Folk calendar. Christian holidays: Easter, Christmas, Trinity, Presentation of the Lord, Baptism, Transfiguration, Palm Sunday
Simonova Olga Alekseevna
Christmas and Easter stories in women's magazines 1910s
Institute of World Literature. A.M. Gorky RAS
Senior Researcher
annotation
The article deals with the specifics of Christmas and Easter stories published in popular women's magazines of the 1910s. It was revealed that the most popular in calendar works is the cyclic type of plot with its scheme . The holiday itself becomes a symbol of the hero's spiritual rebirth, and religious symbols take on a functional role in the plot. The saturation of the meaning of the holidays of Christmas and Easter primarily with love connotations determines the interchangeability of the motives of Easter and Christmas stories.
Keywords
Popular literature, Easter story, Christmas story, women's magazines, cyclic plot
The specificity of the Christmas and Easter short stories published in mass women magazines in the 1910s is studied in the paper. It is shown that the cyclic type plots having the pattern “ lack-search-finding” are the most frequently exploited. The feast becomes a symbol of the character's spiritual renewal, the religious symbols acquire a functional role. The providing sense of the two feasts with love connotations determines an interchangeability of the Christmas and Easter stories motifs.
Popular literature, Christmas story, Easter story, women magazines, cyclic plot
The study was carried out at IMLI RAS at the expense of a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 14-18-02709)
At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. in mass periodicals on the eve of Christmas and Easter, stories were traditionally published "on the occasion of the holiday." For the most part, the Christmas and Easter stories were works of mass literature and were created within the framework of a certain genre canon 1 , which was intuitively perceived by contemporaries. So, N. Teffi wrote:
“The themes of these stories were special.
For Christmas - a freezing boy or a poor man's child on a rich Christmas tree.
For the Easter story, the prodigal husband was supposed to return to his wife, lonely yearning over Easter cake. Or the return of a prodigal wife to an abandoned husband who pours lonely tears on a woman.
Reconciliation and forgiveness took place under the ringing of Easter bells.
These were strictly chosen and fixed themes.
Why things had to happen this way is unknown. A husband and wife could perfectly reconcile on the night of Christmas, and a poor boy, instead of a Christmas tree, could just as touchingly break the fast among rich children.
But the custom was so firmly rooted that it was impossible to even think about it. Indignant readers would begin to write indignant letters, and the circulation of the magazine would certainly be shaken.
Of course, each holiday had its own motives and images, but we can rather agree with E.V. Dushechkina that there was also a common set of motifs 3 (or rather, motifs related mainly to one of the holidays were successfully transferred to texts dedicated to another). So, under the definition of Teffi, the stories of L.N. Andreev "Bargamot and Garaska", in which the representative of the authorities took pity and warmed the poor on Easter, and N.A. Lukhmanova "The Miracle of Christmas Night", in which on Christmas night at the bedside of a sick daughter, the reconciliation of the spouses took place *. Although E.V. Dushechkina and Kh. Baran write that in this “story the popular “Christmas” motif of reconciliation at Christmas is played up” 4 , this motif was more suitable for the Easter holiday with its symbolism of forgiveness.
A certain tonality to the work was also set by the image of the printed edition, for publication in which the story was intended. The genres of the Christmas and Easter stories were especially developed in mass women's magazines of the 1910s. "Woman's World", "Woman and Hostess", "Magazine for Women", "Woman", "Magazine for Housewives" and "Women's Life". All these women's magazines saw as their reader a woman of the urban environment, a hostess, whose area of interest does not extend, as a rule, beyond the boundaries of her family. An exception was the magazine Zhenskaya Zhizn, which set itself the task of covering the social life of a woman and, thus, approached publications of the feminist type. But it is worth noting that radical feminist magazines often ignored the tradition of publishing stories for the holidays. So, for example, the Easter and Christmas issues of the magazines "Women's Union" and "Women's Bulletin" in most cases were not designated as such, and the stories published in them were not timed to coincide with these holidays. So the tradition of calendar texts existed mainly in popular women's magazines.
The formal differences between the Easter and Christmas stories published in women's magazines and those published in the "holiday" issues of "general" mass magazines include large quantity translated works** and the greater prevalence of legends and fairy tales. The second is explained by the condescending attitude of publishers towards female readers, who sought to make the material simpler, more accessible and interesting, but at the same time set themselves didactic tasks.
In calendar stories published in women's publications, much more than in mass magazines intended for readers of both sexes, the matrimonial theme is accentuated, all the complexities of relationships between men and women. It is emphasized that it is marriage and family that represent the greatest value for a person, and the hero is aware of this in the main family holidays. Such stories have the following structure: 1) the hero’s ordinary life (which sometimes remains outside the scope of the narrative), 2) a holiday, which is a key moment, on this day some temptation appears before the hero, he is put in a situation of choice, 3) a decision is made , with the help of which the “correct” structure of the world, broken harmony is acquired or restored. It is obvious that such a construction of the plot can be called cyclic with its scheme lack - search - acquisition. The cyclic plot is one of the archetypes rooted in the human mind. One of the properties of such a plot can be defined as predictability: in the finale, acquisition is obligatory. Since mass literature is characterized by a focus on satisfying the reader's expectations, the cyclical type of plot turns out to be the most appropriate.
The heroes of the story "Beloved" by N. Timkovsky at Christmas are waiting for the arrival of their daughter, who is studying at the courses, the finale is marked by her arrival 5 . In the story "The Holiday" by L. Gumilevsky, women's torment, longing, anxiety about her husband at the front are described; he returns home just in time for Christmas Eve 6 .
However, the character does not always find exactly what he is looking for, sometimes it is in the unexpected ending that the intrigue of the plot lies. So, the priest, the hero of the story "Mother" by S. Gusev-Orenburg, wants to change the fate of his family, having received a rich parish; to do this, at Christmas time he goes to the city, but because of a snowstorm he loses his way and returns home 7 . Along the way, he makes sense of his family happiness and feelings for his wife. On the holiday there is an aggravation of feelings, a revival of extinct love.
In the Easter story "Waltz" by I. Matusevich, the hero at the masquerade is fond of a girl who resembles his wife, whom he has long ceased to love. A beautiful stranger turns out to be his wife, the hero's feelings for her come to life. It is indicative that although the story is placed in the Easter issue and it contains a typical Easter motif of the rebirth of former love, the action takes place at a masquerade, which is a chronotope. Christmas stories, which emphasizes the closeness of the two genres. Obviously, the borrowing of the plot from the famous operetta by I. Strauss " Bat”, which indicates the secondary nature of mass literature in relation to recognized masterpieces.
The moment of finding harmony, which completes the calendar story, can manifest itself as a decision to marry 9 , a victory over a rival who is trying to destroy family happiness 10 , the emergence of hope for happiness with a loved one 11 . Thus, Christmas or Easter is perceived as a turning point in the lives of the characters, which correlates with the deep symbolism of the holidays, which implies the transformation of life at all levels.
The cyclicity of the plot may not be so obvious. One of the options for the finale is spiritual acquisition, which symbolically expresses the meaning of Easter. The heroine of Timkovsky's story "Holiday", an old teacher, expects her son to arrive at Easter, he runs in for a while and disappoints his mother with his coldness 12. But on the same day, her student comes to her, who spends the whole evening with the old woman and even stays overnight. He becomes her spiritual son. There is no real physical loss for the heroine, but there is a spiritual loss compensated for by spiritual gain. Another teacher, the heroine of the story by A. Galina, on Easter feels the happiness of a fulfilled duty, the victory of reason over ignorance, which the narrator correlates with the meaning of the holiday - the victory of life over death 13 .
