Celebrating the name day. Forgotten traditions

On the night of May 8-9, 1945, the radio announced the military surrender of Nazi Germany. May 9 was declared the Day of National Celebration - Victory Day.

People ran out of their houses, congratulated each other, and then an unplanned festive demonstration took place in honor of the victory over the invaders.

But the first official Parade in honor of the Victory of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War took place on June 24, 1945.

200 fascist standards and banners were thrown at the foot of the mausoleum as a symbol of the victory of the Soviet people over the insidious and cruel enemy. And in the evening there was a festive fireworks display.

The beginning of a significant event that went down in world history was marked by a parade, commanded by Konstantin Rokossovsky. The parade was hosted by Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, one of the most famous military commanders of the 20th century. The parade ended with the famous exit of 200 standard-bearers, each of whom threw the flag of the German army to the Mausoleum, thereby demonstrating the finality and scale of the victory of the Soviet army and the Soviet people. In other cities, festive evening fireworks were held in honor of the great date.

After June 24, 1945, the Victory parades were not held for another 20 years, until 1965. Historians are still arguing about the reasons for their failure. It is likely that the parades were not held for the simple reason that the country's leadership wanted to leave in the people's memory the impressions of the first Victory Parade, truly majestic and unforgettable, for a longer time.

In 1995, a full-fledged celebration of Victory Day was resumed in Russia. That year, two whole parades took place, one of which, on foot, was on Red Square, and the second, with armored vehicles, was held on Poklonnaya Gora. Another official part of the celebration consisted of the obligatory evening fireworks and the laying of wreaths at monuments and memorials.

Concluding the article about the history of the appearance of the holiday, it is worth remembering all those who defended our country in those terrible years. There is still no exact data on the deaths, and the scatter of the numbers makes us only horrified. Various historians call numbers from 15 to 28 million casualties from the military alone, not to mention the incredible number of civilians. But now it is not so important how many people died during the Great Patriotic War, especially since there will never be accurate information. It is much more important to remember this holiday not only as an extra day off.

Today, on April 29, the entire world community, our country and each of its cities celebrated the International Day of Dance. This event is formal in nature, but, despite this, various dance festivals are organized in all corners of the globe. In any case, in our country the tradition of celebrating this event is not only preserved, but also strengthens its position.

The emergence of a holiday

For a long time, the dance did not have a specific official day designated as a holiday. But in 1982, the UNESCO institution decided to agree with the majority of dancers and choreographers from around the world wishing to make a dance day. The UNESCO initiative was not accidental, the idea to endow the art of dancing and all its figures with a festive day came from P.A. Gusev. This famous choreographer, made a proposal to make April 29 the international day of dance. Many believe that such a number was not chosen by Gusev by chance, because the famous choreographer Nover J.J. was born on April 29.

International Dance Day in Russia 2013

If last year the famous dance prize "Soul of Dance", held in Moscow, was specially timed to coincide with the day of dance, today almost every city in Russia celebrated the event with bright and colorful flash mobs. Kazan, Rostov-on-Don, Grozny, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Samara, Saratov - these and many other cities celebrated the international dance festival by organizing interesting festivals and competitions. Of course, depending on the size of the settlement, the level of events also changed, but not a single city was left without a portion of joy and festive mood.

Surprisingly, as soon as Victory Day approaches, a lot of people have been appearing on the Internet for several years now, eager to tell me some real, secret TRUTH. And about that war, and about the victory, and about the holiday, and about the people, and about the country ... well, just about everything, everything, everything.

