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When are the larks of the year. Larks. History and recipe. Traditions and rituals

Baking cute and funny buns - larks every year, including in 2017, is supposed to be on March 22nd. This is an ancient tradition among Orthodox Christians, the roots of which go back to distant pagan rites. The lark is a symbol of the coming spring, bringing happiness and prosperity to the house. Housewives on the day of the vernal equinox prepared small birds and distributed them to the children. The guys ran with larks in their hands, inviting spring, health, joy and well-being to their families. When are larks baked? They are supposed to be prepared for the day of remembrance of the forty martyrs, soldiers of Sebastia, who suffered for the sake of Christ. The holiday falls on March 22 and is called Magpies (or Larks). This time belongs to Lent, and baked goods are strictly prepared from lean yeast dough.

From a simple and affordable lean dough, larks always turn out to be very tender and fragrant. Baking ingredients include ripe banana and vanillin. This approach to the traditional recipe revives the buns and adds new flavors to them. Banana puree has a positive effect on the quality of the dough, adding juiciness, lightness and fruity taste. Lean larks, lightly garnished with a sprinkle of cane sugar, look magical and delicious.

For the test:

  • fresh yeast - 45 g;
  • sugar - 170 g;
  • vegetable oil (odorless) - 10-11 tbsp. spoons;
  • flour - 6.5 cups (plus 5 tablespoons for rolling);
  • water - 470 ml;
  • banana - 1-2 pcs.;
  • vanillin - to taste;
  • salt to taste.

For decoration:

  • raisins (small) - 3-4 tsp;
  • cane sugar - 2 tbsp spoons;
  • black tea - 1 tsp;
  • water - 100 g (for tea);
  • sugar - 2 tsp (for tea);
  • vegetable oil - 4 tbsp. spoons.

Cooking. Grind the peeled banana into puree.

Heat the water to a temperature that is tolerable for a hand dipped in the liquid. Dissolve yeast in warm water and add sugar and salt there. Add banana mass to the solution. Mix the ingredients well and add half the sifted flour. Stir the dough for 5 minutes and season with vegetable oil. Add the rest of the flour mixed with vanilla to the lean dough. Knead the mass with your hands until an elastic and relaxed state. The dough should come off the walls of the dish and easily come off your hands. Sprinkle it with a little flour. Place the dough to ferment, cover the container with a lid or a towel for 60 minutes.

The finished dough will rise and brighten.

Place the yeast mixture on a floured table and divide into equal strips. Roll them out. The length of the roller should be about 14-15 cm, and the width should be 2 cm.

Tie each strip with a simple "knot". Form a bird's head from one end of the knot and a tail from the other. Fan the tails of the larks with a knife. Attach the raisins - eyes. Line a baking sheet with paper, well oiled on both sides, and place the larks. Let the items sit for 15 minutes.

Brush larks with vegetable oil and brewed black tea. Sprinkle brown sugar over the bird's neck. Bake the pieces until golden brown for about 25-35 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees.

Add a small skillet of water to the electric oven to keep the baked goods from drying out. Finished birds do not need to be kept under a towel. The products remain soft for several days and do not lose their taste.

Serve larks for tea and delight your loved ones with cute and delicious pastries.

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March 22 - Magpies, a holiday of great importance in the church calendar for March 2018. Today is a holiday of 40 Saints, and therefore many are wondering if it is possible to work for 40 Saints, what are the traditions and signs of the day, as well as on the feast of 40 Saints? what not to do. Therefore, the editors WANT decided to devote time to this issue.

Answering the question, what is the church holiday today, we inform you: church holidays in 2017 include one important date - 40 Saints. Regarding the history of the feast of 40 Saints, it is known that the Forty Martyrs of Sebastia were the best squad in the army of the ancient Roman emperor Licinius. The ruler himself was a cruel pagan, a persecutor of the Christian faith and those who tried to preach it. And these forty warriors were bound by love for Jesus Christ, refused all worldly goods, wealth and honors did not agree to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. So, 40 soldiers did not renounce the Christian faith and were killed.

Thus, in the traditions of Christianity, a day appeared when 40 martyrs of Sebastia are venerated.

