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What not to do on Christmas Eve and how to cook a festive dish - soothing. What they do on the evening before Christmas

Christmas Eve, the eve of one of the most long-awaited and brightest holidays in Orthodoxy, this is a very unusual day! After all, it is on January 6 that the whole world freezes in anticipation of a great miracle - the birth of the Son of God. Our ancestors had a lot of troubles associated with this day. It was necessary not only to prepare the Holy Evening with 12 Lenten dishes, but also to devote time to the festive dishes, which were put on the table already on January 7th. Therefore, it was on women's shoulders that all the worries fell. And how can one not forget about oneself in this pre-Christmas mess, not lose the spirit of Christmas, which fills the soul with light?

Very simple. Firstly, we call all those close to us to help during the preparation for the holiday. And secondly, we listen to the advice that your favorite site has collected for you.

What to do on Christmas Eve

It is advisable for girls and women to confess and receive communion before January 6. This rule also applies to men. BUT! Since a woman is more busy preparing food for the holiday, she needs to cleanse her soul and body with the help of confession most of all. It is believed that this will help prepare dishes that will bring health to all households and guests.

On Christmas Eve, it is advisable for women to get up as early as possible. After washing, you need to read the obligatory prayers and, until the household gets up, have time to cook kutya and uzvar. As our ancestors used to say - "until the sun kutya shid, I have to stand on the pokut". By the way, the process of cooking with modern housewives can be greatly facilitated by pouring cold water over both wheat and dried fruits in the evening. If you manage to cook kutya before the whole family wakes up, your house will be prosperous and healthy all year round.

It is imperative to cook holiday dishes in a good mood. And even if you quarreled with someone the day before, be sure to make peace. Christmas is a holiday of reconciliation and belief in a miracle.

Also, on Christmas Eve, women should give up ... coffee. Yes, yes, it is from this drink, beloved by many. The fact is that on January 6, our ancestors did not eat until the first star rose. And since many of us can no longer refuse food (for various reasons, including illness), therefore, you can just make a small gift - give up the usual pleasure for one day. And it will help you fully experience the spirit of Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, women cannot clean the house, otherwise quarrels will arise from scratch. And all preparations should be completed before 15.00. After all, it is from this moment that the preparation for the solemn service begins in the churches.

Also, on January 6, you need to go to church to pray for relatives and friends. Take your spouse, children with you and let it become a family tradition that will unite the family. And even if you don’t last the entire service, don’t worry. On this day, the most important thing is desire!

When setting the table for dinner, be sure to choose the most beautiful tablecloth, arrange the festive dishes and dress yourself so that your spouse gasped with delight. New and elegant clothes for girls are a sure sign that the future husband will be well off. And for married women, this is a guarantee that there will be prosperity in the house all year round.

Also remember that Christmas Eve is a warm holiday and therefore turn off the lights, light candles in the house, filling it with living fire. By the way, our ancestors believed that live fire is also protection from evil spirits.
Be that as it may, let the candles burn in your house on Christmas Eve, the happy laughter of children sounds and the bright Christmas fills hearts with love and mercy. Happy holidays!

And also be sure to find out

, Christmas eve... V Christmas Eve day Orthodox Christians are especially preparing for the upcoming holiday, the whole day is filled with a special festive mood. On the morning of Christmas Eve, at the end of the Liturgy and the following evening, a candle is brought to the center of the church and the priests sing in front of it. troparion to the Nativity of Christ... Services and post Christmas eve have a number of features, so it is on these days that many questions come to our site about how to properly spend Christmas Eve. We asked Priest Alexander Ilyashenko to answer these questions. - Father Alexander, the most frequently asked question by our readers is how to fast on Christmas Eve, until when should you refrain from eating food? What does “fasting to the first star” mean? Is the measure of abstinence the same for those who work and those who do not work on this day? How long is fasting before communion?This year, Christmas Eve falls on Saturday, so the Royal Hours are celebrated on Friday. On Christmas Eve itself, the fast is no longer as strict as on the preceding days of the most severe week.

