You won’t even need to find out the procession for Easter 2018: what time if you go to the evening service. The service begins on Saturday evening and continues until midnight and then after. As for the Procession of the Cross, which is part of the festive service, it takes place some time before midnight.

About the features of the procession

If we give a brief description of the procession on Easter or another Christian holiday, then we can say that this is a solemn procession. First come the clergy with icons and other paraphernalia, church banners. Behind them come the believers who came to the service. During the Procession of the Cross, a large area of ​​the church is sanctified.

The procession takes place several times during the church year. In addition to Easter, this also happens on Epiphany, on the second Savior for the blessing of water. Also, church processions are often organized in honor of some great church or state events. Sometimes a religious procession is held by the church in emergency situations, for example, during natural disasters, disasters or war.

What else is important to know

Since the morning of Holy Saturday, believers have been asking each other the question, Procession for Easter 2018: what time. We can fully answer this question. Moreover, the date and time of the religious procession does not change from year to year. Or rather, the date changes, but the event - Easter - always remains the same.

On Saturday, after hectic preparations for the holiday, when all the Easter cakes are ready and the eggs are painted, you can relax a little. But, it should be remembered that the Easter evening service begins at 20.00. In general, it is better to get everything done before this time and calmly go to work. If you want to go only to the Procession of the Cross, then you need to arrive closer to midnight.

How does the procession take place?

The religious procession is some kind of independent action in itself. It is carried out within
festive Easter service. Or rather, it divides the service itself into two parts. At first these are still mournful prayers about what happened to Christ during Holy Week. Then the priest, followed by all the ministers, and behind them the believers go out into the street, where the procession of the Cross takes place.

During the procession, church servants carry the most important icons, including banners and lamps. You need to walk around the temple three times and stop at the temple doors each time. The first two times the doors will be closed, and the third time the doors will open. And this is a good sign that tells us that Easter has arrived. After the procession and after the priest informs everyone about the onset of Easter, the clergy change into white festive clothes and the service continues for several more hours.

It turns out that the date for the Procession of the Cross 2018 is April 7. More precisely, the service will begin in the evening, at 20.00 on April 7, but will gradually move on to April 8. The Easter service is amazing and very beautiful. If you have never gone to church this night before, we highly recommend doing so. In principle, you need to at least get to the procession and perform it. Then, if you lose your strength, you can go home.

What to do after the procession

Yes, in church, together with other believers, you were the first to learn the good news that Christ is Risen. This means that Easter has arrived and Lent will end. You can eat any food, rejoice and have fun. But you shouldn’t eat illuminated foods immediately after you get home: no matter how much you might want to. According to the church charter, this is fundamentally wrong.

You should definitely go to bed and start celebrating Easter for real in the morning. In the morning the whole family gathers at the table. An Easter cake is placed in the center of the table, in which there is a candle from the church; illuminated foods are laid out around the Easter cake. You should light a candle and start your morning with prayer. Then each family member should eat a small piece of each illuminated product. After this, you can start eating, beat your eggs and simply enjoy such a wonderful, bright and eventful holiday.

So, you already know what time the procession will be on Easter, and how it will take place. All that remains is to find the strength to definitely go to church on this holy night. By the way, we remind you that on Holy Saturday it is recommended to adhere to strict fasting. This means not eating until the end of the evening service, and after it eating bread and drinking water. But, there is very little left until Easter arrives and the period of restrictions ends. Christ is Risen, which means we can celebrate this event in full force.

Easter is the most important holiday for the Christian church, and preparations for it begin several weeks in advance. After the end of Lent, all Orthodox people prepare for the Easter service - a large-scale church celebration that lasts all night. What time the Easter service begins and how it takes place is described below.

Rituals before Easter

In many churches, holiday services begin a week before Easter. Usually during this period people attend church very actively, and clergy increasingly appear in festive attire. There is also a tradition according to which, a few days before Easter, the church doors stop closing. Even during the priests’ communion, the doors remain open, and anyone can visit the temple at any convenient time.

Saturday, when Lent ends, becomes especially festive. It is on this day that people begin to flock en masse to church to bless the holiday food. Temple servants sprinkle Easter cakes and eggs with holy water, saying traditional prayers. At the same time, you can light several candles in the church for the repose.

The Catholic Church has maintained the tradition of baptizing adults and children on Easter. In the Orthodox tradition, the custom of baptizing adults during the celebration of Easter is also being revived, but it occurs quite rarely. Church ministers prefer to perform this ceremony either on Saturday or in the afternoon before the start of the solemn service.

Usually, church representatives themselves are very actively preparing for the upcoming holiday, memorizing lines from the gospel, taking communion and choosing the most festive clothes. Despite all the changes in the lives of modern citizens, Easter continues to enjoy enormous popularity throughout Russia.

Start time of Easter service

In 2017, Easter falls on May 1st. According to a tradition that developed several centuries ago, the Easter service is held exactly at midnight. It will begin on the night of April 30 to May 1.

The largest service takes place in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Traditionally, the patriarch (now Kirill) comes out to the parishioners in his best attire, conducting the entire service from beginning to end. It is broadcast on many television channels, so you can enjoy the service without leaving your home.

In some nations, such services take place in the morning, but almost all Christian churches hold such an important and solemn service before dawn.

What stages does the Easter service include:

1. The removal of the shroud, which takes place half an hour before midnight.
2. Procession around the temple.
3. The beginning of Bright Matins is marked by the use of a censer and a special cross with a three-candlestick.
4. Conducting Easter Matins and taking out specially prepared bread.
5. The service ends with the Easter ringing and the exchange of holiday greetings (“Christ is Risen” - “Truly He is Risen”).