Customs and traditions on the feast of the forty saints

The Orthodox calendar 2017 in folk traditions is often intertwined with pagan rituals, due to the long existence in the culture of the ancient Slavs. The Feast of 40 Saints is no exception in this regard. So, on March 22, the girls need to break forty wooden dies, break forty ropes - this will drive away the evil spirits that have been chained by frost. Thus, we got rid of winter, paving the way for spring. There is also a tradition on March 22 to swing on a swing - the more you swing and fly higher, the more fruitful the year will be, and people will become happier. March 22 is the feast of Magpies or 40 Saints, and therefore another tradition would also be very appropriate. In honor of spring, on this day, trees are decorated with paper, or rag flowers, bright ribbons, bells, so that spring will quickly come into its own.

Good housewives on this day bake forty buns with honey in the shape of larks. Tradition tells them to distribute them to children so that the poultry on the farm is healthy. Girls also have to show their skills in household chores: cook forty dumplings and treat the guys.

Feast of 40 saints: signs

40 Holy signs indicate that on this day, March 22, winter ends and spring comes. Very often this day coincides with the day of the equinox. In the folk tradition, it is also called Sorochintsy, Soroki, Larks, since after the winter wandering from the south, migratory birds fly to us and bring spring with them. Usually on this day, gardeners can get an answer as to when to start planting seedlings. All signs on this day are usually associated with the weather. So, on this day you can judge the weather for the next 40 days. If it's frosty, then this weather will last another 40 days. If birds arrive, then this is an early warmth.

Feast of 40 saints: what not to do

The church calendar, according to tradition, has its own prescriptions for holding church dates. Therefore, many are interested in whether it is possible to work on the feast of 40 Saints. In general, it is important that on this day you should not be lazy, but rather prepare for spring and appease it with your culinary pastries.

March 22 is the feast of the Forty Holy Martyrs, which is celebrated annually during And this means that on this day the prohibitions are the same as on any day of fasting. The only difference is that you can eat food with vegetable oil. Cahors wine is also allowed on this day. It is also not advisable to work and clean the house on this day. Answering the question whether it is possible to work on the feast of 40 Saints, we inform you that work is prohibited for personal gain, for good purposes it is possible.

Every Orthodox holiday is not complete without prohibitions. Basically, this is a ban on food, thoughts and actions of a person. It is necessary to be with a clean head, not prejudiced, not angry, not sinning, eat only lean food. And it is better to abstain from food on this day altogether - you can sit on dry hunger or at least just drink water all day.

You cannot work on this day. Better to spend it with your family, bake buns in the shape of birds, which heralds the arrival of spring, the awakening of all nature from hibernation.

According to legends, on the feast of 40 saints, you cannot lend money. Also, on this day, you can not clean, wash, sew, make repairs. It is also very important on this day not to quarrel, not to swear.

Or you can go to church that day and pray.

The year when the larks were baked, folk traditions of the feast of the 40 Martyrs of Sebastia.

Larks- this is lean pastry of a peculiar form, which was baked in Russia for the feast of the forty martyrs of Sebastia. This holiday is timeless and is celebrated in the Church in a new style on March 22nd. In 2017, the church celebration of this event is postponed to Tuesday March 21 due to the fact that Wednesday falls on the Adoration of the Cross and has its own special divine service. Making larks with children is a great opportunity to chat and tell them about the holiday.

In the Orthodox tradition, larks symbolize the souls of martyrs flying to God. There is another version of symbolism, when the song of the larks was associated with the prayer of the Sebastian martyrs to the Lord.

Forty Martyrs of Sebastia are Christian warriors who in 320 refused to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods and froze in an icy lake - they were martyred.

Larks were often baked by the whole family. There are several different ways to make these spring birds from dough.

The dough is prepared like this: for 2 kg of flour, 0.5 l of water, 50 g of yeast and 250 g of vegetable oil are taken, 1 glass of sugar and a pinch of salt are added. The dough is thoroughly kneaded and left for 1-2 hours to approach.

The lark dough should be firm and firm. Roll out a roller from it, cut into pieces weighing about 100 g each and roll out bundles from them. Larks can be sculpted in many different ways.

