-revolutionary Russia? It turns out that the eighth of March, according to the new style, is February 23, according to the old one. That's the answer - why "male" day and "female" so close to each other. When the European brothers in the Internationale celebrated "the eighth of March", in Russia this day was called February 23rd. Therefore, in the pre-revolutionary years, party members and sympathizers were accustomed to consider February 23 a holiday. Then the calendar was changed, but the reflex remained to celebrate something revolutionary on February 23rd. The date was. In principle (given the floating nature of Purim), this date is no worse and no better than March 8th. But - it was necessary to find a cover for her. A few years later, the corresponding myth was created: "Day of the Red Army". The memory of the first battle and the first victory.
But this is a myth. On February 23, 1918, there was still no Red Army, and there were no victories for it. Newspapers of the end of February 1918 do not contain any victorious reports. And the February newspapers of 1919 do not rejoice over the occasion of the first anniversary " great victory". Only in 1922, February 23 was declared the Day of the Red Army." However, even a year before February 23, 1918, Pravda writes that February 23 is a holiday: “Long before the war, the proletarian International appointed February 23 as the day of international women's holiday"(Great day // Pravda, March 7, 1917; for details on this, see M. Sidlin. A red gift for International Women's Day on February 23 // Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 22.2.1997).
However, it was also necessary to come up with a cover for the celebration of February 23, because it was on February 23, 1917 that the "February Revolution" began. Since the Bolsheviks did not play a leading role in it, but nevertheless accepted it, welcomed it and included it in their calendars, it was necessary to give a different name to the day of the "overthrow of the autocracy" (preserving its festivity). It became the "day of the Red Army".
So the tradition of celebrating Purim led to the establishment of a women's holiday on March 8th. The riots of supposedly starving residents of Petrograd on February 23, 1917 were dated for Women's Revolutionary Day. The fall of the Russian Empire coincided ("coincided") with the defeat of the Persian Empire. Since Purim 1917, Russia has smelled of a pogrom - a pogrom of Russian culture ... So the Soviet congratulations on March 8 (as well as on February 23) are also congratulations on "deliverance" from "tsarism." For Orthodox people, congratulating each other on such a holiday is no longer humility, but sadomasochism.
And one more thing: the only military event that took place on February 23, 1918 was the decision of the Central Executive Committee of the Council of People's Commissars to accept the conditions of the "Brest Peace". This is the day of Russia's surrender in the First World War. Capitulations at the behest of the International, which turned "the imperialist war (more precisely, the patriotic war) into a civil war." It's hard to find a more shameful day in military history Russia (including Soviet Russia). And the fact that today this day is called "Defender of the Fatherland Day" is another mockery.
In general, it is very entertaining to listen to the hints that "initiates" in the mystery of Purim utter in the presence of people whom they consider to be uninitiated. For example, in 1994 a kosher food store opened in Moscow. The main "anti-fascist" of Moscow, deputy of the Moscow City Duma Yevgeny Proshechkin, speaking at the opening ceremony of this shop, "made a toast to the increasing role of trade enterprises in the development of national-political relations. By the way, at one time a special and very worthy role was played in them by oils, with which the body of the biblical heroine Esther, the wife of the Persian king Artaxerxes, was rubbed" (P. Erlich. Kosher Moscow. // Today, 30.6.1994) What subtle humor! It turns out that slaughtering 75,000 people means playing a "worthy role in the development of national relations"! Supporting the deputy's elegant joke, the journalist continues: "They say the tsar left a little for the Osem firm and for you and me." So, do the owners and visitors of the kosher shop intend to reproduce the plot of the book of Esther in Russia? By the way, according to the same journalist, the menu of the presentation included a dish called "Haman's ears"...
I understand that it is easiest to dismiss the above arguments by labeling them as "anti-Semitism." But that won't be true. I am not an anti-Semite. And to this day I do not renounce my article "Antisemitism is a sin" (Jewish newspaper, No. 1, 1992). Any hatred, including national hatred, is sinful. But if the Jewish National Congress and NTV allow themselves to look at our Gospel with an unkind eye (indeed, deliver us "from the eyes of the gazer"), then I also considered it acceptable to look at the history of Purim with a look that does not smooth out sharp corners. So this article of mine can be considered an answer to the "last temptation" of NTV. This is just a reminder: don't throw stones while living in a glass house. But this is a reason.
And the reason for my dislike for March 8 is much more prosaic: I just hated March 8 since childhood. And having become a church person, I fell in love with the Orthodox "women's day" - "the week of myrrh-bearing women", celebrated on the third Sunday after Easter (this year - May 3). So I wrote this article not to make someone feel worse about Clara Zetkin and her people, but to restore respect for our Orthodox traditions. For the sake of having a holiday in our Russian house.
P.S. Since I often have to argue with the occultists, I cannot help but take the opportunity to point out the thread that connects the Jewish Purim and the occult aspirants of the Age of Aquarius.
Here such a roll call is built: astrologers call the current era "the era of Pisces." It began around the Nativity of Christ and ends at the very beginning of the 21st century. Fish - an early Christian symbol (in Greek, fish - icquj - can be deciphered as a combination of the first letters of the expression "Jesus Christ the Son of God, Savior"). Therefore, the "epoch of Pisces" is interpreted by occultists as the time of the triumph of Christianity, and, accordingly, magical "ignorance", as a time unfavorable for "esotericists". With the advent of the "age of Aquarius" hopes are associated for the flowering of occult-magical abilities. Talmudic literature is in solidarity with the occultists in that the sign of Pisces is unfavorable for the Jews. She tells that Haman was an astrologer, and choosing the time to persecute the Jews, he turned to astrological tables. "However, each month turned out to be favorable for the Jews: for example, Nisan was favorable for the Jews because of the Passover sacrifice; Iyar - because of the small Passover, Sivan - because the Torah was given in this month, etc. But when Haman reached Adara, then found that he was under the zodiac sign of Pisces, and said: "Now I will be able to swallow them, like fish swallowing one another" (Jewish Encyclopedia. vol. 6, st. 124). This Talmudic story is already taking shape in the Christian era, and in the minds of its authors and listeners for centuries, it was clearly associated with the "time of Pisces", that is, with the era of Christian domination. I will not touch on the issue of the influence of Judaism on European occultism. But the consonance of feelings and ideas is still undeniable Both there and there there is an association: fish-Christians-evil.
So it is not appropriate for Christians to celebrate Purim, even under a different name. After all, this is a holiday that wants us to go into the past.