In Russian literature, stories timed to coincide with Christmas have become widespread, in which a miracle does not occur and the discrepancy between reality and the idea of \u200b\u200bthe holiday is emphasized. E. Dushechkina calls the motifs characteristic of such stories "anti-Christmas" 14 . There are also Easter stories with a tragic ending, so in relation to the two holidays, we can talk about "anti-evangelical" motives. True, it is not always easy to distinguish the “correct” holiday story from its “anti-evangelical” version. The heroine of Timkovsky's story "Ray" does not celebrate Easter, she is waiting for a letter from her lover who left her 15 . The neighbor's girl Nina writes a letter to her, which brings joy to the sick heroine. On the one hand, the long-awaited letter arrives, but, on the other hand, it turns out not to be from a loved one. In general, the theme of childhood, communication with children and their upbringing is very important for women's magazines, which is also manifested in calendar works. If in the holiday stories published in popular magazines, childhood is present as an idealized past of the heroes, then the women's calendar works are characterized by "reproduction of a "childish", somewhat naive and at the same time wise look, allowing a better understanding of the world and man" 16 . Significant symbolism for women's calendar prose is also associated with greater attention to the children's theme. first(when what happens to the hero for the first time acquires special significance). Children's expectations of the first confession on Easter 17, the first Christening 18 are described. The experiences of the holiday are also comprehended by the adult heroine, who got married and celebrates Easter in new conditions 19 .
According to the meaning of the holidays themselves, religious symbols acquire a functional role in the plot. Church items and ceremonial inventory are endowed with special significance. The key elements in the stories are a prayer book, an icon, a candle. The turning point in the development of the action is prayer, confession. The first ringing of bells on Easter takes on a symbolic meaning: it either rings out at the end of the work, confirming the decision made by the characters 20 , or is the climax in the plot, revealing new meanings of the surrounding reality hidden from him before 21 for the character. At the same time, changes occur both in the event side of the life of the characters, and in their inner, spiritual life, which is usually no less significant for the development of the plot. Communication with God contributes to the inner rebirth of the hero.
In relation to a whole group of calendar stories, one can speak not only about the repetition of motives, but also about the stereotyped plot, which is generally characteristic of mass literature. A typical example of such an Easter work is A. Gruzinsky's story "Christ is Risen", mentioned by H. Baran, 22 in which a dying actress talks about her hard life and recalls how she loved Easter as a child. The plot reveals two key points. The first is the protagonist - an actress, a woman who has broken with her environment, choosing loneliness. The second point is the introduction of the Christmas or Easter holiday into the narrative, which helps to restore (at least for a day) lost ties with the former life. As a rule, the heroine remembers happy moments, but attempts to return them, if any, lead to nothing, real acquisition does not occur, and the heroine only becomes more aware of her isolation.
Against the background of the war, this plot model expands. The war becomes a turning point in the life of the heroine. The heroine (not necessarily an actress) used to lead an idle life, and now she wants to be spiritually “reborn” (as an option, she becomes a sister of mercy). A holiday is a time to remember something pure and bright, which has long been gone in life. This is what happens in the Easter story “Without a Title” by F. Laskova, whose heroine, a former actress, and now a sister of mercy, on Easter “remembered a distant childhood that had suddenly died - a feeling of faith, purity and mystery. And now there is no more faith and purity – there are fear and doubts” 23 . A similar idea formed the basis of Gumilevsky's New Year's Etude In the Infirmary, whose heroine, a sister of mercy, works in the infirmary, in the building where she held her first ball a year ago. The carefree gaiety of her former life is contrasted with the torment of the wounded, causing her suffering. A variant of this type of plot is a plot in which the transformation of the heroine into sisters of mercy takes place on a festive night 25 .
Thesis about the general complex of motifs and plots characteristic of Christmas and Easter works is confirmed by the example of the following two stories written on the occasion of different holidays. In the Easter story "Daddy" by S. Garin, a provincial actress is waiting for her father 26 . The heroine recalls how her theatrical career began: her father was against her profession, she ran away from home to her lover-actor, but her father cursed her. Now, twoTen years later, the heroine is looking forward to meeting her beloved father. She longs for the return of her former spiritual relationships, but the meeting disappoints her.
In the story “Forgotten Petals” by I. Neradov, on Christmas Eve, the artist Garina has a free evening, she reflects on the boredom and monotony of life, regrets the absence of “her” home. The ringing of the bell makes her remember how long she has been away from church. In her soul arises "an ardent thirst for prayer, a thirst for the appeasement of a warped, eternally restless life" 27. The heroine searches for an old prayer book, opens it and sees dried flowers that many generations of women have kept before her. Here a banal stamp penetrates into the Christmas story: a dried flower as a memory of a former love. The heroine finds her flower, remembers her husband and daughter, whom she left for the sake of her lover and the stage, and goes to the abandoned family. But the old life is no more, her daughter died. The heroine understands that “everything is buried”, “forgotten petals… cannot be revived…” 28 and returns to “her” hotel.
So a typical love story, unfolding on the eve of the holiday, becomes Christmas. The climax of the story is associated with a festive action ( bell ringing), which evokes the corresponding memories in the heroine. The motif of finding is repeated twice. First, the heroine recalls her past life, sees herself as a mother. It seems to her that in this she has found “her own”, but in fact her present life turns out to be “her own”. Therefore, the cruel loss of a family, the loss of a child means the final acquisition of the current self, the affirmation of one's real life. The Christmas plot with a happy ending is broken, the ending of the story makes it "anti-evangelical". A woman gaining independence is achieved by loss, tragedy in her personal life. Such a price, which not every woman will agree to, must be paid by the heroine for her new status. Therefore, the stories, according to the concept of the ladies' magazine, are designed to confirm the traditional values of family and motherhood to the reader.
The stories discussed above can be classified as "anti-evangelical": the heroine's revival does not occur in them. But in women's magazines there were also typical Easter works. The motif of resurrected life, resurrected love is a traditional Easter motif. In the story "Resurrected" by S. Zarechnaya, the heroine meets her former lover on Easter 29 . Former love is resurrected, and Christ-giving is understood as the betrothal of heroes forever. Such a motif is especially fertile ground for development in wartime. The heroine of Osip Volzhanin's story "Spring Song" has her fiancé killed in the war, she falls into a nervous fever, almost dies 30 . Then he recovers and goes south, where he meets a young man with whom he celebrates Easter. He later proposes to her and she accepts. In women's magazines, the Easter story is often based on a love theme, the traditional Christening takes on an erotic coloring, meaning more than a religious rite.
In women's Christmas stories, more often than in works published in "general" mass magazines, there is a motive of divination, an attempt to find out fate. Usually, not just some episode of fortune-telling is taken, but its confirmation in the fate of the heroine is described. It is interesting that sometimes the extended rite of fortune-telling is reduced to the image of a mirror, which retains only a nominal connection with fortune-telling, becoming a means of peeping 31 .
