Preparation for the bright holiday of the Nativity of Christ. Family traditions of preparing for Christmas Uzvar - a drink made from dried fruits

Varvara Volkova, mother of five children

About a month before Christmas, when the first snow falls:

- We write letters to Santa Claus - who wants to receive what for Christmas - this is already an established tradition. Children are waiting for this event. When we write, we all sit down together and light candles. This year we put a basket of letters outside. In the morning, of course, they disappeared.

Then, accordingly, Santa Claus begins his work - searching the stores for what he asked for. We usually try to prepare everything in advance.

– We hang up the Advent calendar. Every year is different. Last year it looked like a big painting with many small bags hanging on it - one bag for each day - from December 19 to January 7. Each bag contains a story about Christmas and 4 candies. The children looked forward to opening the bag every day, and in the evening we read a new story.

This year we hung up big “Santa Claus socks”, also with numbers, one sock for each day. They contain not only stories, but also tasks. For example, one of them is to make a family Christmas mail, for which we will prepare a special box. Another task on some days is to look for books about Christmas using puzzles.

– This year I also wrote several stories about our family, to which the children will also add their own contributions - this is also one of the tasks.

– One of the tasks is to “save” a frozen dinosaur, which is hidden in the freezer, in a frozen ball of water.

– Or make something, do it yourself.

– Included in assignments and learning carols and poems.

Until New Year

Children are learning poetry. This time we are preparing a performance with the elders - “The Nutcracker”.

– Let's start decorating the house. We buy a tree before the New Year, but don’t decorate it: New Year We'll definitely meet you at grandpa's, but when we return, we'll start preparing for Christmas.

The decorations are not only store-bought, but also specially dried and painted oranges (oranges are cut into round slices, dried overnight on a radiator, and then painted with colored nail polish with glitter). We also make sure to bake cookies and then hang them on the Christmas tree, making paper decorations-garlands and lanterns.

- Then, when we bake cookies, we also bake a gingerbread house, the dough is the same.

Four days before Christmas

We try to go to church with the children - help clean it and decorate it. By the fifth child, I understood one simple thing. The slogan in my head sounds like this: “You won’t have time to do anything.” And we need to calm down on this. You won’t have time to do what you would have time to do if you had one child, you won’t have time to do what you would have time to do if you lived in the center of our capital, etc. Therefore, you need to focus on one main thing. I chose a calendar, writing letters and real cards to all the godparents, grandparents and friends that they would receive in the mail, decorating the house with my own hands. It also seems to me that a child will remember more a home performance, learning poetry, than endless running around fairs and Christmas trees.

On Christmas Eve, our dad goes grocery shopping and buys meat. Then we try to let him sleep - he has three services ahead (his father is Deacon Alexander Volkov, head of the press service of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'). True, this is not always possible.

– This is purely my personal tradition: to decorate their rooms in a special way at night, when the children are sleeping. It’s not possible to go to night services with small children, but they wake up to a real fairy tale - their rooms noticeably change. Children are really looking forward to this, so that they can open their eyes in the morning and everything around them looks like Christmas, not at all like yesterday: there are garlands on the windows, lanterns everywhere and shiny “rains” hanging down.

In the morning we go to Liturgy.

We only light lights and garlands on the Christmas tree January 7. When the gifts appear, the tree lights up. So that children have an association - the tree is lit on Christmas.

Now, since we moved into our own house, the whole family gathers on this day - grandparents.

Children go to the Christmas tree (before Christmas there are Christmas trees at school, at grandfather’s work). I think that what is important to a child is not our parents’ “ticks” – we went to so many Christmas parties, it is important for him to accumulate impressions. Many, for example, when they become adults, say: “I remember going to church as a child, it was semi-dark, beautiful, they sang like that.” And not: “I attended an all-night vigil, where the stichera at the lithium seemed especially touching to me.” Children live by images, impressions, atmosphere. Therefore, it seems to me that if we try to make bright, festive impressions associated with Christmas, then they will be remembered for a lifetime.