Indeed, the Typikon prescribes fasting until the end of Vespers. However, the Vespers service is combined with the Liturgy, it is served in the morning, and therefore we fast until the moment when a candle is brought out to the center of the church and the troparion to the Nativity of Christ is sung before the candle.

It is obvious that the people in the temple are fasting, many on this day. It is good if those who cannot attend church services, who work, honor this day with stricter fasting. We remember that, according to the Russian proverb, "A full belly is deaf to prayer." Therefore, a stricter fast prepares us for the coming joy of the holiday.

Those who partake at the night Liturgy, according to church tradition, eat their food for the last time no less than six hours before the time of Communion, or from about 6 pm. And here the point is not in the specific number of hours, that 6 or 8 hours need to be fasted and not a minute less, but in the fact that a certain border is established, a measure of abstinence, which helps us to comply with the measure.

- Father, many questions come from sick people who cannot observe fasting, they ask what they should do?

Sick people, of course, should fast as long as it is consistent with medication and with the prescriptions of doctors. This is not about putting a weak person in a hospital, but about strengthening the person spiritually. The disease is already. And here a person should already try to determine the measure of fasting according to his strength. Any thing can be brought to the point of absurdity. For example, imagine that a priest who comes to give communion to a dying person will ask when the person last ate ?!

- As a rule, believers try to meet them at the night festive liturgy. But in many churches there is also an All-Night Vigil and Liturgy at the usual time - 5 pm and in the morning. In this regard, it is often asked, is it not a sin for a young man, not weak, without children, to go to the service not at night, but in the morning?

Attending a night service or morning service is something you have to watch. Celebrating a holiday at night is, of course, a special joy: both spiritual and spiritual. There are very few such services per year; in most parish churches, night liturgies are served only during and - traditionally, especially solemn services are performed at night. For example, on Athos, Sunday all-night vigils are served at night. And still, there are not so many such services, just over 60 per year. The Church establishes this, taking into account human capabilities: the number of night vigils per year is limited.

Solemn night services contribute to a deeper prayer experience and perception of the Holiday.

- The festive Liturgy is over, the festive feast begins. And here we are asked two questions. First, is it okay to celebrate Christmas first in the ward instead of having a family celebration right away?

- The second question is related to the fact that on Christmas Liturgy many take communion. And people feel some embarrassment: you have just received communion, in the books of the holy fathers it is written that in order to retain grace, you need to try to protect yourself from conversations, especially laughter, and try to spend time after communion in prayer. And then a festive feast, even with brothers and sisters in Christ ... People are afraid of losing their prayer mood ..

The rules that the hermitage fathers proposed to the monastics cannot be fully transferred to worldly life, all the more so, they cannot be transferred to major holidays. We are talking about ascetics, ascetics, especially richly endowed with the gifts of God. For them, the outer part is secondary. Of course, the spiritual life is in the first place for the laity as well, but here we cannot draw the same clear line between the spiritual and the earthly.

The Apostle Paul commanded us “ Always rejoice. Incessantly pray. In everything give thanks to the Lord ”(1 Thess 5: 16-18). If we celebrate the holiday with joy, prayer and gratitude to God, then we are fulfilling the apostolic covenant.

Of course, this issue needs to be considered individually. Of course, if a person feels that during a noisy celebration he is losing his gracious mood, then perhaps he should sit down at the table for a while, leave earlier, retaining spiritual joy.

- Father Alexander, is it not worth it to distinguish between us in ourselves two states - when we are really afraid to splash the feeling we received in the church, and when by our refusal to participate in the holiday we can grieve our neighbors, and often we refuse joint joy with a non-peaceful heart. Relatives resigned themselves to the fact that their zealous family member flatly refused to celebrate the new year with them, it would seem that the fast is over, the person should “return” to the family, share the joy of the holiday together, and he slams the door again and says “What a“ sit with us ", I have a great holiday, such grace, I will lose all my prayer mood with you !!"

In this case, a person is unlikely to harm his prayer state, since such behavior suggests that a person does not dwell in him. The state of contemplation, prayer is always associated with a surge of spiritual joy, grace, which the Lord generously pours out on his slaves. And this attitude towards others is more like hypocrisy and pharisaism.