So, we can conclude that Easter and Christmas motifs are interchangeable. The figurative system of calendar stories and the symbolism used in them confirms the adherence to clichés characteristic of popular literature. The writers tried to respond to readers' ideas about holiday literature, so the cyclical type of plot with a finding in the finale is in demand. What is important is not just the timing of the story to Christmas or Easter, but the functional role of this holiday in the plot, the holiday itself becomes a symbol of the hero's spiritual rebirth. Main heroes holiday texts published in women's magazines, as a rule, women who act in their typical public roles: actress, teacher, sister of mercy, mother of the family. Most accentuated themes of love, family, children, divination motif.
Notes
* The story was first published in 1894, published in the collection: The Miracle of Christmas Night: Yuletide Stories / Comp., Intro. st., note. E. Dushechkina, H. Barana. St. Petersburg: Fiction, St. Petersburg. otd., 1993, pp. 409–423).
** However, it should be noted that often translated stories were not originally Easter stories, but became so in the structure of the festive issue.
1 See: Baran H. Pre-revolutionary holiday literature and Russian modernism // Baran H. Poetics of Russian literature at the beginning of the 20th century. Sat: Authorized translation from English. M.: Ed. group "Progress" - "Univers", 1993. S. 284-328; Dushechkina E.V. Russian Christmas story: the formation of the genre. St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg State University, 1995. 256 p.; Kalenichenko O.N. The fate of small genres in Russian literature of the late XIX - early XX century (Christmas and Easter stories, modernist short story). Volgograd: Change, 2000. 232 p.; Nikolaeva S.Yu. Easter text in Russian literature. M.; Yaroslavl: Litera, 2004. 360 p.
2 Teffi N.A. Easter story // Teffi N.A. All about love. Paris: La presse française et etrangère, O. Zeluck, 1946, p. 185.
3 Dushechkina E.V. Russian Christmas story: the formation of the genre. St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg State University, 1995. S. 199.
4 The Miracle of Christmas Night: Yuletide Stories / Comp., Intro. st., note. E. Dushechkina, H. Barana. St. Petersburg: Fiction, St. Petersburg. otd., 1993. S. 680.
5 Timkovsky N.I. Beloved // Magazine for women. 1916. No. 24. S. 2–4.
6 Gumilevsky Lev. Holiday // Woman's World. 1915. No. 17. P. 3.
7 Gusev-Orenburgsky S. Mother // Magazine for housewives. 1915. No. 24. S. 26–28.
8 Matusevich Joseph. Waltz // Magazine for housewives. 1915. No. 6. S. 32.
9 Kamensky Anatoly. Touchy // Woman's World. 1916. No. 7–8. pp. 17–20; L-va A. In a year // The world of women. 1915. No. 17. S. 3; Visserche Berta. Love has won // Magazine for housewives. 1912. No. 21. S. 42–44.
10 Ek Ekaterina<Курч Е.М.>. Second sight // Women's life. 1916. No. 7. S. 16–18.
11 Vladimirova E. Lilac branch // Magazine for housewives. 1916. No. 7. S. 26–27.
12 Timkovsky N.I. Holiday // Magazine for women. 1916. No. 7. S. 3–6.
13 Galina Anya. The Gray Teacher: A Story // Journal for Housewives. 1914. No. 7. S. 20–21.
14 Dushechkina E.V. Russian Christmas story: the formation of the genre. St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg State University, 1995. S. 206.
15 Timkovsky N.I. Luch // Magazine for housewives. 1916. No. 7. S. 23–24.
16 Nikolaeva S.Yu. Easter text in Russian literature. M.; Yaroslavl: Litera, 2004. S. 230.
17 Ek Ekaterina. Let's be like children // Woman's world. 1916. No. 7–8. S. 3; Harting E. The First Confession (Children's: Naive Stories) // Woman's World. 1916. No. 7–8. S. 5; Timkovsky N.I. Luch // Magazine for housewives. 1916. No. 7. S. 23–24.
18 Gauthier Marguerite. In front of the mirror // Magazine for women. 1914. No. 5. S. 4–5.
19 Khokhlov Evg. First Sunday // Magazine for housewives. 1915. No. 6. S. 28–29.
20 Claire V. On Easter Night // Journal for Women. 1916. No. 7. S. 6–8; Laskovaya F. Untitled // The World of Women. 1915. No. 4. S. 2–4.
21 Z. Sofia<Качановская С.А.>. Double: Easter story // Women's life. 1916. No. 7. P. 13–15; Zarechnaya Sofia<Качановская С.А.>. Resurrected: Easter story // Woman's World. 1916. No. 7–8. pp. 2–3; Neradov I. Forgotten petals // Woman and hostess. 1916. No. 17. S. 3–4.
There is nothing new in the idea that the Western world is not like the Eastern one. One of the points of view is as follows: the reason for this is the predominant emphasis on the Incarnation of the Son of God, which exists in Western Catholic culture, and the emphasis on the Resurrection of the Savior, which is important for the Orthodox world.
Christocentrism is the most important attribute of Christian culture as such. The annual liturgical cycle is focused precisely on the events of the life of Christ. The main ones are His Birth and Resurrection. Therefore, the most important events of the liturgical cycle are the celebration of Christmas and Easter. This is expressed in the symbolism of the star and the cross. If in the Western tradition one can see an emphasis on Christmas (and, accordingly, talk about the Christmas archetype), then in the tradition of the Eastern Church, the celebration of the Resurrection remains the main holiday not only in confessional, but also in general cultural terms, which allows us to hypothesize about the presence of a special Easter archetype. and its special significance for Russian culture.
Archetypes in this case are understood, in contrast to C. G. Jung, not universal unconscious models, but such transhistorical “collective representations” that are formed and acquire certainty in one or another type of culture. In other words, this is the cultural unconscious: a type of thinking formed by one or another spiritual tradition, which gives rise to a whole train of cultural consequences, up to certain stereotypes of behavior. Such representations are often not realized on a rational level by the bearers of a particular culture, but can be singled out as a result of a special scientific description.
I would not like to be understood in such a way that Orthodoxy is thereby opposed to other Christian denominations. I rely only on the undoubted fact that in Russia Easter is still the main holiday, not only in the confessional sense, but also in the cultural one. Whereas in Western Christianity, Easter in the cultural space seems to fade into the shadow of Christmas. This difference, apparently, cannot be explained only by the further advanced process of secularization in the West, or, as a consequence, by the commercialization of Christmas: we are talking about deeper preferences that have clearly manifested themselves in the field of culture and which cannot be eliminated without a significant distortion of the entire thousand-year history of the parallel world. the existence of the eastern and western halves of Christendom.
In the Western version of Christian culture, it is not the death and subsequent Resurrection of Christ that is emphasized, but His very coming into the world, the birth of Christ, which gives hope for the transformation of the earthly world here. Christmas, unlike Easter, is not directly connected with death, which is irrevocable on earth. Birth is very different from Resurrection. The coming of Christ into the world allows us to hope for its renewal and enlightenment. However, in the sphere of culture, we can talk about emphasizing earthly hopes and hopes, of course, illuminated by the coming of Christ into the world; while the Paschal salvation points directly to the heavenly reward. Finally, both traditions proceed from the recognition of the God-human nature of Christ, but the western branch of Christianity, apparently, is still closer to the earthly side of this nature (that the Savior is the Son of Man), while Orthodoxy is closer to His Divine essence. Each of the invariants does not exist as the only culture-forming factor, but is dominant, coexisting with a subdominant background. That is why I would like to insist on emphasizing certain points, and not on their presence or absence in Christian civilization.