  • The first way. Tie a tourniquet of dough with a knot, shape the head and insert raisins for the eyes, crush the tail a little with your fingers and cut slightly with a knife to simulate feathers. Allow to distance in the product, grease the surface with infusion of strong tea with sugar, bake.
  • Second way. A tourniquet of dough is rolled out so that one end is thinner and the other thicker. Form the head from the thinner end, roll out or knead the larger end with your fingers, divide into three parts, form one tail by cutting into feathers with a knife, and fold the other two onto the back in the form of wings. Do not forget about the raisins - eyes, proofing and smearing with tea with sugar.
  • Third way. Make the tourniquet flat and fold it at an angle not exactly in half. On a corner, form a beak and lay an eye, form a tail from the lower, longer end, and arrange a shorter one like a wing. Be sure to let it stand in the product, grease it with strong sweet tea before putting it in the oven, you can sprinkle it with sugar on top.

There are other options for making larks, including those that use extra pieces of dough.

In 313, the holy emperor Constantine the Great granted Christians freedom of religion. But power in many provinces still belonged to pagans, persecutors of Christians. So it was in the province of Armenia, located on the territory of modern Turkey. Here, in the city of Sevastia, the garrison was commanded by the zealous pagan Agricolaus. And in the winter of 320, he ordered all his soldiers to make sacrifices to idols. Forty people refused, saying that they are Christians and worship only true God, not idols.

Forty Martyrs of Sebastia. A 12th century fresco in the Church of Panagia Forvietis in Aspen. Cyprus. Photo by Igor Samolygo

At first Agricolaus persuaded them, promised a promotion, money. Then he began to threaten with prison and shameful death. But the soldiers rejected all promises and threats, and then the ruler imprisoned them. The prisoners prayed fervently and at night they heard a voice: "He who endures to the end will be saved."

A week later, a noble dignitary, Lysias, arrived in the city and ordered the Christian soldiers to be stoned. But the stones flew off target; a stone thrown by Lysis himself hit Agricolaus in the face. Embarrassed, the torturers returned the prisoners to the prison to think about what to do with them. At night in the dungeon the soldiers again heard the comforting voice of the Lord: “He who believes in Me, even if he dies, will come to life. Dare and do not be afraid, for you will receive the imperishable crowns. "

The next day, the soldiers were tied up and led to a lake near the city of Sevastia. There was a bitter frost that day. The soldiers were ordered to undress and put directly into the icy water. And a bathhouse was heated on the shore, and the torturers said that any of them could immediately warm up in it if he denied Christ. All night long the warriors bravely endured the cold, encouraging each other. They sang psalms despite the pain of frostbite. And this flour is comparable in strength to burns from fire. One of the soldiers, after several hours, could not stand it, ran to the shore, to the bathhouse. But as soon as he entered the threshold of the hotly heated bath, due to the sharp temperature drop, his skin and flesh began to separate, and he died.

The night lasted, and the guards guarding the place of torture fell asleep. Only one of them, Aglai, could not sleep. He was amazed: how can these Christians, in spite of unheard-of torment, not stop praying? At three o'clock in the morning, he saw a bright light pouring over the lake, just like in summer. It got so warm that the ice melted. Aglai was perplexed: what is happening? Looking up, he saw luminous crowns above the heads of the warriors. There were thirty-nine Wentsov, according to the number of martyrs who remained steadfast. Then Aglai threw off his clothes, shouted, waking up the other guards: "And I am a Christian!" - and ran to the martyrs. He prayed: “Lord God, I believe in You, in Whom these soldiers believe. Join me to them, that I may be worthy to suffer with Your servants. "

In the morning, the chiefs of the tormentors returned and saw that the soldiers were still alive, and in addition there was one of the jailers among them! In a rage, Lysias and Agricolaus ordered the martyrs' legs to be killed with hammers to make the suffering unbearable. But even dying of torment, the soldiers did not stop praying and praising the True God.

Lysias ordered the destruction of the remains of the soldiers so that Christians would not honor the relics of the new martyrs. The bodies of the saints were burned at the stake, and the bones were thrown into the river. Three days later, the martyrs appeared in a dream to Bishop Peter of Sebastia and ordered him to take the bones from the river. The bishop and several priests secretly came to the river at night. A miracle: the bones of the martyrs shone like stars in the water! Christians collected the remains of the saints and buried them with honor.

It has long been a custom in Russia on the day of memory of the Sebastian martyrs. Why larks?

The peasants, drawing attention to the fact that the singing lark either soars up, or falls like a stone to the ground, explained this by the special boldness and humility of these birds before God. The lark quickly rushes upward, but, amazed at the majesty of the Lord, it bends downward in deep reverence. So the larks, according to the thought of our pious ancestors, represented a song of glory to the Lord, ascended by the martyrs, their humility and aspiration upward, into the Kingdom of Heaven, to the Sun of Truth - Christ.