- Is it obligatory to attend the evening service on the day of the holiday itself - the evening of the holiday of Christmas?

- Everyone should decide for himself. After the night service, you need to recuperate. Not everyone, because of their age, health and spiritual level, is able to go to the temple and take part in the service. But it must be remembered that the Lord rewards every effort that a person makes for his sake.

The evening service on great holidays this day is not long, especially spiritual, solemn and joyful, the Great Prokeimenon is proclaimed at it, so, of course, it is good if you manage to visit it.

Congratulations to all readers of our site with the future the feast of Christ's Nativity!

Questions were prepared by Lydia Dobrova and Anna Danilova

On the eve of Christmas, Orthodox people celebrate Christmas Eve. This day is the concluding Christmas fast, which lasts four weeks. From the very morning until 6 pm, Orthodox Christians should completely refrain from consuming any food and alcohol until the ascent of the first star. This star symbolizes that Jesus was born.

Since ancient times, people have piously believed that as the feast of Nativity of Christ passes, this will be the whole next year. It is not surprising that many modern people are interested in the question: "what can be done on Christmas Eve before Christmas and what is not."

On the eve of any holiday, many people want to put their house in order: wash things, clean the apartment, take out all the trash, get rid of old and unnecessary things.

Orthodox traditions strictly forbid doing all household chores on Christmas Eve.

- On this day, the soul of every person is preparing for the birth of Jesus. During fasting and on January 6, it is especially impossible to swear, take offense, express negative emotions towards another person.
- On January 6, you should also refrain from any homework: washing and cleaning, sewing, embroidering, replanting indoor plants, etc. It is not even recommended to cook food on this day; it can be prepared in advance - on January 5th.
- Until the end of the Liturgy, you must not eat or drink alcohol in the church.
- All day on January 6, you cannot sweep the house and even more so take out the garbage from it. For a long time, people believed that on Christmas Eve the souls of deceased relatives come, who gather in the corners of the apartment. And only after Holy Baptism do they return back to heaven.

In order for the Christmas holiday, like the whole next year, to become bright and joyful, all homework, including the preparation of 12 dishes, should be done on January 5th.

What to do on Christmas Eve

On the afternoon of January 6, every Orthodox person must go to church for communion and services. It is very important to cleanse your soul before the birth of Christ, ask for forgiveness, and sincerely repent of all your sins. Fasting is an important stage on the eve of the sacrament. If a person finds it difficult to fast for all 4 weeks, they should adhere to it for at least a few days before Christmas Eve. It is very important during this period to monitor your thoughts, actions and emotions.

There are many beliefs about what can be done on Christmas Eve and what is strictly prohibited. Each nation, based on its faith, comes up with different traditions and customs. But if a person considers himself Orthodox and wants to adhere to important church rules, one should know that it is strictly forbidden to wash and clean on Christmas Eve, no matter how much you want to. Even such a harmless action as sweeping the floor can bring misfortune and illness to a person.

Numerous customs on this day help to solve various issues, for example: getting rid of debts, finding a job, establishing relationships with loved ones or bosses. Since ancient times, people have believed in the mighty power of this day and try to use it for their own good.

Since ancient times, on Christmas Eve, after dinner, they took the leftover food out into the street and left it to those in need, or distributed it on their own. There is a belief that those deceased relatives who died hungry satisfy their hunger that evening.

On the eve of Christmas, you cannot borrow bread, salt and money, this can lead to the fact that the whole next year the family will spend in poverty and hunger.

You should not wear black or dark clothes for a festive dinner and on Christmas Eve, so as not to incur trouble and troubles.

Also, many girls are worried about the question: "is it possible to wash your hair on Christmas Eve?" On this day, as on Christmas Day, it is forbidden to wash and cut your hair.