Children's Christmas tree at our house. The children will perform the performance they rehearsed before, sing carols, and read poetry. We invite all relatives and friends with whom we are staging the play.

Gingerbread House recipe from Varvara Volkova:

flour - 1 cup (until the desired dough consistency is obtained)
soda - 1/2 teaspoon
sugar - 200 g
honey (liquid) - 250 g
butter, melted and cooled - 200 g
chicken eggs - 3 pcs.
vodka or cognac - 50 ml (optional)
cinnamon (ground) - 1/4 teaspoon
ginger (ground) - 1/4 teaspoon
cloves (ground) - 1/4 teaspoon
cardamom - 1/4 teaspoon
allspice (ground) - 1/4 teaspoon

Mix the spices in a mortar and thoroughly grind them into the finest powder (fine dust).

Be sure to sift the flour through a sieve (!) and then mix with soda.

Combine the remaining dough ingredients, including crushed spices and vodka (or cognac, rum), in a separate bowl.

Mix thoroughly with a whisk or spoon, but no need to beat

Add flour and soda to the remaining ingredients and knead the dough thoroughly with your hands for about 12-15 minutes.
The dough should be firm and elastic.

Roll the well-kneaded dough into a ball and wrap it in cling film and place in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours (preferably overnight).

Note. Real gingerbread dough does not allow any delays after kneading - knead for up to 20 minutes, quickly cut the products and put them on baking without delay. Otherwise, the gingerbread dough will “tighten” and the products will significantly lose quality.

Before cutting the parts of the house, remove the dough from the refrigerator and leave it at room temperature for at least 1 hour to allow it to warm up.

We adapt to the children's schedule

Natalya Yaltanskaya, mother of nine children

We always have a very busy end of the year and we make all our plans based on the children's plans. The children have two schools – secular general education and Orthodox for the younger ones.

In the Orthodox - they are preparing for Christmas, in the secular - the half-year is ending, tests, concerts.

There is also a choir, with classes scheduled for the end of December and beginning of January - almost every day. Plus concerts, plus children singing at services. After Christmas - at the Christmas tree and on January 12, everything ends with participation in the service in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin.

We have to bring the children, take them.

I have a session after January 11: I am studying at the Teacher Development Course. So I need to prepare for exams too.

So we take the schedule for one day for each (one child has a rehearsal, another has a concert, the rest have something else), and try to plan exactly that day.

What is definitely planned in advance is the purchase of a Christmas tree December 31 I, simply because after the New Year you can’t buy it anymore. The year before last we went to the forestry, last year a friend called and said that in Moscow they were giving out free Christmas trees to large families at the Christmas tree market.

Another thing we should definitely do is go to the theater during Christmas time. This year the children will go to the Bolshoi Theater (we bought tickets in advance - three months in advance).

From 1 to 6 January We try to restore order as much as possible. Like anyone, when we can: the students are in session, you can’t really involve them either.

So it would be nice if everything could be planned in advance, but it doesn’t work out. So, we will have time and - thank God!

Children's clothes for performances are always ready for combat - we know that they can be called to perform at any moment, so here again - no special preparation.

We prepare the festive table on Christmas Eve, between services. It’s not difficult - there are a lot of us, and the day before we decide who will do what. Usually there are always volunteers - some take on the salad, others do something else. Usually all this takes an hour or two.

Miraculously, the churched Father Frost from the New Rusalim Monastery appeared in our home and said: “All children (from 26 to 4 years old) write letters with wishes.” We wrote it, now we wait to see what happens.

For every holiday, the children prepare a concert, but when they do it, I don’t know: it’s their personal initiative.

Don't forget a thermos and sandwiches

Yulia Bagramova, mother of three children

Live Christmas tree We buy it on New Year’s Eve and decorate it on the street near the house. But then it stands for a long, long time without crumbling. This decorating activity usually takes place when dad is at home and I’m at work: so that the children don’t get bored without me. At home we install an artificial one, we hang plastic toys on it, so that if they drop it, there will be no cuts, and so on (and what has been dropped has happened more than once).