I just don’t understand what? There are so many phrases that are repeated from year to year by different authors ... And every time someone likes it, someone shares the publication. And where do these tired, all-knowing notes come from among people who, purely physically, could not see those veterans about whom they write so emotionally that, they say, “they silently drank a glass of vodka for victory” and did not like to remember? Simply because they did not find the time when these same veterans were in their early forties, and May 9 was neither a "national holiday" nor just a day off.
And all the same, in my childhood, on that day, the entire courtyard of our house at the 22nd entrance walked - drank, sang, remembered ... What does the veteran have to do with it - not a veteran? Yes, everyone had not yet had time to forget what that war was: those who in summer dresses for two or three months traveled to Siberia to evacuate, and who survived in Leningrad during the blockade, and who worked in the barracks for months on defense factories, and they saw their own children at the entrance, and everyone who starved, starved, starved, fled, fled, fled, huddled, survived, received funerals ...
All of them were birthday people that day.
I remember all my childhood from everywhere and for any reason: "Only there would be no war."
Who of the current denunciators of the “pompous” processions of the “Immortal Regiment” and the “semi-official” St. George ribbons remember that it was the authorities who did everything to make the people forget that war as soon as possible? And for twenty years he remembered and remembered everything, and told his children - and so often and in detail that these memories for us, children, became, as it were, our own.
And not about parades and fireworks, but about the very TRUTH, to which we are now so persistently trying to open our eyes.
But the truth is, it is that Victory Day is a holiday of all the people, just like that war was a war of the whole people, because there was not a single person in the country, young and old, whoever it touched. And he was born from within this people, not by order or directive, not by the will of the authorities. And when, twenty years later, the authorities realized themselves and decided to join, they could no longer spoil anything. And when today my younger friends on Facebook begin to tell me, “that real veterans, participants in that terrible war, never radiated joy on this day, they did not jump or laugh - they quietly recalled horror, fear, pain, death , recalled the faces and last words of their dead comrades, ”I think about my neighbor. She went to the front at the 41st, at the age of eighteen. Scout communications officer. In that first terrible winter near Moscow, she went to the front line several times. The last time he and his girlfriend were covered with mortar fire in no man's land. How they crawled to ours through the snow in the bitter frost with their legs excised by fragments is a separate story. Then the hospital, amputation of both legs - one above the knee, the other below. A girl, 18 years old ... “I was so happy that I was alive,” she told me, “that the head physician asked me to visit other wounded people more often in order to… well, to cheer them up, or something.” An ordinary Soviet woman. Engineer. She had a family, two children.


Participants of folk festivals in the Central Park of Culture and Leisure named after Gorky on Victory Day. 1987 year. Author V. Sobolev.
Yes, my dad said almost nothing about his last fight, in which his left arm was shattered. And what is there to tell? “A company of machine gunners was ordered to occupy the village of Luzhki. The department commanded by Comrade Borisov, infiltrated the village of Luzhki in order to create panic. In the village of Luzhki, the squad destroyed a machine-gun point with its crew, fired at two vehicles with people leaving the village, and captured two German soldiers with a heavy machine gun. Comrade Borisov and the Red Army soldier went to the highway to break the connection, but they were found and fired at from the bunker with machine-gun fire ... "
He was also eighteen then.
But about how he almost ran away with the Moscow militia in the summer of 1941, he said ... And about training, and about how in the forest near Smolensk in the summer of 1943 they gathered nettles for cabbage soup from hunger ... Recently, in the same Facebook ", I read surprisingly correct words:" May 9 became the main national holiday, because it is about death and resurrection: the country, the people, about "trampling death by death." May 9 is civil Easter. "


"Immortal regiment" of the village of Zhostovo. Photo by Vladimir Yestokin
By the way, the "Immortal Regiment" was also not invented in Moscow offices, but in Tyumen. Back in 2007. And now it has spread all over the world ...

Good afternoon, dear visitor. In this post I continue what I started earlier. I propose to start by going back in time and remembering forgotten traditions, namely, how our ancestors celebrated the name day. Do you know that in the old days in Russia the day of the angel was considered more important than the birthday?

Various chronicles describe that until the 17th century in Russia, the name day was celebrated with prayer and communion in the Temple. Then domestic rituals were added to the church rituals.

The birthday boy's morning still began with a trip to church, where he went with his family. There he received communion, lit candles, kissed the icon of his heavenly patron, and his relatives ordered a prayer service for his health.

On the eve of the holiday, the family of the hero of the occasion brewed beer, baked rolls and loaves for him. This is where, it turns out, went "... we baked a loaf ...."

In the afternoon, birthday pies were distributed to friends and family right to their homes. As far as possible, the cake was given an original shape: an oval, an octahedron, an elongated rectangle. Unsweetened pie was made closed, sweet - half-closed. The name of the birthday person was written on the cake .

The filling and size of the cake had a special meaning. The size of the cake sent was measured by the nobility and respect of the person to whom the cake was sent. Sweet cakes were usually sent to the godfather and mother as a sign of special respect.

In some regions, instead of pies, relatives were sent large buns without filling, top with raisins. One such birthday cake was brought to each house.

The cake served as a kind of invitation to the name day. The one who brought the pies put them on the table and said: "The birthday boy ordered to bow to the pies and asked to eat bread."

In the old days, people used to say: "Without a pancake - not a carnival, without a pie - not a birthday man." Birthday pies could be meat, with potatoes, bacon, mushrooms, berries, but fresh or salted fish was considered the best filling for pies.

The table was decorated with the obligatory huge birthday cake with raisins, which later turned into a cake. True, then candles were not put on it.

This cake was broken in the midst of the celebration over the head of its culprit. The filling was poured on the birthday man, and the guests at that time were saying: "So that gold and silver should be poured on you like that."

The tsar's name days (the day of the namesake), which were considered a public holiday, were especially magnificently celebrated.