The selected archetypes, being a phenomenon of the cultural unconscious, retain their "cores", but at the same time they are able to change. Thus, the life-creation of both romantics and symbolists is understood in this context as a manifestation of the Christmas archetype. It is also the middle link between the actual religious Transfiguration and later life-building.
Both the Easter cultural setting and the Christmas one can be "fraught" with their own metamorphoses and pseudomorphoses, which can be explained common process secularization of culture. Thus, sacrifice in the name of Christ can lose its proper Christian meaning and be used for completely different purposes. As well as the Christmas transformation of the world, if the same Christian component of it is washed away, it turns into a violent alteration of both the world and the person himself.
In the text and subtext of Russian literature of the 19th century and earlier centuries, the Easter archetype dominates - even among those authors who were not at all seen as "excessive" religiosity. In the book, I describe in detail how this archetype manifests itself at various levels of works. In the literature of the "Silver Age", in my opinion, there is a fluctuation of this Easter dominant.
So, already in the theocratic utopia of Vl. Solovyov, who presupposes the future union of the Roman bishop with the Russian Tsar, that is, the Catholic priesthood and the Orthodox kingdom, one can notice the “all-unity” that goes back to the Christmas archetype. We are talking about the fact that the very fact of the birth of Christ is of cardinal importance for Vl. Solovyov, as if promising a certain general progressive development of mankind: the birth of the Savior, according to this logic, is already in itself, as if independently of His sufferings on the cross, death on the cross and the subsequent Resurrection testifies to the future reconciliation, the blessed transformation (change) of the world.
The idea of the transformation of the world, which is deeply connected with the Christmas archetype, stemming from Vl. but also in the lives of their victim readers. In each of these cases, hope is expressed for a device a better life"in this world": for example, through a "united humanity", controlled either by its "best" representatives, or directly by a "world government". In Solovyov's philosophy, the idea of theocracy has - in the context we are considering - archetypal connotations of Christmas and transformation, while in the story about the Antichrist one can state the dominant of the Resurrection. In both cases, the dominant certainly coexists with the subdominant, therefore, in particular, the philosophical heritage of Vl. Solovyov was not only the basis of the “new religious consciousness”, but also the multidirectional trends in the cultural life of Russia in the 20th century. For example, in Fedorov's "Philosophy of the Common Cause" the emphasis is on the victory over death. Obviously, it was the Easter archetype of Russian culture that could lead to the emergence of such a grandiose and mind-boggling philosophical “project”. However, Easter here is complicated and modernized by the "Christmas" hopes for a fundamental change in the world order of life by the sons.
The aesthetics of Russian symbolism is characterized by a fundamental change in the relationship between the dominant and subdominant poles of Christocentrism, in which one can notice a shift in the liturgical emphasis towards Christmas, accompanied by other characteristic cultural transformations. In this sense, symbolism is a great upheaval, which probably resulted in a global shift in the aesthetic and spiritual dominant of Russian culture, after which the main vector of its development itself became different. No wonder A. Blok in Pasternak's novel is interpreted as the phenomenon of Christmas.
Russian futurism, like other "avant-garde" trends, is somewhat brutal, but continues the same "Christmas" line of symbolism. In the aesthetics of socialist realism, one can also see some kind of profane, but still recognizable replacement of the Easter archetype by the Soviet version of the Christmas archetype. Thus, the global transformation of the Russian Christian tradition was manifested in the fact that the central figure of Soviet culture - V. I. Lenin - does not need resurrection, because in a substantial sense he never died: he, as you know, is “always alive”, “more alive than all living”, etc. Therefore, the most important event is not the “resurrection”, which is redundant in this case, but the very fact of his birth, which has a clearly manifested sacred meaning and is deeply connected with the birth of a new world (which is also not going to “die” at all, being deprived of any eschatological perspective).
The fluctuation in the Symbolist era, until that time, of the still quite traditional Russian culture, gave rise to a fundamental multiplicity of post-Symbolist branches of this culture, not reducible to any one literary movement. As for me, Postsymbolism itself seems to me, if we use synergetic terminology, as a special zone of bifurcation for the domestic secular culture that was dissipating by the beginning of the 20th century. It by no means follows from this that the Easter archetype has ceased to be significant for Russian literature.
It is the Paschal branch of Christocentrism that continues to be dominant for such authors as Ivan Shmelev. But not only traditionalists, but also former avant-gardists could well inherit the same Easter tradition. So, "Doctor Zhivago" is nothing but an Easter novel. It begins with a funeral scene, and ends with poetic lines about the Resurrection and the appearance before God: "I will go down to the tomb and rise on the third day." The structure of the novel is an artistically organized pilgrimage to Easter, to a new life. It is no coincidence that the final - poetic - part of the novel continues the unified numbering of the prose parts - as the posthumous existence of a person continues his earthly life. It is no coincidence that the first verb (and at the same time the first word of the novel) is the verb of movement, the way: "we walked, walked and sang." This is not only Zhivago's personal Paschal path, but also an extremely generalized path for everyone. Earthly confusion during the funeral (“Who is being buried? Zhivago. Yes, not him. Hers. It doesn’t matter”) - this confusion is important only in a small, earthly perspective: “The Kingdom of Heaven”, which is mentioned in the same paragraph, embraces equally “her ” and “his”: each of Zhivago (i.e., living).
At the same time, it would be very fruitful, in my opinion, to describe both the metamorphoses and pseudomorphoses that occur with the Christmas and Easter archtypes in Russian literature of the 20th century. So, in Gorky's story "Mother", Easter paraphernalia is used precisely because, apparently, it is called upon to influence the reader's consciousness in a shocking way, to shift the dominant of the reader's expectations. Raising the "people" to fight for a better future, the Son of the Mother is called, according to the logic of the author, to replace Christ as an improper Messiah. The mutation of the reader's horizon of expectations - if we remember Iser - in the direction dictated by the author - is the ultimate goal of Gorky's story.
In symbolist and near-symbolist circles, the relationship between Holy Russia and Russia was often understood not as a relationship between an ideal invariant and its earthly imperfect incarnation, but as, so to speak, members of a binary opposition. Paradoxically, one of the possible deepest sources of this opposition is just the Easter archetype: in order to resurrect, partial, gradual improvement is absolutely not enough. Let's say, the gradual improvement of inappropriate Russian life. Since the Resurrection (Easter) is the final victory over death, the overcoming of death, we can talk about their mysterious connection: without death, the Resurrection, alas, does not happen. However, the Resurrection does not happen not only without death, but also without a firm belief in the real possibility of this miracle; Faith is inconceivable without a strict and serious otnological distinction between the holy and the sinful. Whereas it was precisely the blurring of the boundaries between the sacred and the profane, the playful attitude towards both the “divine” and the “devilry” that led in Russia in the first quarter of the 20th century, which did not know the culture of revivalist “pluralism”, first to the devaluation of genuine spiritual values, and then to to the Russian Holocaust.
If Christmas and Easter are designated - quite in accordance with the Christian tradition - with the symbols of the star and the cross, as I said earlier, then many texts of the 20th century (especially the Soviet period) are, so to speak, between the cross and the star. Particularly interesting in this context is the poetics of A. Platonov. So, both "The Pit" and "Chevengur" are the topos of the longed-for common resurrection. However, the Paschal beginning here undergoes a malignant pseudomorphosis. I emphasized that Fedorov’s “common cause” already reveals two components: the Paschal basis of this “cause” - overcoming death - is, as it were, supplemented (but thereby distorted) by the “Christmas” desire to transform the world through this worldly “resurrection” of the fathers.