We put stickers on the windows.

Present I usually try to cook a month before the New Year - small and small for New Year, large and larger for Christmas.
In general, I try to do everything very much in advance, because otherwise I simply won’t have time to do anything. So, advent calendar I started cooking in the summer. I came up with tasks and ideas. This year it consists of two weeks - the week before the New Year and the week after, until Christmas. Last year, the children really liked the idea of such a calendar, they looked forward to every day to find out that today is a riddle, a crossword puzzle, a task to make something, for the little ones it’s just a treat and the opportunity to observe the process... Externally, we have a calendar this year times harsh - a board with 14 screws on it, along which the bag of surprises will “move”.
To prepare for Christmas, we try to read some Christmas book- per day per chapter. We start about a week before the Holiday.
Food shopping and cooking I also try to stretch it out in time and not leave it until the last minute. That is, on January 4-5 I buy everything, on January 6 I only buy marinated meat (since most likely the main dish is chicken), and on January 7, when we all get home, I just put it in the oven.
On January 6th I plan to do it with my children cookie.
On Christmas Eve we get nativity scenes. One, homemade, is already three years old. I painted, our dad sawed it out of plywood. We did it in the summer, and the children also took part in it. It is installed next to the Christmas tree. The other one is purchased, but it is not very reliable, parts constantly become unusable, and something needs to be glued.

On January 7 we are trying to go to the nursery liturgy. Since we live in the Moscow region, we need to go to Moscow.

We tried to take children to night services, but it seems to me that they are still small and there is no particular benefit for them. IN best case scenario- they just fall asleep. Closer to Communion, we bother them, they don’t understand where they are, what they want from them... Although at first they are waiting, they are interested in what they need to go. But in the end they get tired, they don’t have the feeling of a holiday.

Children get used to one church, but children's liturgies are not served there. Therefore, I explain in advance that we will go to another temple, where there will also be communion, and then we will return home, eat and give them gifts.

7 in the morning everyone is still sleeping, I get up, prepare food for myself, because it’s a holiday - I make sandwiches with sausage or cutlet. I pour tea into a thermos and prepare our “camping” cups.

Then I wake up the children one by one. The elders dress themselves. I am the youngest. Dad goes with them to the car, I close the doors.

In general, it takes us about two hours to get ready and get there.

After the service, if possible, we go to a cafe, and then to the zoo. It’s great at the zoo in winter, although the weather is often, as expected, wintry and windy. There are more animals than people and you can see them.

Also at Christmas we go to visit, receive guests ourselves, and sing carols. Such a busy program basically has to fit into the five days between Christmas and the start of school. And we also need to make sure that there is no more than one event on one day. This means that in order for children to have holidays that are not only festive entertainment, but also relaxation, it is necessary to live quietly and calmly the days free from festive events, that is, the days before Christmas. This means no trees on New Year's days, and no big guests. Moreover, this is a time of strict fasting. So it goes without saying: the week before Christmas should be quiet and calm.

That's why we don't go to Christmas parties, except for school ones. And so as not to overload the children. And so as not to interrupt the “appetite” for the best Christmas events. Let the post remain a post.

If we have the opportunity and desire to go somewhere on New Year’s Eve, we go to classical music concerts and watch ballet. No more than one event, necessarily before the New Year, and not after it. And this only makes sense if it truly is a cultural education for our children, and not a loss of education.

New Year's Eve

If we return the decoration of the house, the tree, the gifts to the Christmas holiday, then what remains in the house on New Year's Eve? A light festive but Lenten table, similar to a Sunday family meal. Children are allowed to eat sweets. What else could be special that only happens on New Year's Eve?