The days on the eve of big Christian holidays have long been considered special, and almost as many signs, rules and traditions are associated with them, as with Christmas and Epiphany itself. The custom on Christmas Eve before Christmas and the Baptism of the Lord to conduct magical rituals and fortune-telling came to us through the centuries from the era of pre-Christian Russia, when people celebrated Kolyada on January 7, and on January 19 - the last day of winter Christmastide. Our contemporaries, studying the traditions of the Russian people and practicing magic, argue that Christmas Eve before Epiphany and the evening before Christmas are really special days. At this time, the line between our and the other world is thinning, and prayers, conspiracies and questions about the future will surely be heard by higher powers. But what to do on Christmas Eve before Christmas so as not to anger the higher powers and enlist their support for a whole year, and what do they do on the day before Epiphany? What fortune telling on January 6 and 18 is the most accurate, and is it possible to guess on the evening of January 18?

What to do and how to behave on Christmas Eve before Christmas: traditions and signs

The signs of our people speak in great detail about what to do on Christmas Eve before Christmas in order to attract happiness and prosperity to the house. Earlier in Russia, people observed a number of conventions and rules, ranging from the subtleties of cooking on Christmas Eve and ending with observing the weather and the behavior of animals on that day. Some of these signs and rules have been forgotten today, some are completely inappropriate for residents of modern cities, but still there are signs that come true among modern people.

  • If it snows on Christmas Eve, then next year will be fruitful.
  • If you start dinner before the first star lights up (and the fast ends), you can call yourself unhappiness.
  • If on Christmas Eve he washes or cleans the house or yard, he will be forced to do a lot of dirty work in the coming year.
  • If the kutia for dinner on Christmas Eve turned out to be tasty and lush, it means that the family will have peace and prosperity all year round
  • If you light a fire in the courtyard (or candles in the house) after the first star appears in the sky, you can bring good luck to the house and receive a blessing from higher powers for a year
  • If on the day before Christmas the domestic dog howled, there will be trouble (you can protect yourself from trouble if you immediately release the dog from the leash and say "as long as the leash does not hold you, it would be dashing for my house")
  • Good deeds done on Christmas Eve will return a hundredfold.

Dos and Don'ts on Christmas Eve

For centuries, the people noticed that people who performed certain actions on Christmas Eve, then, for a whole year, are haunted by failures and misfortunes. Therefore, an unwritten set of prohibitions and warnings was compiled regarding the conduct of January 6th. And according to popular beliefs, in order not to anger the higher powers, the following should not be done on this day:

  • Do any dirty work (wash, clean up, take out the trash)
  • Spin and weave
  • Cutting hair
  • Borrow food or money
  • Swear, argue and swear
  • Sit at the table in black clothes.

Folk fortune telling: What to do on Christmas Eve before Christmas

The time after dark on the eve of Christmas in Russia was considered the best for fortune-telling. From an early age, people knew what to do on Christmas Eve before Christmas and what folk fortune-telling to use to find out the name of the betrothed, to get an answer about whether the next year will be happy and what to expect in the near future. Young girls, married women, and even some men wondered on Christmas Eve.

But most often girls and women guess on the night of January 6-7, and most of the fortune-telling concerns relationships with men and personal life. But also on Christmas Eve, you can guess about the future. Professional fortune-tellers and fortune-tellers argue that if on other days of the year an ordinary person is unlikely to get an accurate and reliable answer to his question, then on Christmas Eve almost any girl can successfully tell fortunes.

Simple and accurate divination on Christmas Eve for women

There are a lot of ways how to guess on Christmas Eve. Some of them are quite complex and require the use of objects of old everyday life, while others are quite suitable for modern conditions. And here are the simplest and most famous folk fortune-telling for the night before Christmas:

  • Divination by the betrothed. After the first star appears in the sky, the girl needs to hang out a bunch of keys from her house outside the window, and sit by the window herself and wait. If she hears that someone is quietly shaking her bunch of keys, then this year she is destined to get married. At the moment when the sound is heard, the girl can ask what the name of her future groom is, and she will be answered.
  • Divination for the future on a spruce branch. It is necessary to take a spruce branch in your hand, hold it over a lit candle, and then say 12 times “Spruce-queen, mother to all trees, I will live a long time or wait for death; wealth or poverty, betrayal or fidelity? " After reading the conspiracy, you need to put the branch under the pillow and go to bed. If the needles remain in place by the morning, this is a sign of well-being and health, and if they crumble, it is a sign of illness or bad news.
  • Divination by desire. This fortune-telling is suitable for those who have a cat or a cat at home. To find out whether a wish will come true or not, you must first carry the animal outside the threshold of the room, and then, after uttering the question, call the purr. If the cat crosses the threshold with his left paw, it means that the dream will soon come true, and if with the right, there will be difficult obstacles on the way to the desired one.