Two different mystical landmarks in the world of A. Platonov are guessed in the ingenuous question of Chevengur's "other" about the Soviet star: "why is it now the main sign on a person, and not a cross or a circle." The answer of the communist Pharisee Proshka (“the red star denotes the five continents of the earth, united in one leadership and stained with the blood of life”) does not satisfy “other things”. Chepurny "picked up a star and immediately saw that she was a person who spread her arms and legs to hug another person." The corporality of the star is compared with the cross, which, according to "others", "is also a man."
“Earlier,” according to the Platonic character, “people wanted to hold each other with their hands, and then they didn’t hold on - and their legs unhooked and prepared.” Holding people with the cross (Christian overcoming of death) and "disengaging" the legs, potentially associated in this context with birth, are, in fact, different ways of orienting in the world.
If we try to formulate the main problem of the Platonic cosmos in the language of these symbols, then, apparently, it consists precisely in the fact that the earthly orientation to Birth - a star (albeit to the birth of a new world) - presupposes, first of all, the dominant of human corporeality ("His body is designed for hugs," which is why, by the way, it is body hugs - far from always sexually colored - that occupy such a significant place in the novel). Hence, for example, the characteristics of the women gathered by Proshka, who are simultaneously defined as “parishioners of Chevengur” and “eight-month-old bastards”, who “spent” their body so prematurely that they need a new birth - in the most literal bodily sense (“Let them serve them for the ninth month communism. - And that's right!.. In Chevengur, as if in a warm belly, they will soon ripen, and only then will they be fully born").
The dominance of physicality is also manifested in the terrible scene of the uprooting of crosses in the cemetery. Whereas the Resurrection has a different dominant and requires the overcoming of corporality, inevitably associated with death. To combine both - even within the limits of communism - turns out to be impossible, no matter how you "empty" a place on earth for it. The “circle”, on the other hand, which the “other” also asks about, apparently symbolizes the barren - and indifferent to human suffering - cyclical repetition, which does not imply either a “revolutionary” or an Easter overcoming of corporality.
The plot of Chevengur as a whole does not represent a return of utopia to history, as, for example, Hans Günther believes, but a graceless return to natural cyclicity. The “circle” referred to by the “other” dominates already at the end of the first paragraph of the novel: “they gave him new hoops to fit on the tub, and he was engaged in the construction of a wooden clock, thinking that they should go without winding - from the rotation of the earth.” Tub, hoops, wooden clock; finally, the rotation of the earth - all this is somehow united by the idea of a cycle, a return to the original natural - and not historical - state. The path of Alexander Dvanov is indicated at the very beginning of the novel: "this one will drown out of curiosity." However, dissatisfaction with the Easter overcoming of this cyclicity and the collapse of hopes for a revolutionary "breakthrough", when the "star" had to overcome both the "circle" and the "cross", leads to the entropy of the world.
Contamination within one cultural system of two different archetypal landmarks and the obscurity of the dominant of this system can lead not only to the desired "synthesis", but sometimes is fraught with such a "cultural explosion" that is potentially capable of destroying this cultural system itself.
About the author. Ivan Andreevich Esaulov is a well-known Orthodox scientist, professor at the Russian State University for the Humanities. Theorist and historian of Russian literature. He is the author of the books The Category of Sobornost in Russian Literature and The Paschal Character of Russian Literature. In his writings, I. A. Yesaulov tries to comprehend Russian literature in the context of the Christian tradition and its transformation in the 20th century, and also deals with the theoretical justification of this approach.
Here is an excerpt from the speech of the scientist at the presentation of the book "Easter of Russian Literature" in the Library-Fund "Russian Diaspora" (January 18, 2005). I. A. Esaulov talks about the fundamental differences between the Eastern and Western cultural worlds, about the difference in the worldview of Catholics and Orthodox, based on the predominant emphasis on Christmas or Easter in Catholic and Orthodox dogma.
Christ is born, praise!
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).
This angelic song, heard by the shepherds on the night of the Nativity of Christ, has been sung by the Church of Christ for twenty centuries, beginning every day with such a doxology.
Christ came to earth in order to free us sinners from the power of sin and death, to unite us with Himself and bring us to the abode of eternal life and bliss. To save us, He, the Son of God, took upon Himself our human nature, afflicted by sin. destroyed death and the power of the devil, the prince of this world, and rose from the dead. What remains for us, those who love God and desire eternal life? We were born again in Christ, so that the gift of His life, life according to the commandments of God, would grow in us and inwardly transform us, make us members of the one body of Christ.
On Christmas days, we see on TV screens how people in Russia, who have recently freed themselves from the power of atheists, fill the revived and decorated churches. In our country, the temple is often almost empty, even on major holidays. And this is not because the Los Angeles few Russians Orthodox people. A lot of them! But everyone is busy with something of their own, as in the well-known Gospel parable about those called to the royal feast… But God and the salvation of the soul are far from being in the first place. It is felt that we all need to wake up, to realize how quickly the boat of our life is approaching the threshold where we will have to answer about what good we have done in this life, have we ruined the seeds of a new life, life in Christ? Meanwhile, peace and happiness in our lives are not achieved by vanity and many worries, but by prayer and good deeds.
He figuratively speaks about the purpose of the coming of the Son of God into the world. The good shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep, i.e. angelic world, and goes to the mountains to find his lost sheep - humanity perishing in sin. The great love of the Shepherd for the perishing sheep is especially evident in the fact that, having found it, he took it on his shoulders and carried it back.
The word “backward” means that the incarnated Son of God returns to man that innocence, holiness and bliss that he lost when he fell away from God. And to carry on your shoulders means what the ancient prophet expressed in the following words: “He (Christ) took upon himself our infirmities and bore our diseases” (Isaiah, 54).
Every disciple of Christ must imitate his Master. First of all, the Nativity of Christ teaches us to have mercy on our neighbors. After all, the Lord, out of love for us, descended from heavenly heights and glory into a miserable den. He became like us to make us what he is, not by nature, but by the gift of his grace; humbled Himself even unto death, that He might exalt us even to the heavens; suffered to bring us joy; died to give us life. With His coming into the world, the goal of our existence became possible for a more complete rebirth and transformation of our being by the power of the almighty God.
This communion of the believer to Christ is carried out in the sacrament, when the one who receives His most pure Body and Blood is united with Him in a mysterious way. A person is sick not only spiritually, but also physically. Sin deeply and many-sidedly internally upset our nature. Therefore, Christ needed to heal the whole person, and not just his spiritual part - according to the Savior's words, "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him" (John 6:56). And moreover, speaking of Himself as the Bread of Life, he clearly teaches: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will not have life in you: everyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life. and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:53-55). Thus, our resurrection is placed in an inextricable connection with the union with the God-Man.
At all times of the existence of the Christian faith, the proud human mind rebelled against the revelation of reason, goodness and love given by Christ. And in all ages, with unrelenting force, the confession of the Church rushed from the temples, a triumphant song:
Thy Nativity, Christ our God, rise to the world, the light of reason.