It so happened that today the New Year is the only common folk holiday in our country. And the most interesting thing is that this is also the only family, the only national holiday, when almost every home feels like a part of the Russian state. The only holiday on which the Russian anthem is played in every home - often the only time a year. No matter how people feel about state power in general and the current one in particular, no matter how these people feel about their own country, no matter how rarely their thoughts about the Motherland enter their minds, on the New Year - and only on the New Year! - everyone listens to the President’s New Year’s message, and after the chiming clock they drink champagne to the accompaniment, or even sing it. And it turns out that today the main song of the New Year is not “A Christmas Tree Was Born in the Forest,” but the Russian anthem. Our New Year is actually a national day of the Russian state. This in itself, in my opinion, deserves support. It deserves that we join this celebration.

Now this is exactly how my children perceive the New Year. Like the night we have a very late holiday dinner. We wait for the appointed time, listen to the President on the Internet, count the clock on the Spassky Tower and sing together the anthem of our country, admiring the night panorama of the Kremlin, with the golden domes of its cathedrals, with the flag of Russia against the backdrop of the blue snowy sky... We pray for the night, we ask God blessings for the coming year (it turns out that we have a similar prayer many times a year - on birthdays, anniversaries, on the Church New Year...). Turn off the light. The younger ones fall asleep first. Seniors look out the window at fireworks and fireworks...

This is the New Year celebration in our family. We don’t have a television, but there is an online broadcast of the President’s speech on the Internet. It’s safer, however, to download the performance in advance along with the chimes and the anthem. After all, the New Year in Kamchatka comes a few hours before it reaches Moscow, and records from the eastern regions are freely circulating on the Internet.

What have we deprived our children of?

The main children's attributes of the New Year have been returned to Christmas night. So our children’s “wonderful night” begins on the night of January 6-7 according to the new style. Our children are not only not deprived of all the basic children's New Year's joys, but they receive them in a much fuller, broader and deeper volume. Our New Year turned out to be the night of the Russian state and the chiming clock. The fact that my children are “late” with the Christmas tree and gifts for a whole week does not bother me. In my own childhood there was always this “lateness”, and I don’t even understand how it could be bad. Moreover, all parents in our country are in no way embarrassed by the fact that they themselves were late with Christmas trees and gifts, because the “civilized world” presented their children with both a Christmas tree and gifts a week before them - on December 25th.

What is left that our compatriots have in the New Year celebration, but what are our children deprived of?

We do not have a mystical excitement about the approach and arrival of the New Year. How many days, hours and minutes are left until “hour X”. What symbolic numbers will be in the new calendar.

There are no attributes of a new widespread religion, in which the “symbols of the year” play a special role. Their worship is promoted by television, expensive billboards on the streets and cheap souvenirs in passages, Christmas decorations and postcards in any store. Children decorate school classrooms with images of these animals, give their grandchildren plush snakes, singing dragons, plastic rats - depending on whose image brings happiness to the person that year. Even food on New Year's Eve should be “pleasing” to the patron saint of the year. They prepare meat for the dragon, and greens for the sheep... In the foyer of our school, I saw pictures of green goats. It turns out that the coming year is dedicated to a goat, and not just a simple one, but a wooden one, and even a blue-green one.

Superstition is the religion of people whose faith has been taken away

What else is not in our house? There are countless superstitions that seem to multiply every year. For example, during the chiming clock you need to eat a piece of paper with a wish written on it, washing it down with champagne. The wish will, of course, come true. Put on everything new (or at least something new) so that in the New Year everything will be... new. Yes, clothes, like food, should be pleasing to the beast of the year. There's probably a lot more that I don't even know about. Both small children and elderly teachers all know about this, and sometimes they have to be surprised at the ignorance of my children. But even as a little girl, I knew that such superstitions are the religion of people who have had their faith taken away. And it's not stupid, you can't laugh at it. Because this is a different faith. Because it's sad. Because it's scary. Now my children are learning to live with people who hope to please the wooden goat. Who with faith and hope pray to the frosty grandfather for the healing of their sick mother. They are in awe of the ability of this good bearded man to see all the good and evil deeds of each child. Before his power to reward and punish. With people who know about the fate of their zodiac sign in the coming year. And this, frankly speaking, madness is the main reason for an Orthodox family to dissociate itself from complete immersion in the New Year holiday, not to let it into the house in the form in which it now exists.