The mockery of Christians lies in the establishment of "International Women's Day", which for some reason was celebrated only in the USSR. In other countries, where the revolutionary wave of the beginning of the 20th century overflowed, this "holiday" did not take root. Established "International Women's Day" on the initiative of the revolutionary Clara Zetkin, who is Jewish by nationality. Jews annually at the turn from winter to spring celebrate their most cheerful holiday - Purim. This is not a religious holiday. This is what the Jewish Encyclopedia says about it, emphasizing that this holiday “is not connected either with the temple or with any religious event” (“Jewish Encyclopedia. A Code of Knowledge about Jewry and its Culture in the Past and Present.” Vol. 13 M. Terra, 1991, p. 123). This is the history of the holiday. The Babylonian captivity of the Jews ended, but not all of them wanted to return to Jerusalem (for many in the then capital of the world empire - Babylon - things went quite well). The right hand of the king - Haman - asks the emperor Artaxerxes for permission to kill his rival, the Jew Mordecai, and with him all the Jews. The king's wife, Jewess Esther, draws from Artaxerxes a promise to destroy her enemies and the enemies of her people. The king does not know about her nationality and agrees. Esther, together with her cousin and tutor Mordecai, draw up a decree on behalf of the king to the rulers of one hundred and twenty-seven regions that all Jews are allowed to “kill and destroy all the mighty in the people and in the region that are at enmity with them, children and wives, and plunder their possessions” (Esther 8:8-11).