And we confess that where there is love and a thirst for truth, a meeting takes place: "mercy and truth met, righteousness and peace kissed each other - mercy from the earth shone forth, and truth fell down from heaven." For in Him was life, and the life was the light of men... And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1:4-5).
The meaning of the Christmas holiday is precisely in this confession - the Light of Reason, which entered the world and shone in it then, did not leave us, did not go out. Like a ray of light penetrating into the closets of our soul, into our heart and mind, Christ God enters those who love Him. In the remaining time of the Nativity Fast, let us also try to clear our conscience, remember the most important thing in our life - and glorify Christ with a joyful song: Christ is born - praise! Christ on earth - meet! Christ from heaven - ascend! Sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Happy Winter Easter to all of you - happy holiday Christmas. May the light of Christ shine in the soul of each of us!
Amen.
Priest Alexy Chumakov. Rector of the Church of the Intercession Holy Mother of God in Los Angeles (California, USA).
From the parish list of the temple for 2007.
Traditions of Orthodox holidays (Easter and Christmas)
Church holidays are the center of the liturgical life of the Church, with their solemnity they seem to anticipate here, on earth, the future heavenly bliss for the righteous, and the memories associated with these holidays about the Sacred History of our Salvation and about the holy people of God, who showed in themselves the image of holiness and could to say that I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, have an exceptional edifying value for all members of the Church - they teach us how to believe correctly and how we should love God. With its feasts, the Church testifies to its Unity, uniting into one the past history of our Salvation and our present life, the Heavenly Church, made up of triumphant saints, and the earthly Church, of those who repent, are saved and achieve holiness.
The Russian Orthodox Church and other churches using the Julian calendar celebrate January 7 in the Gregorian calendar (in the 20th-21st centuries). In Orthodoxy, it is one of the twelfth holidays and is preceded by the Christmas fast.
The day of the Nativity of Christ has since ancient times been ranked by the Church among the great twelve feasts, in accordance with the Divine testimony of the Gospel, which depicts the celebrated event as the greatest, most joyful and wonderful. According to the Divine testimony of the Gospel, the Fathers of the Church in their God-wise writings depict the feast of the Nativity of Christ as the greatest, universal and most joyful, which serves as the beginning and foundation for other holidays.
In secular culture, Christmas is associated primarily with the Christmas tree, giving gifts and making wishes. The custom of giving gifts at Christmas is strongly encouraged by sellers, which has led to the commercialization of Christmas. In the pre-Christmas period, specialty stores can generate half or more of the rest of the year.
In many countries, Christmas remains public holiday, or this day is declared a holiday. The governments of these countries are criticized for the declarative nature of their adherence to the principles of religious freedom and separation of church and state. Orthodox holidays became part of the culture of the Russian people. Especially noticeable is the rise in interest in the great Christian holidays over the past 10 years. In order to hold a high-quality theme evening, exhibition or other event, you need to be a specialist and know the history, rituals and symbols of the holiday, so we believe that this topic is relevant today.
The Resurrection of Christ - a unique historical event - distinguishes Christianity from any other religion. In other religions, the founders are mortal, while the head of our Church is the resurrected Christ. Christ's Resurrection is the renewal of human nature, the re-creation of the human race, the experience of the Kingdom of God, which has come in power.
In the Church, we constantly preach about the Resurrection of Christ, because it is of great importance for the life of the believer. We will not be mistaken if we compare the Resurrection of Christ with a real upheaval in the universe, because thanks to the Resurrection, man returned to his original place - and even rose even higher. We are talking about the correction, restoration of man, which occurred through the Resurrection of Christ.
The word "Easter" came to us from the Greek language and means "transition", "deliverance". On this day, we celebrate the deliverance through Christ the Savior of all mankind from slavery to the devil and the gift of life and eternal bliss to us. Just as our redemption was accomplished by Christ's death on the cross, so eternal life is granted to us by His Resurrection.
Almost all Easter traditions originated in worship. Even the scope of Easter festivities is associated with breaking the fast after Great Lent - the time of abstinence, when all holidays, including family ones, were transferred to the celebration of Easter. Everything that expresses Renewal (Easter streams), Light (Easter fire), Life (Easter cakes, eggs and hares) becomes symbols of Easter.
On Easter, as on the most important holiday of the church year, a particularly solemn service is celebrated. It was formed in the first centuries of Christianity as baptismal. Most of the catechumens after the preparatory fast were baptized on this special day.
In addition, Sunday is also called the holy and appointed day, since it was on this day that all the great Lord's feasts took place. The Church Fathers believe that the Annunciation of the Virgin, the Nativity of Christ and the Resurrection - the main events of the life of Christ - occurred on the same day of the week. On the same day, the Second Coming of Christ should take place and, of course, the general resurrection of the dead. Therefore, Christians attach such great importance and importance to Sunday, and also strive to sanctify it in every possible way. In addition to the annual Easter, there is also a weekly Easter - the so-called small Easter, the luminous day of resurrection.
It can be seen from the liturgical texts that the celebration of the Resurrection begins on Holy Saturday. This is evidenced by the Great Saturday Divine Service, as well as the sermons of the Holy Fathers, which on this day are dedicated to the resurrection and victory.
This can also be seen from the icon-painting tradition. The canonical icon of the Resurrection of Christ is an image of His descent into hell. Of course, there are icons of the Resurrection, which depict the appearance of Christ to the myrrh-bearing women and disciples. However, in the true sense, the icon of the Resurrection is the image of the contrition of death, when the soul of Christ, united with the Divine, descended into hell and freed the souls of all who were there and awaited Him as the Savior. “We celebrate the mortification of death, but hellish destruction,” we sing in the church. The resolution of hell and the mortification of death is the deepest meaning of the holiday.
Since ancient times, the Church has developed a tradition of performing the Easter service at night; or in some countries (for example, Serbia) in the early morning - at dawn.
Starting from Easter night and the next forty days (until Easter is given away), it is customary to celebrate Christ, that is, to greet each other with the words: “Christ is Risen!” - “Truly Risen!”, while kissing three times. This custom comes from apostolic times: "Greet one another with a holy kiss."
Easter fire plays a big role in worship, as well as in folk festivals. It symbolizes the Light of God, enlightening all nations after Christ's Resurrection. In Greece, as well as in large cities of Russia, in Orthodox churches, before the start of the Easter service, believers wait for the Holy Fire from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. In the event of a successful arrival of fire from Jerusalem, the priests solemnly carry it to the temples of the city. Believers immediately light their candles from him. After the service, many take the lamp with fire home, where they try to keep it alive for a year.
In Catholic worship, before the start of the Easter service, Easter is lit - a special Easter candle, the fire from which is distributed to all believers, after which the service begins. This candle is lit at all services of the Easter week.
In pre-revolutionary times in Russia, and in the West, to this day, a large fire is lit on the temple grounds. On the one hand, the meaning of a bonfire, like that of an Easter candle, is that fire is Light and Renewal. An Easter fire is also lit for the symbolic burning of Judas (Greece, Germany). On the other hand, those who left the temple or did not reach it can warm themselves near this fire, therefore it is also a symbol of the fire at which Peter warmed himself. In addition to the light illumination of bonfires and fireworks, all sorts of firecrackers and "crackers" are used to make the holiday solemn.