Thank God, this madness occurs in such numbers only before the New Year. And the rest of the time we ourselves can bring holidays into the world, and the world, represented by the school, often readily and openly welcomes church life. However, this is a different topic.

...After the quiet days between New Year and Christmas, when the whole family gets together, the long-awaited Christmas Eve comes. Appears in our house live Christmas tree. Eight-pointed gold star. The apartment is decorated with tinsel, garlands, spruce wreaths, Christmas inscriptions. On the icons there are white towels and fir branches. In the evening there is a white tablecloth on the table, hay, a wooden bowl with kutya, a candle is lit near the nativity scene... But this is, in fact, the beginning of Christmas. A night service awaits us, and then - gifts under the tree... The miracle of Christmas, the miracle of a holiday that brings joy, real joy. When heaven and earth triumph together, when Angels and people celebrate the same holiday. , Christmas Eve, Christmastide, Epiphany - all these holidays are already on the doorstep. Holidays that our children are not deprived of.

If we can lead children to the joy of the Nativity of Christ, then the New Year and other similar holidays will fade into the background

If these real holidays come to our home, if we can really bring children and come with them to the joy of the Nativity of Christ, then the New Year and other similar holidays will naturally fade, fade and recede into the second, third, fifth plan. . Let there be a New Year in the lives of our children. As one of the holidays of the Nativity Fast. Which vaguely reminds us that Christmas is approaching. Which is so different from all the holidays in our house. After all, usually our celebrations are events only for our family, or holidays for the entirety of the Orthodox Church. Less often we celebrate the days of the historical glory of our Fatherland. And only once a year does a holiday of the state in which we now live come to our house, coinciding with the onset of a new calendar year.

Can New Year's Eve“interrupt” the Christmas celebrations? How is this possible, if Christmas is childhood memories, it is the unification of the whole family, it is a Christmas tree and gifts, it is the historical traditions of our Motherland, it is service to God, it is the life of the Universal Church, and the New Year... New Year is the school light at the end second quarter, this is an unusual night with the chiming of chimes and the singing of the Russian anthem, views of the Kremlin and fireworks in the streets. This is all interesting and great, but it cannot even overshadow the child’s birthday. Moreover, the Birthday of the Savior of the World, the celebration of which unites all possible ideas about the joy of man...

On January 6, Orthodox Christians in our country prepare with special zeal for the onset of one of the most important Christian holidays - the Nativity of Christ.

Someone is putting their house in order, someone is heading to church for worship, someone is cooking festive table, and some even manage to do all of the above.

Surely many of us special attention dedicate themselves to a meal on Christmas Eve. Numerous Internet sources now and then publish articles on how to properly prepare for Christmas and the Eve of this holiday. But not in all publications you will find information that is reliable from the point of view of the Church. To dispel doubts and help you, dear readers, get acquainted with church traditions, we talked with the head of the missionary department of the Vitebsk diocese, Archpriest Alexander Lesov.

— Father Alexander, please tell us how the Church views the tradition of cooking 12 dishes on Christmas Eve, successfully replicated in the media and among the people.

— In church tradition there are no instructions regarding the number of dishes required to be prepared on a particular holiday. The fact that some believe that the number of dishes on Christmas Eve should correspond to the number of the first apostles is an echo of paganism and superstition, just like other beliefs and signs that, unfortunately, many Christians pay attention to today. The church charter tells us that Christmas Eve is accompanied by a particularly strict fast, when food is not eaten until the first star rises.

— I think many of our readers are wondering why they need to wait for just such a heavenly sign to eat food?