The Forty Martyrs of Sebastia is an enduring holiday, traditionally celebrated on the same day - March 22 (new style). If the feast day of the Forty Martyrs of Sebastia coincides with the Wednesday of the Cross, it may be postponed, as happened in 2017. Earlier, in pre-Christian Russia, this day was considered the final date of the beginning of spring. At that time, larks were also baked, but they put a completely different meaning into baking, there were different traditions and "calls" of spring, when it was called in the hope that the warmth would come as soon as possible. The church does not celebrate the day of the vernal equinox, but this day has a new Christian meaning. And the lark began to symbolize the soul that strives for God and bows before the greatness of the Creator. Therefore, the people so love the feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, who endured all the torment to the end and accepted death so as not to betray Christ. On the day of the Forty Martyrs of Sebastia, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is celebrated.

The names of the Forty Martyrs of Sebastia: Cyrion, Candide, Domnos, Isychius, Heraclius, Smaragd, Eunoicus, Ualent (Valens), Vivian, Claudius, Priscus, Theodulus, Eutychius, John, Xanthius, Ilian, Sisinius, Angius, Aetius, Flavius, Akaki, Alexander Ekdiky, Lysimachus, Lysimachus , Eli, Gorgon, Theophilus, Dometian, Gaius, Leonty, Athanasius, Cyril, Sakerdon, Nicholas, Ualerius (Valery), Philoktimon, Severian, Khudion, Meliton and Aglai.

2017, spring holiday March 22 Day of 40 Martyrs of Sebastia, traditions and customs of the national holiday.

In the Russian Orthodox Church, this holiday is timeless and is always celebrated March 22 new style... But in 2017, his church celebration is postponed to March 21 due to the fact that it coincides with the Wednesday of the Cross. On Wednesday, a divine service is performed with the worship of the Cross, and in connection with this, the festive service of the Forty Martyrs of Sebastia is postponed to the previous day. The stove on this day is a beautiful folk tradition, the roots of which go back to the distant past.

In Russia, the custom of baking larks on this day has existed since pre-Christian times. In the national calendar, this day of the vernal equinox was considered the day when spring finally comes into its own. The people noticed that larks from warm regions returned to this day, and other birds flew after them. Birds have always been symbols of the coming of spring. At that time, various rituals for the vocation of spring - the "calls" of spring, were associated with the baking of "larks". The baked birds were seated at the window and given to children to play with. Children attached dough birds to long rods, climbed a hill and chanted rhyming lines calling for spring.

Of course, these customs have nothing to do with the Christian Orthodox tradition. The Church did not include the vernal equinox in its annual circle, but helped the people to fill this day with new meaning. And baked goods in the form of larks began to symbolize the feast of the forty Martyrs of Sebastia., which received the popular name Soroca (stress on the first syllable).

So who are the 40 martyrs of Sebastia and how are they famous?

Forty Christian warriors refused to sacrifice to pagan idols. This happened in 320 in the city of Sevastia, which was on the territory of modern Turkey.

At first they were persuaded and promised benefits, but after the soldiers were zealous in their unwillingness to make sacrifices, they were imprisoned. Later they were taken out to the lake undressed, and at that time it was very cold. They were driven into icy water, and a bathhouse was flooded on the shore. At first all forty people stood huddled together and sang psalms. But after a while one could not stand it and ran to the bathhouse.But as soon as he entered the hotly heated room, he immediately died from the temperature drop.

Night fell, the torturers surrounding the lake saw that the ice around the soldiers had melted, and crowns were shining over their heads. Then one of their guardians glorified God and joined them.

In the morning, all the soldiers were alive, the torturers hastened their death, then they burned their bodies on the shore, and threw their bones into the lake. Soon the local bishop had a vision of this event, and he went to this place. The bishop and priests approached the lake at night, they saw bones at the bottom, which "Shone like stars"... The martyrs were buried with honor.

Why did the larks begin to get involved with this holiday? People living close to nature paid attention to how a singing lark is like a soul soaring to God. And the way he “falls” down like a stone was understood as a special humility of these birds before the Creator. So larks, thought by our pious ancestors, as the personification of the song of glory to the Lord, lifted up by the martyrs, their humility and aspiration upward, into the Kingdom of Heaven, to the Sun of Truth - Christ.