During Holy Saturday and after the Easter service in churches, they consecrate Easter cakes, Easter cottage cheese, eggs and everything that is prepared for festive table for breaking the fast after Lent. Easter eggs believers give each other as a symbol of the miraculous birth - the Resurrection of Christ. According to Tradition, when Mary Magdalene presented an egg as a gift to Emperor Tiberius as a symbol of the Resurrection of Christ, the emperor, having doubts, said that just as an egg does not turn red from white, so the dead do not rise. The egg immediately turned red. Although eggs are dyed in different colors, traditional is red, as the color of life and victory. In the icon-painting tradition, the resurrected Christ, as well as during the Transfiguration, is surrounded by radiance in the form of an oval. This figure, close in shape to an egg, among the Hellenes (Greeks) meant a miracle or a riddle, in contrast to the correct symmetrical circle.
In the Orthodox tradition, artos is consecrated on Easter - leavened bread of special consecration. Those who could not take communion on Easter could feel unity through eating the common bread. Now artos is distributed to believers for storage at home for a year, in emergency cases it is used as an antidor (lit. (Greek) “in place of communion”), it is customary to eat it on an empty stomach in case of illness. The symbol of unity moved to Easter cakes and Easter cakes (not to be confused with the name of the holiday "Easter")
On the cottage cheese Easter, as a rule, they put seals with the letters "ХВ" and a lamb. The symbol of Easter is a lamb, in the form of which a cake is usually baked in Russia. They try to finish preparing the Easter table on Maundy Thursday, so that nothing distracts from the services of Good Friday, the day of the removal of the Holy Shroud and prayer.
Immediately before Easter, the Orthodox gather in the church, from where the religious procession begins at midnight with loud singing of the stichera of the holiday. Then the procession approaches the doors of the temple and the service of Paschal Matins begins. In Russia, as well as in other Orthodox countries, after the silence of the bells during Passion Days on Easter itself, the blagovest is especially solemnly rung. Throughout Bright Week, anyone can climb the bell tower and ring in honor of Christ's Resurrection.
The color scheme of liturgical vestments consists of the following primary colors: white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, black. All of them symbolize the spiritual meanings of the celebrated saints and sacred events. On Orthodox icons, colors in the depiction of faces, robes, objects, the background itself, or “light”, as it was accurately called in antiquity, also have a deeply symbolic meaning. The same applies to wall paintings, decoration of temples. Based on established traditional colors modern liturgical vestments, from the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures, the works of the holy fathers, from the surviving examples of ancient painting, one can give general theological interpretations of the symbolism of color.
Church liturgical literature keeps complete silence about the symbolism of flowers. The icon-painting "facial originals" indicate what color of robes should be written on the icons of this or that holy person, but do not explain why. In this regard, the "decoding" of the symbolic meaning of flowers in the Church is rather difficult. Some Scripture Directions. The Old and New Testaments, the interpretations of John of Damascus, Sophronius of Jerusalem, Simeon of Thessalonica, creations that are associated with the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, some remarks in the acts of the Ecumenical and Local Councils make it possible to establish the key principles for deciphering color symbolism. The works of modern secular scientists also help this. Many valuable indications on this subject are contained in the article of our domestic scientist V.V. Bychkov "Aesthetic meaning of color in Eastern Christian art". The author bases his conclusions on the data of history, archeology and interpretations of the above teachers of the Church. N.B. builds his work on other sources. Bakhilin. The material for her book is the Russian language in the monuments of writing and folklore from the 11th century. up to the present. The remarks about the symbolic meaning of colors by this author do not contradict Bychkov's judgments, and in some cases directly confirm them. Both authors refer to extensive research literature.
The interpretation of the main meanings of colors in church symbolism, proposed below, is given taking into account modern scientific research in this area.
In the established canon of church liturgical vestments, we essentially have two phenomena - White color and all seven primary colors of the spectrum from which it consists (or into which it decomposes), and black as the absence of light, a symbol of non-existence, death, mourning or renunciation of worldly fuss and wealth. N. B. Bakhilina notes in this book that in the minds of Russian people from ancient times, black had two different symbolic meanings.
He, in contrast to white, meant something belonging to the "dark forces", death in one sense and monastic clothes as a sign of humility and repentance - in another.
The spectrum of sunlight is the colors of the rainbow. The seven-color rainbow is also the basis colors ancient icons. The rainbow, this amazing beauty of its phenomenon, was presented by God to Noah as a sign of "an everlasting covenant between God and between the earth and between every living soul in all flesh that is on earth" (Gen. 9, 16). A rainbow, like an arc or a bridge thrown between some two shores or edges, also means a connection between the Old and New Testaments and a “bridge” between temporary and eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Gold, due to its solar brilliance, is in church symbolism the same sign of Divine light as white. It also has a special semantic meaning - royal glory, dignity, wealth. However, this symbolic meaning of gold is spiritually combined with its first meaning as an image of "Divine Light", "Sun of Truth" and "Light of the World". The Lord Jesus Christ is “Light from Light” (God the Father), so that the concepts of the royal dignity of the Heavenly King and the Divine light inherent in Him are united at the level of the idea of the One God in the Trinity, the Creator and the Almighty.
V.V. Bychkov writes about it in this article: “Light played an important role at almost any level of Eastern Christian culture. The whole mystical path of "knowledge" of the root cause in one form or another was associated with the contemplation of the "Divine Light" in oneself. The "transformed" person was conceived as "enlightened". Light, lighting, lighting of various lamps and candles at certain moments of the service, lighting motifs - all this had great importance in the structure of worship - the liturgical way of communion with higher knowledge.
The same V.V. Bychkov notes and emphasizes that in icon painting the Divine light was symbolized not only by gold, but also by white, which means the radiance of eternal life and purity, as opposed to the black color of hell, death, spiritual darkness. Therefore, in icon painting, only the images of the cave were painted over with blackness, where the Born Infant of God rests in white shrouds, the coffin from which the resurrected Lazarus emerges in white shrouds, the hole of hell, from the depths of which the righteous are exterminated by the Resurrected Christ (also in white shrouds). And when it was necessary to depict something on the icons that had a black color in everyday earthly life, they tried to replace this color with some other. For example, black horses were painted blue.
It should be noted that, for a similar reason, brown was also avoided in ancient icon painting, for it is essentially the color of "earth" and dirt.
And when on ancient icons we meet sometimes Brown color, then one can think that the painter still had in mind a dark yellow, ocher color, sought to convey some kind of corporality, but not earthly, damaged by sin.
As for the pure yellow color, in icon painting and liturgical vestments it is predominantly a synonym, an image of gold, but in itself, it does not directly replace the white color, as gold can replace it.
There are three independent colors in the rainbow of colors, from which the other four are usually formed. These are red, yellow and blue (blue). This refers to the dyes that were usually used in the old days in icon painting, as well as the dyes that are most common in the everyday life of modern painters, “ordinary”. For many modern chemical dyes can give completely different, unexpected effects when combined. In the presence of "ancient" or "ordinary" dyes, the artist can, having red, yellow and blue paints, get green, purple, orange, blue by combining them. If he does not have red, yellow and blue colors, he cannot get them by mixing colors of other colors. Similar color effects are obtained by mixing radiation of different colors of the spectrum with the help of modern devices - colorimeters.