— It's very simple. The Christian Church arose long before all people became happy owners of watches. In the first centuries of Christianity, worship on the eve of Christmas began early in the morning and, due to its duration, ended only with the rising of the first star. Thus, for completely natural reasons, Christians ate on this day only in the evening. There is also a liturgical explanation for this tradition, associated with the symbolic removal of a candle after Vespers to the center of the church, which can symbolize this star.

— Father, please tell me how to properly observe this fast today to modern man, especially if he works in a difficult job?

— The Church does not force anyone to strictly observe all the regulations. Of course, if a person works, say, as a bus driver, responsible for the lives of a large number of people, a doctor, a firefighter, an air traffic controller, etc., he must approach his feat with reason. And it’s probably better for him to still eat, but try not to eat meat, dairy and egg products, as well as fish that day.

— The tradition of preparing 12 dishes on Christmas Eve includes, among other things, the obligatory presence of a fish dish on the table, which, as we see, is prohibited by the Charter. What is the best thing to eat on Christmas Eve?

— Church tradition provides for the preparation of sochiva (koliva, kutia) on this day, from the name of which the word “Christmas Eve” comes. Today, sochivo is usually made from sprouted wheat grains, seasoned with honey and dried fruits. It is also allowed to eat boiled food without vegetable oil.

— Many Christians strive to begin the sacraments of Confession and Communion on Christmas night. How to properly prepare for this event?

- Of course, in order to begin Communion, special preparation is needed. First, check with the temple you are going to. It would be good to confess in advance. This can be done either during/after the Divine Liturgy on January 6, or after the evening service on Christmas Eve, or before the night service itself, if it will be held in your church. It is especially important to take this into account for those who visit the temple only a few times a year. If you start confession in advance, and not during the festive Divine Liturgy itself, you will have more time to collect your thoughts and repent, as well as ask the priest questions that concern you and receive balanced and understandable answers to them. Confession requires, first of all, sincere repentance and honesty. If you also want to receive communion, you must endure the Eucharistic fast (complete abstinence from food and drink) and read special prayers, which can be found in the book “Prayer Book”.

— Father Alexander, please explain what the Eucharistic fast should be like for a person planning to receive communion at the night service.

— If you are going to begin the sacrament of the Eucharist at night (as a rule, communion is celebrated between 1:00 and 1:30, depending on the start time of the service), you must abstain from food and drink for 6-8 hours.

Forget about yourself, remember about God

As a matter of fact, the main preparation for Christmas is the time of the Nativity Fast. It was allocated by the Church so that we can stop in our daily rush and think more intently than usual about God, about our soul and salvation, about the meaning of Christmas. Indeed, on this day the Lord Himself, the Creator of heaven and earth, for the sake of our salvation becomes the same as us, a person similar to us in everything except sin. The coming of Christ the Savior into the world is the central event human history. That is why this holiday is very special, and the Church invites us to be sure to prepare for it.

What does this preparation consist of? We must try to cleanse our soul and our heart, choose for ourselves the path of doing good, the path of struggling with our sins and passions. And a fast has been established to help us in this fight. Probably everyone who goes to church knows that fasting is abstaining from food of animal origin. But not everyone remembers that fasting should also be abstinence from all kinds of entertainment and idle pastime. Lent is a time of achievement, no matter how strange it may sound in the context of modern life. And this feat consists in at least partially forgetting about yourself and thinking more about God, about the redemptive feat of Christ the Savior, which begins with His Nativity.

Many holy fathers have a visual comparison human heart with a nativity scene. And they say that the goal of a Christian during the Nativity Fast is to transform his heart from a den - that is, from a cave for livestock, from a stable (in fact, this image very accurately reflects our actual state) - into a palace, that is, a palace worthy of meeting Christ the King. This poetic comparison best expresses the meaning of the preparation for the holiday to which every Christian is called.