Magic on the eve of Christmas: what to do on Christmas Eve before Christmas to attract happiness (conspiracies and ceremonies)

The night before Christmas is filled with the special magic of the birth of a new life and very strong and clean energy, so it is very important to know what to do on Christmas Eve before Christmas and what conspiracies to read for happiness and prosperity. The magic words spoken at this time have a special power, and our ancestors believed that it was on Christmas Eve that one could conjure happiness for the whole coming year.

Here are some conspiracies to read on Christmas Eve before Christmas.

Conspiracy for good luck, read 3 times: “The star of Bethlehem shines in the sky, proclaims joy to the whole world. The baby Jesus was born, a child is born, happiness for the world awakens. That great happiness and will touch me, in the new year luck will never turn away from me. I will be happy, the servant of God (name), I will be lucky in all matters. Amen".

A conspiracy to protect against trouble and bad news, read three times - before Christmas dinner, after dinner and before bedtime: “On a bright night, on Christmas night. A great miracle is taking place on earth, Jesus Christ is born into the world, appears in the world, all people are saturated with his grace. Divine grace will fall on me to the servant of God (name), it will protect me from any misfortune, from the evil eye, from evil damage it will defend, everything unclean and unkind will fly past me. "

A rite of passage with a conspiracy for wealth. After dinner, the whole family gets together and each family member puts a coin from his pocket or purse into a clay pot with the words “Money to money. The money is coming. We give money to the Dog, the Dog brings money to us. May it be so. And so it will be. " Then the pot must be filled with wax and placed in a secluded place in the house.

Rules for reading conspiracies on Christmas Eve before Christ's Christmas

In order for the conspiracies uttered on the eve of Christmas to work, you need to adhere to a number of simple rules for reading them. These rules are as follows:

  1. Recite the conspiracy by heart, and not read from paper
  2. Read the conspiracy the number of times indicated in the rite, and if this information is unknown - 3, 9 or 12 times
  3. Pronounce all words clearly and clearly
  4. Read the conspiracy only with pure thoughts, do not wish anyone harm
  5. When pronouncing magic words, clearly represent what you want.

What to do on January 18 on Christmas Eve before the Baptism of the Lord - Christian traditions

January 19 is the day of the Baptism of Christ. According to Christian belief, on this day, John the Baptist baptized the Savior in the river, and therefore the water on January 19, water in all natural reservoirs acquires healing properties. Not only Baptism itself, but also its Christmas Eve is an important day for believers. Therefore, Christians will find it useful to know what to do on Christmas Eve before Epiphany and what traditions should be observed.

Both popular beliefs and representatives of the clergy argue that on January 18 it is important to remember the following traditions and rules:

  • In the evening on the eve of Epiphany, it is necessary to prepare kutya and divide it among all family members, and give the rest to pets
  • After dinner on the eve of Epiphany and before the holy water is brought into the house on January 19, nothing can be eaten
  • Women on Christmas Eve before Epiphany are not allowed to do dirty work or wash or rinse their clothes.
  • On the night of January 18-19, you need to pray and ask God about your most cherished desire, and then it will certainly come true
  • Before dinner on Christmas Eve, you need to light candles in front of the icon of John the Baptist, and then the whole family pray to God and ask for his blessing.

In addition to Christian traditions, there are also folk signs about what needs to be done on the eve of the Baptism of Christ. For example, on Christmas Eve evening, our ancestors called frost into the house and offered him food, believing that in this way they would protect the crops from frost. And the girls on January 18 and 19 wondered about love and fate.