For two days, “all the princes in the regions, both the satraps and the executors of the king’s affairs, supported the Jews. And the Jews beat all their enemies, and exterminated, and dealt with the enemies according to their own will ”(Esther 9, 3-5). Haman was hanged with ten children, in total 75 thousand Persians were destroyed - the country's elite, everyone who could be competitors. The fate of the Persian Empire was sealed.

Millennia later, the Jewish people celebrate this event. Among the Talmudic sages "there is even an opinion that when all the books of the prophets and hagiographers are forgotten, the book of Esther will still not be forgotten, and the Purim holiday will not cease to be observed." And they celebrate it very cheerfully. This is the only day on which the Talmud prescribes to get drunk: “In the afternoon they eat a festive meal and drink alcoholic drinks until they no longer distinguish between the words “cursed Haman” and “blessed Mordecai.” (Siddur. Gates of Prayer. Jerusalem - Moscow. 1993. p. 664). The festive meal includes pies with the name "Aman's ears". Is there any other nation in the world that has been celebrating the day of mass unpunished murders, and the murders of thousands of children, with such joy for thousands of years? After all, it was possible to deal with one Haman.

So, it is no coincidence that the Jewish revolutionaries chose this day. The Jews keep the lunar calendar, and therefore the time of the celebration of Purim slips in relation to our solar calendar. Perhaps in the year of the establishment of "International Women's Day" Purim fell on March 8th. To change the date of the holiday every year for women-destroyers would be both inconvenient and too frank. Purim is a holiday of beating enemies. And who are the enemies for the Jews? These are all non-Jews and, first of all, Christians. After all, those who did not recognize and crucified Christ are waiting for their messiah - Antichrist - and want to rule with him over all nations.

About the history of the holiday on March 8, why exactly March 8 became Women's Day, when and how it was first celebrated March 8. This is a story about the holiday of March 8 for adults and children. Teachers can use the materials in this article when developing holiday class hours and scenarios dedicated to March 8.

Today, almost the entire planet celebrates March 8 as a day of worship. real woman, her beauty, wisdom and femininity that save the world.

From the history of the holiday on March 8

This beloved holiday of March 8 goes back to the traditions ancient rome 1st century BC. It was believed that the goddess Juno, wife of the great Jupiter, was endowed with great power and had great opportunities. She had many names: Juno-Calendariya, Juno-Moneta. .. She gave people good weather, harvest, good luck in business and opened every month of the year. But most of all, the Romans bowed before Juno - Lucius (“bright”), patronizing women in general, and especially during childbirth. She was revered in every home, she was brought gifts upon marriage and at the birth of a child.

The most joyful for the female half of Rome was the holiday of March 1, dedicated to this goddess and called the Matrons. Then the whole city changed. Festively dressed women walked with wreaths of flowers in their hands to the temple of Juno Lucius. They prayed, brought flowers as a gift and asked their patroness for happiness in the family. It was a holiday not only for respectable Roman women, but also for slaves, whose work on this day was performed by male slaves. On March 1, men gave generous gifts to their wives, relatives and girlfriends, did not bypass the attention of maids and slaves ...