To spiritual joy

The services of the Nativity Lent, in contrast to the services of the Great Lent, are structurally no different from the ordinary services that take place throughout the church year. But at the same time, in the liturgical texts preceding the holiday there are very interesting feature: on the days of the forefeast (from the second to the sixth of January according to the new style), the divine service introduces a person into the space of those events that precede the Nativity of Christ. And we literally step by step follow the holy family, the Magi, together with the Mother of God and the righteous Joseph the Betrothed we find ourselves in the den in which Christ is to be born. The service during Holy Week has the same feature; it makes a very strong impression.

These days, touching canons are read at Compline. I personally love them very much and always try to read them myself. Compline is a monastic service, and in ordinary parishes it is, as a rule, omitted. But I always give my blessing to serve Compline in our churches on the days of the forefeast, for the sake of these touching canons, very deep in their meaning and content.

January 6 is the eve of the Nativity of Christ. This day is marked by a special fast, which, according to ancient tradition, should last the entire daylight hours - “until the first star.” Why is this so? Fasting, which we know today as abstinence from certain types of food, was also temporary in the Ancient Church. O e dimension: the fast lasted until sunset. And that is why the Liturgy of the day of eternity should be served in the evening - so that it ends by the time the sun sets. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts during Great Lent was also initially celebrated only in the evening, for the same reason. Now we perform these services in the first half of the day - it’s easier for the parishioners, but this is wrong in terms of the meaning of the service. Now more and more parishes in different dioceses are returning to the practice of celebrating the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts in the evening, as required by the Charter. Perhaps someday the services of Christmas Eve and Epiphany will again be held in our churches in the evening.

On this day, it is customary to break the fast with the so-called sochivom, that is, wheat boiled with honey and dried fruits. Therefore, the day of eternity is also called Christmas Eve.

The Christmas service itself consists of an all-night vigil and the Divine Liturgy. It is completely ordinary in its structure, but, of course, everything that is read and sung at the service is dedicated to the event and meaning of the Nativity of Christ. One of the main Christmas carols is the angelic song “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.” It sounds repeatedly during the service. A certain musical and textual symbol of the holiday is also the song “God is with us” - it contains prophecies from the Old Testament Book of the Prophet Isaiah about Christ the Savior.

The question is often asked: how long should the fast last before Communion for those who are going to take communion at night? If a person can fast according to the Rule, then on this day he eats food once after sunset. Today it gets dark early here - that means around 16-17 hours. If a person is weak, please, he can eat later, but no less than five to six hours before Communion. We must proceed from the fact that the night Liturgy ends at 2–3 am.

When they ask me: “How often should you go to Church on these pre-holiday days?”, “Do you have to be at this or this service?” - I find myself in a quandary. How to answer? Imagine that two people love each other. And it will seem funny if a young man or girl thinks: “We saw each other today. Should we see each other tomorrow? Or maybe just in a couple of days?”... If a person is in love, then he always wants to be with the one he loves. It’s the same here: if a person loves God, if for him the Church is life, such a question simply does not arise. There is an opportunity - a person goes to church.

Usually, every year in December, discussions on the Internet revive again about how good it would be for the Church to switch to a new style so that the New Year is celebrated after Christmas, after the end of Lent. But I believe that the winter holidays that we have now are a great benefit for believers. In our country, this is a weekend, so even those who work and usually do not have the opportunity to go to services on weekdays can go to church. By the way, this is noticeable: in the days before Christmas, churches are filled with people. New Year's “holidays” give them the opportunity to attend services, talk in the full sense of the word, and thereby spiritually prepare for Christmas. Therefore, I would not give this week before Christmas to anyone, which the difference in calendars helps us spend in a Christian way.

So, the Nativity Fast ends - the time that the Church provides us so that we can prepare our hearts as best as possible for the great holiday of the Nativity of Christ. I would like to wish everyone to spend this time profitably and celebrate the holiday with spiritual joy, which is higher than all the pleasures of the world and which alone makes a person truly happy.