What should not be done on January 18 according to Christian canons

According to the canons of Christianity, on Christmas Eve before Epiphany, believers should be moderate in food and in behavior. On this day, you cannot do the following:

  • Throw noisy parties
  • Drink alcoholic beverages
  • Make attempts to look into the future through fortune telling
  • Make a scandal, quarrel and swear
  • There is food of animal origin.

What the Orthodox do on Christmas Eve before the Lord's Baptism: Is it possible to guess on the evening of January 18

The day on the eve of Epiphany, according to Christian tradition, is considered the day of fasting and spiritual cleansing, therefore, on January 18, you need to spend time praying, and also go to church for services. For dinner, the whole family should gather at the Lenten table and thank God for his mercy.

To the question of what Christians do on Christmas Eve before Epiphany and whether they can guess on this day, one can give an unambiguous answer: they devote this day to strengthening their faith and prayers to the Lord, and remember that the church is prohibited from fortune telling. For believers, attempts to look into the future on the eve of Epiphany, as well as on other days, are taboo.

Features of fortune telling in the days before the big Christian holidays

Although the church prohibits fortune-telling on Christmas Eve before Christmas and before Epiphany, only Orthodox Christians adhere to this taboo. In the 21st century, as well as centuries ago, many girls do not ask themselves whether it is possible to guess on January 6 and 18, but try to find out their fate in a variety of folk ways. Moreover, the signs and traditions of the Russian people are entirely on their side - the mystical knowledge that the eves of great holidays are the best days for fortune-telling for the future, originated more than 500 years ago. It is not difficult to find out what to do in order to predict fate and lure luck and prosperity into the house on Christmas Eve before Epiphany and Christmas - on the Internet you can find dozens of rituals and fortune-telling that are held on the eve of these winter holidays. The only thing to remember when deciding to tell fortunes or read conspiracies is that the light magic of the winter holidays will only help those whose intentions and desires are pure and sincere.

The Christian holiday of Christmas is celebrated with reverence both in families of the Orthodox and Catholic faiths. The origins go back more than two thousand years ago, in distant centuries, when the Most Pure Virgin Mary gave the world her son, Jesus Christ. Catholics celebrate the event in December, while the Orthodox do it on the night of January 6-7. But Russia (in the majority) is an Orthodox country, so the Russian people are interested in the question, what do Orthodox families do at Christmas? Baptized Russia always celebrated this holiday cheerfully. She even decorated the Christmas tree, right up to the revolutionary events, which temporarily deprived the country of holy holidays. To the great joy of the Russian people, a little later, they began to dress it up again.

The meaning of the holiday

What do they do for Christmas? From January 6 to January 7, all churches in Russia hold a night service dedicated to the birth of Jesus Christ. In the old days, people did not sit at tables with food until the first star appeared in the firmament. At present, we see this tradition only in the fact that many Russian families sit down at the table on the 7th, after a big service. On the night before Christmas, which must certainly come true.

The Christian holiday of the Savior's birth coincided with the pagan Christmastide, which is why it is always associated with carols and girlish fortune-telling. Christmas is the beginning of 12 Christmastide days, of which every day was lived cheerfully and beautifully. Christmastide ended with Epiphany (January 18).

Ancient traditions and customs of Christmas

Information about what exactly the inhabitants of Russia did for Christmas and what could not be done has reached the present day. The first Christmas days, people laid tables, treated them, everyone had to be surrounded by care and love.

At night, during the service, you had to thank for what you have, pray for what you lacked and be sure to remember the people who had left. In Russia, it was believed that they prayed side by side on this night, and the service for them was conducted by the late priest. In the early days of Christmas time, it was imperative to pay tribute to those who needed and deserved it:

  • The first day was devoted to visiting parents, as well as close and distant relatives within reach. The young people always stayed with their parents for a holiday after the service.
  • On the second day, people visited the weak, old and sick, brought them treats, kutya.
  • The third day was dedicated to orphans, they were treated, given gifts, played.

They did not even forget about those who fell out of decent society, but these were already later days.

After observing the traditions, it was allowed to start festivities and fun. In Russia there was a belief:

"As you spend Christmas days, your year will pass."