The seven primary colors of the rainbow (spectrum) correspond to the mysterious number seven, put by God in the orders of heavenly and earthly existence, - the six days of the creation of the world and the seventh - the day of the Lord's rest; Trinity and Four Gospels; the seven sacraments of the Church; seven lampstands in the heavenly temple. And the presence of three non-derivative and four derivative colors in paints corresponds to the ideas about the uncreated God in the Trinity and the creation created by Him.
The feast of holidays - Easter of Christ begins in white vestments as a sign of the Divine light that shone from the Tomb of the Resurrected Savior. But already the Paschal liturgy, and then the whole week, are served in red robes, marking the triumph of God's inexpressible fiery love for the human race, manifested in the Redeeming Feat of the Son of God. In some churches, it is customary at Easter Matins to change vestments for each of the eight canons, so that the priest appears each time in robes of a different color. It makes sense. The play of rainbow colors is very appropriate for this celebration of celebrations.
Sundays, the memory of the apostles, prophets, saints are celebrated in golden (yellow) robes, since this is directly related to the idea of Christ as the King of Glory and the Eternal Bishop and those of His servants who in the Church marked His presence and had the fullness of grace the highest degree of the priesthood.
The holidays of the Mother of God are marked by the blue color of the vestments because the Ever-Virgin, the chosen vessel of the grace of the Holy Spirit, was twice overshadowed by His influx - at the Annunciation and at Pentecost. Denoting the purely spirituality of the Most Holy Theotokos, the blue color at the same time symbolizes Her heavenly purity and purity. Blue is also a color of high energy, which corresponds to the idea of the power of the Holy Spirit and His action.
But on icons, the Mother of God, as a rule, is depicted in a purple (dark red, cherry) veil, worn over dark blue or green robes. The fact is that purple robes, crimson, along with gold, were in ancient times the clothes of kings and queens. Iconography in this case denotes by the color of the veil that the Mother of God is the Queen of Heaven.
If the spectrum of sunlight is presented in the form of a circle so that its ends are connected, then it turns out that the violet color is the mediastinum of two opposite ends of the spectrum - red and blue (blue). In paints, violet is the color formed by combining these two opposite colors. Thus, the violet color combines the beginning and end of the light spectrum. This color is adopted by the memories of the Cross and Lenten services, where the sufferings and the Crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ are remembered for the salvation of people. Purple strikes with deep spirituality. As a sign of higher spirituality, in combination with the idea of the Savior's feat on the cross, this color is used for the bishop's mantle, so that the Orthodox bishop, as it were, is clothed entirely in the feat of the cross of the Heavenly Hierarch, whose image and imitator the bishop is in the Church. The purple skufis and kamilavkas of the clergy have similar semantic meanings.
On the feasts of the martyrs, the red color of liturgical vestments was adopted as a sign that the blood shed by them for faith in Christ was evidence of their fiery love for the Lord "with all their heart and with all their soul." Thus, the red color in church symbolism is the color of limitless mutual love God and man.
The green color of vestments for the days of memory of ascetics and saints means that the spiritual feat, killing the sinful principles of the lower human will, does not kill the person himself, but revives him by combining with the King of Glory (yellow color) and the grace of the Holy Spirit (blue color) to life eternal and renewal of all human nature.
The white color of liturgical vestments is adopted on the feasts of the Nativity of Christ, Theophany, the Annunciation because, as noted, it marks the uncreated Divine Light that comes into the world and sanctifies the creation of God, transforming it. For this reason, white robes are also served on the feasts of the Transfiguration and Ascension of the Lord.
The white color is also adopted for commemoration of the dead, because it very clearly expresses the meaning and content of the prayers for the dead, in which they ask for repose with the saints for those who have departed from earthly life, in the villages of the righteous, clothed, according to Revelation, in the Kingdom of Heaven in the white robes of Divine light.
Thus, Easter is the oldest Christian holiday; main holiday liturgical year. Established in honor of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Almost all Easter traditions originated in worship. Even the scope of Easter festivities is associated with breaking the fast after Great Lent - the time of abstinence, when all holidays, including family ones, were transferred to the celebration of Easter. Everything that expresses Renewal (Easter streams), Light (Easter fire), Life (Easter cakes, eggs and hares) becomes symbols of Easter. Christmas is one of the main Christian holidays, established in honor of the birth in the flesh of Jesus Christ from the Virgin Mary. Celebrated on December 25th. The Russian Orthodox Church and other churches using the Julian calendar celebrate January 7 in the Gregorian calendar (in the 20th-21st centuries). In Orthodoxy, it is one of the twelfth holidays and is preceded by the Christmas fast. In secular culture, Christmas is associated primarily with the Christmas tree, giving gifts and making wishes. The custom of giving gifts at Christmas is strongly encouraged by sellers, which has led to the commercialization of Christmas. In the pre-Christmas period, specialty stores can generate half or more of the rest of the year.
Catholics and Protestants living according to the Gregorian calendar, as well as local Orthodox churches of the world that adhere toNew Julian calendar, meet on the night of December 24-25, the feast of the Nativity of Christ.
Christmas is one of the most important Christian holidays, established in honor of the birth of the baby Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. Christmas is celebrated in many countries around the world, only the dates and calendar styles (Julian and Gregorian) differ.
The Roman Church established December 25 as a date for the celebration of the Nativity of Christ after the victory of Constantine the Great (c. 320 or 353). Already from the end of the IV century. the whole Christian world celebrated Christmas on this very day (with the exception of the Eastern churches, where this holiday was celebrated on January 6).
And in our time An Orthodox xmas"behind" the Catholic by 13 days; Catholics celebrate Christmas on December 25th, while Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7th.
This happened due to a confusion of calendars. Julian calendar introduced in 46 BC emperor Julius Caesar, adding one more day in February, was much more convenient than the old Roman one, but still turned out to be not clear enough - the "extra" time continued to accumulate. For every 128 years, one unaccounted day ran. This led to the fact that in the XVI century one of the most important Christian holidays - Easter - began to "advance" much earlier due date. Therefore, Pope Gregory XIII undertook another reform, replacing the Julian style with the Gregorian one. The aim of the reform was to correct the growing gap between astronomical year and calendar.
So in 1582 in Europe, a new Gregorian calendar appeared, while in Russia they continued to use the Julian.
In Russia, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1918 However, the church did not approve of this decision.
In 1923 on the initiative of the Patriarch of Constantinople, a meeting was held Orthodox Churches, which decided to correct the Julian calendar. The Russian Orthodox Church, due to historical circumstances, was unable to take part in it. Having learned about the conference in Constantinople, Patriarch Tikhon nevertheless issued a decree on the transition to the "New Julian" calendar. But this caused protests in the church people and the decision was canceled less than a month later.
Together with the Russian Orthodox Church, on the night of January 6-7, the feast of the Nativity of Christ is celebrated by the Georgian, Jerusalem and Serbian Orthodox Churches, Athos monasteries living according to the old, Julian calendar, as well as many Catholics of the Eastern rite (in particular, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church) and part of Russian Protestants.
All the other 11 Local Orthodox Churches of the world celebrate Christmas, like Catholics, on the night of December 24-25, since they do not use the "Catholic" Gregorian calendar, but the so-called "New Julian", which so far coincides with the Gregorian. The discrepancy between these calendars in one day will accumulate by the year 2800 (the discrepancy between the Julian calendar and the astronomical year in one day accumulates over 128 years, the Gregorian - over 3 thousand 333 years, and the "New Julian" - over 40 thousand years).