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The most incredible miracles are possible at Christmas. This is probably why we are looking forward to it so impatiently, preparing in advance, buying gifts to please our loved ones. We can say that Christmas is everyone's birthday. And joy, fun, all kinds of pleasures - what could be more natural on such a day? But most importantly: simply fabulous Christmas opportunities. On this day we can meet long-awaited love, receive news that will change our lives, become the owner of something we never even dared to dream about. Nothing strange: all these are gifts from Christmas itself, which from time immemorial was considered spiritual. That is Christmas comes at a certain time (at 12 at night from January 6 to 7 you need to let him in, opening the front door), and then leaves (exactly at midnight from January 7 to 8, he must be seen off).

How to prepare for Christmas

The most important preparation for the holiday is not buying gifts and preparing a lavish table. Christmas Eve is a special period when it is much more important to show the best human qualities: sympathy, compassion, mercy. And not only in relation to family and friends, but more so to people in need. The days before Christmas were previously considered charitable: people shared what they had with the poor, visited lonely people in hospitals, and provided help to everyone who needed it. And just before the arrival of the holiday (on Christmas Eve), food was distributed to the poor so that they also had the opportunity to celebrate this day.

And these days it is not difficult to find someone who needs help. One might ask: what about Christmas magic? Why, for example, did food not appear to the poor in a fabulous way? Appeared! Human hands simply passed it on. Christmas gifts But, besides the fact that Christmas is a holiday for everyone, it is first and foremost family holiday. Guests are usually not invited to the house on this day. But if a guest happens, it is the duty of the hosts to receive him as best as possible. That is, feed, drink, and not leave without a gift (even to the point of sacrificing your own).

Speaking of Christmas gifts. On this day, you can give absolutely anything, but it’s better to give something that a person has dreamed of (as a confirmation of Christmas miracles) or that he will definitely need in life. You can give an icon to your family and loved ones; you can buy icons in Ukraine here. You can give the gift yourself or put it under the tree. There is a difference between a New Year's tree and a Christmas tree. As surprising as it may seem, for Christmas the spruce is even more important: after all, this tree personifies eternal life. And if the top of the New Year tree can be anything, the Christmas tree should only have a star - a symbol of the star of Bethlehem, which announced the birth of Jesus. Although gifts under the tree are always nice, no matter what they are: New Year's or Christmas. Some people wrap Christmas gifts in Santa's long stockings, especially if the house has a fireplace to attach the surprises to. But, in principle, what difference does it make what the gifts are wrapped in? The main thing is that they exist!

Christmas traditions

On the evening of January 6, Holy Evening, after sunset the whole family gathers at the table, on which there are 12 Lenten dishes - according to the number of the apostles. None of the dishes should remain untouched: each one should be tasted at least a little. It’s good if there is a candle burning on the table - a living fire. The main dish of dinner on Holy Evening is kutia. Traditionally it is made from wheat, but other whole grains can be used. Grains, grains are a symbol of people glued together into humanity. And honey or sugar syrup is used as glue in kutia. This dinner ends the strict Nativity fast: on January 7, all restrictions are lifted, and you can have a real festive feast.

They say that on New Year's Day, houses should smell like tangerines, and on Christmas, the house should be saturated with the aromas of cinnamon and vanilla. That is, this holiday is unthinkable without festive baking. At Christmas, another tradition has long been followed: to wear only new clothes. Not clean, washed, but new, not yet worn. Well, and, of course, on this day there was a ban on any work: sewing, washing, cleaning (especially taking out trash from the house) was prohibited. All food must be prepared in advance.

A good tradition that forces you to pay attention to yourself and spend time with your loved ones. By the way, in the first days of the Christmas week, visits were common: it was supposed to visit relatives and good friends. But a visit to their home should have been a visit, not a visit: they stopped by for 15-20 minutes, no more - with congratulations and wishes. Nowadays, of course, you can get by with a phone call, the main thing is to let the people you care about know that you remember them and wish them the best. By the way, if you're in due date If you open not a door, but a window, it doesn’t matter: Christmas will come in through it too. And maybe something completely magical will happen in your life.