In the modern world, Women's Day is celebrated on March 8th. The history of this holiday began in the 19th century, and it was timed to coincide with the day of the struggle for women's rights. It was on March 8, 1857 that a demonstration of workers of clothing and shoe factories took place in New York. Then they demanded that they be given a ten-hour day, acceptable working conditions and equal pay with men. Before that, women worked 16 hours a day and received mere pennies for this. After March 8, 1857, women's unions began to appear, and for the first time women were given the right to vote. But only in 1910, at the International Women's Conference of Socialists in Copenhagen, Clara Zetkin was asked to celebrate World Women's Day on March 8th. It was a kind of call to women all over the world to join the struggle for independence and equality; and they responded by joining the struggle for the right to work, respect for their dignity, for peace on earth. For the first time this holiday was celebrated in 1911, but only on March 19, in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Then more than a million men and women took to the streets of these countries, and the demonstration was held under the slogan: "Elective rights of workers - to join forces in the struggle for socialism." In Russia, International Women's Day was first celebrated in 1913 in St. Petersburg. Its organizers called for economic and political equality for women. One of the most powerful performances of women took place in Petrograd on March 7, 1917. And in 1976, International Women's Day was officially recognized by the UN.

Today, March 8, is a holiday of spring and light, a tribute to traditional role women as wives, mothers, friends.

Who was the founder of the holidays on March 8: Clara Zetkin or Esther?

Many may have a question: was Clara Zetkin the only ancestor of March 8? Historians also believe that the celebration of this celebration is connected with the legend of Esther. Many centuries ago, she saved her people from a terrible death. Therefore, the most cheerful holiday of the Jewish people, the holiday of Purim, is dedicated to her. It is celebrated almost at the same time as International Women's Day: at the end of winter - beginning of spring, on March 4th.

Once, in 480 BC, all the Jews captured by the Babylonians gained freedom and could freely return to Jerusalem. However, there were practically no people who wanted to leave Babylon, where the Jews spent almost their entire lives. Hundreds of thousands of Jews remained in the Persian Empire, and not at all as a labor force. Many of them managed to get a very good job and earn a good living.

Over time, the Jews took root in Babylon so much that even the indigenous people no longer understood who conquered whom: the Persians of Jerusalem or the Jews of Babylon. Then one of the ministers of the powerful ruler of Xerxes - Haman - came to the king and told him that the Jews had flooded their state. Xerxes decided to exterminate all the Jews.

About the terrible plan of Xerxes, his wife Esther accidentally found out, who hid her ethnic origin from her husband (she was Jewish). Clever Esther did not beg the king for mercy, but decided to use Xerxes' love for herself. When the king was under the influence of her spell, she took from him a promise to exterminate all the enemies of her people. Xerxes agreed to everything, and only some time later he discovered that he had promised his beloved wife to destroy all the enemies of the Jews, but it was no longer possible to retreat ...

And on Adar 13 (the month of the Jewish calendar: approximately the end of February - the beginning of March), a royal decree regarding pogroms is distributed throughout the Persian Empire. But it was radically different from what was originally intended to be created: this decree of Xerxes allowed Esther and her cousin and tutor Mordecai to compose.

“And the royal scribes were called, and everything was written as Mordecai ordered to the rulers of one hundred and twenty-seven regions on behalf of the king - that the king allows the Jews who are in every city to gather and stand in defense of their lives, to destroy, to kill and destroy all the mighty in the people and in the region that are at enmity with them, children and wives, and plunder their possessions ”(Est 8, 8-11). And for two days, “all the princes in the regions, both the satraps and the executors of the king’s affairs, supported the Jews. And the Jews beat all their enemies, and destroyed them, and dealt with the enemies according to their own will" (Est 9, 3-5).

Minister Haman, who gave Xerxes the idea of ​​exterminating the Jews, was executed by hanging along with his entire family. During this struggle, about 75 thousand Persians were destroyed. The Persian Empire was practically destroyed. The day of this significant victory for the Jews is honored and celebrated to this day.

Among the greatest sages“There is even an opinion that when all the books of the prophets and hagiographers are forgotten, the book of Esther will still not be forgotten, and the Purim holiday will not cease to be observed.”

Perhaps this legend was true, and Esther really saved her people. And in gratitude for such a feat, the Jews honor the savior at the present time, celebrating Purim. And everyone understands that such a legend about the celebration world day women also have a right to exist.