On this day, boyars and courtiers came to the royal court to bring gifts and take part in the festive feast.

Huge birthday rolls were spreading to the people. Sometimes, in order to show mercy to his people, the king distributed pies with his own hand.

Later, other traditions appeared: military parades, fireworks, illuminations, shields with imperial monograms. For example, the name days of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna turned into public holidays.

Alas! In 1917 it was all over! If in pre-revolutionary Russia it was traditionally not a birthday, but a name day or Angel Day, then after the revolution a serious ideological struggle began against the name day. And under Soviet rule, the name day turned into a birthday.

The baptismal ceremony was declared counter-revolutionary. They tried to replace it with a special Soviet ritual, which was called "Octobrins" and "Stars".

The essence of these rituals was that the newborn was congratulated in strict sequence by an Octobrist, pioneer, Komsomol member, communist, "honorary parents." Sometimes the baby was symbolically enrolled in a union and stuff like that.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the celebration of the name day was even subjected to official persecution.

The fight against "vestiges" reached anecdotal extremes: for example, in the 1920s, censorship banned K. Chukovsky's "Mukhu-Tsokotukha" for "propaganda of name days."

True, it turned out to be difficult to eradicate age-old folk habits: they still congratulate the birthday man on his birthday, and if the hero of the occasion is still small, they sing a song to him: "how on ... we baked a loaf on the birthday."

Thank God that we live in different times - in the era of revival of national and cultural traditions. Society turned its face to family and spiritual values.

And we again congratulate our relatives and friends on Angel Day. So let's not forget about this beautiful old tradition that helps strengthen the family - to celebrate the name day.

Birthday is a special holiday for both children and adults. It appeared a long time ago. But even today there is no exact explanation when exactly. According to one of the versions, they began to celebrate the birthday even in ancient tribes, since it was believed that a person on this day was poorly protected from evil spirits. Most likely, the tradition of this holiday originated in Ancient Egypt. True, a magnificent celebration was carried out by noble persons: pharaohs, kings and their heirs.

There were no magnificent festivities among the Greeks: every month they celebrated a divine day, that is, the day of some god. So, Artemis was honored on the 6th of every month. By the way, the lighting of candles dates back precisely to the Day of Artemis. The light from them symbolized the moonlight (Artemis was the goddess of the moon).

Divine Day in Ancient Greece

Well, as for ordinary people, once a year only the heads of the family celebrated their birthday.

Many peoples of the Middle Ages did not celebrate their birthday at all: not everyone was even familiar with the calendar. And the life of a person was not of great value, so there was no point in celebrating. But over time, each country has its own special traditions.

Germany and the first candles

Around the 13th century, the inhabitants of Germany began to celebrate the birthdays of their children. The birthday boy was woken up early in the morning and presented with a cake with lit candles in accordance with the number of years. The candles burned until the evening until the festive dinner began, the burned ones were replaced with new ones. In the evening, the hero of the occasion made a wish and blew out the candles, and the cake was cut and divided among the guests. They also gave gifts to the birthday man, though they were delivered by a special folk hero - the "birthday gnome", which was popular until the beginning of the last century.

England and birthday divination

The British approach their birthday celebrations very responsibly: about two months before the celebration, they send invitations to the guests. And they have a special tradition - fortune telling and fortune telling. Sometimes a fortune-teller is even specially invited for this on his birthday. And those who have entered the venerable age (80, 90 and 100 years) are personally congratulated by the Queen herself.

Special 15th Anniversary in Latin America

The 15th anniversary is considered a particularly important date for young women in Latin America. On this day, in some countries, a girl tries on high heels for the first time. The celebration is celebrated on a special scale: a large number of guests, a whole program and expensive gifts. Well, the culmination of the holiday is the waltz: the birthday girl dances with her father, and then with young people.

Crown dates for the Dutch

The so-called crown dates are celebrated especially magnificently in Holland: 5, 10, 15, 20 and 21 years. Birthdays are also celebrated at school: the teacher gives the birthday boy a hat made of colored paper, and the desk is decorated with balloons and ribbons. The hero of the occasion treats his classmates with sweets, and they give him small presents.

Birthday and birthday in Russia

In Russia, until the 19th century, birthdays were not celebrated, but the name day was solemnly celebrated - the day of remembrance of the saint in whose honor the child was named at baptism. The birthday was celebrated on a grand scale, with songs, rolls and pies. Well, in the 19th century, birthdays began to be celebrated, however, at first they were celebrated only in noble and merchant families. Only in the last century did the birthday become of great importance as a holiday. They began to celebrate it on a traditional Russian scale: a large table with treats and drinks, toasts, songs and fun.

Some more interesting facts about birthday