That is why people tried to spend their time as joyfully as possible: they rode sledges, triplets. On the main square, merry games were arranged, they sang songs, danced in circles and came up with various games and fun. People of the older generation visited each other, congratulated, gave small gifts, often edible.

What shouldn't be done at Christmas?

  • swear, swear, wish evil on someone (even in jest);
  • hunt, butcher domestic animals;
  • to clean the house, wash the floors, fix and do household chores (the house should already be clean by this time);
  • swim (this must be done in advance);
  • comb your hair, weave braids;
  • fortune-telling and bewitching (more on that below);
  • to engage in love affairs.

Fortune telling and conspiracies as part of history

What else did you do for Christmas and Christmastide days? The answer is simple - they were guessing.

Young girls gathered and divined for grooms, fortune-telling for married people was strictly forbidden. The girls tried to find out the names of the betrothed, the number of children, the presence of love and wealth in marriage.

They took place in the house or in the bathhouse, the girls had to be barefoot, simple-haired, in nightgowns, so traditions of this kind were forbidden for men. It was imperative to take off the pectoral cross, because fortune-telling was equated with a great sin. In many families, it was strictly forbidden.

Another tradition is conspiracies. Many older women are on Christmas Eve and asked to give their families health, prosperity and well-being.

Merry Christmas Carols

They were and remain no less entertaining. Of course, in our time, it is more difficult to carry out such a ceremony, since a large number of cities have appeared. In rural areas, especially when it comes to pre-revolutionary times, carols were a colorful and beloved rite of passage for both children and adults. Carollers, carrying bags of millet, millet and other grain, went from yard to yard. Showering the owners and their house with funny calls a, wished them happiness, wealth, health and fertile land. For example:

"We sow, we sow, we sow, we wish piety."

People wished each other harvest, children, wealth, peace and all the best. In response, the owners treated them to festive food - lush bread, rolls, pies. It was impossible not to treat the caroling man, the owners of the courtyard, who drove away the caroling people, were considered greedy, and the act did not bode well for them. Today, throughout the entire Christmas week, children go to their homes and apartments, recite poems, chants and receive candies and other sweets for their labors.

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Christmas table in Russia

The table was set richly, the owners presented everything the best, after all, beforehand, Orthodox people experienced a fast, which lasted 40 days. does not change, but at different times the table was laid in its own way: some dishes left the life of the Russian people, some came. But, basically, they put:

  • sbiten,
  • steamed vegetables,
  • pies,
  • kurniki,
  • mushrooms,
  • balls were rolled from sweet crumbs, it was a favorite delicacy of children.

Later they began to do, which was treated to the whole Christmastide week. It is believed that Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol described the feast and festive festivities very well. It's right. But, do not forget that these are the traditions of one place: the Ukrainian farm Dykanka and the territory closest to it, as well as one time. Despite the general plot and the meaning of the holidays, in each region they made something of their own, made their own dishes, came up with their own games and calls.

But the main dish was and remains. According to one version, kutia promised health and wealth: a lush, fragrant kutia is good, and a thin, not rising meant not a very good year. According to another version, on Christmastide week they remembered and treated the people who had left. At the table set for the holiday, there must have been extra appliances. One way or another - kutia was a favorite, sweet and warming insides, dish on the festive table, from which to start and finish eating. There were many recipes that included seeds, dried berries, honey, cereals, and butter.

Modern traditions

Nowadays, every Russian family loves and celebrates this event. In the evenings, young girls continue to guess at their betrothed, and count the number of future children. On the night before Christmas, all of Russia makes wishes. Young people meet in the central square, and cultural institutions organize various events and competitions for people of all ages. The city administration decorates the Christmas tree, makes slides and labyrinths so that the holiday is massive.

Only holidays have been reduced, since now the weekend begins with the New Year's feast. Two days after meeting such a bright day as Christmas, people go to work. But after the first working week, they are happy to celebrate the Baptism of Russia, which used to end Christmas festivities.

Nowadays, much attention is paid to gifts. Buying and giving gifts at Christmas has become a modern tradition. The idea was quickly picked up by commercial structures and today we see not only New Year's, but also Christmas gifts on the shelves.