Each step of the procedure is very important and should never be ignored. The fact is that all singing and religious processions are directly related to the history of the resurrection of Christ, and the traditions themselves have been formed over centuries, so the clergy honor them with special reverence.

Easter services are held in almost all Orthodox churches. It is interesting that the date of the holiday is always determined according to the lunar-solar calendar and falls on different days. Moreover, the date of Easter may differ between Catholics and Orthodox Christians. So, in 2017, this bright day fell on May 1st.

The Easter service traditionally begins at midnight, but you should arrive at the church at least an hour in advance. The fact is that the holiday causes great excitement among believers, and therefore, by 23:00, queues of people wishing to attend the service gather near the churches. In small churches there are few parishioners, but getting to services in the main shrines of the country (for example, the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood) can be extremely difficult. Despite this, all believers try to behave calmly and do not push each other apart.

Easter cakes, painted eggs and other holiday food should be blessed in advance, on Saturday morning, since there will be too many people at the Easter service, and such an opportunity will most likely not arise.

The first stages of the Easter service

Church services on Easter are a very important event for clergy, so every priest on this day is dressed in ceremonial attire. Half an hour before midnight, the shroud is brought into the church through the royal doors, and the service is considered officially open. People present at the service light candles, which creates a truly magical atmosphere in the temple.

The initial stages of church worship have the following features:

• throughout the service, bells ring, announcing the beginning of the holiday;
• the singing of the stichera occurs three times, and each time the clergy raise their voices by a tone;
• during the singing of the third stichera, the clergy move from the altar to the middle of the temple;
• parishioners also sing along with the church ministers, after which the ringing begins, and people go out into the street to perform a religious procession around the temple.

With the beginning of the religious procession, all parishioners move around the church to the ringing singing of the clergy. Usually they walk around the church three times, after which they stop at the western gate, blessing it with a cross. At this stage, the singing subsides, after which the clergyman begins to bless the parishioners and the church itself with a censer, marking the image of a cross on the western gate of the temple.

Easter Matins

The beginning of the Easter service is more like a sacrament and has a certain mystery, while Matins consists of joyful chants and reading of the canon. At the beginning of Matins, all parishioners return to the church, the doors remain open.

• singing of the canon and stichera;
• solemn reading of the gospel;
• reading the prayer behind the pulpit.

The service on Easter night does not end with the reading of the prayer behind the pulpit, because after this the sacred bread, which in Greek is called artos, is brought to a special altar in front of the icon with the image of the risen Christ. It is prepared according to a special recipe and consecrated by church ministers. Artos remains on the altar for several days.

Actually, this is where the Easter liturgy ends, and the festive bell rings. Now believers have the opportunity to approach the cross, pray and congratulate each other on the coming of Easter.

Duration of the celebration and proper preparation for it

How long the Easter service lasts is very often of interest to people who have never been to this festive service. The standard duration of such a service is 5 hours.

The long duration is due to the importance of the festive event and the abundance of various traditions. As mentioned above, the service begins at 00:00, but usually all believers try to arrive at the church by 23:00, taking their places in the temple and praying before the sacred service.

The order of the Easter service is quite strict, so when going to church, you should choose comfortable and closed clothes. Women should cover their heads with a scarf, hiding their hair.

This festive event ends around four o'clock in the morning, after which believers can go home. In the Orthodox Church, it is very important to defend the entire service from beginning to end, since in this way a person confirms his faith.

It is also interesting that before the start of the service, every believer must properly prepare for the approaching celebration. Typically, such preparation begins 7 weeks before the holiday, because this is when Lent begins. During this entire time, the believer limits himself to the consumption of food.

On Maundy Thursday (it falls in the last week of Lent), a person needs to do a thorough cleaning of his home. Lent ends on Saturday, just before Easter. On this day, it is necessary to prepare holiday treats such as Easter cakes and eggs. All these dishes should be put in a basket and taken to church in order to consecrate them.

Before entering the church you must cross yourself three times. A cross is drawn every time certain church phrases are used (for example, “In the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit”).

A few more important points of church worship

Everyone who has attended it at least once in their life knows the course of the Easter service. It is important not only to fully defend the service, but also to behave correctly in the process. What standards of behavior in the temple should be remembered:

Easter does not end with the end of the holiday prayers. Before leaving the church, a person must cross himself three times in a bow, going home.

Back in 1966, not yet a Nobel laureate or a public figure, but simply a writer and former high school physics and astronomy teacher, Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote an amazing essay “The Procession on Easter” - honest and heartfelt. Let's read it and compare it with ours, with today's Easter religious processions throughout Russia. How much has changed and, thank God, for the better! But we must not forget what was and can be different.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Experts now teach us that we don’t need to paint everything in oil exactly as it is. What's the point of a color photograph? That it is necessary to convey the idea of ​​a thing instead of the thing itself with curved lines and combinations of triangles and squares. But I don’t understand which color photograph will meaningfully select the faces we need and fit into one frame the Easter procession of the Patriarchal Peredelkino church half a century after the revolution. This Easter move alone today would explain a lot to us, if it had been depicted using the oldest techniques, even without triangles.

Half an hour before the bell, the fence of the Patriarchal Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord looks like a trampling area at the dance floor of a distant, dashing working-class village. The girls in colored headscarves and sports trousers (well, they also have skirts) are vociferous, walk in threes, fives, then they will push into the church, but there are a lot of people in the vestibule, from the early evening the old women have taken their places, the girls will yelp with them and outside; Then they circle around the church yard, shout out cheekily, call out from afar and look at the green, pink and white lights lit near the external wall icons and at the graves of bishops and protopresbyters.

And the guys - both healthy and ugly, all with a victorious expression (who did they defeat in their fifteen-twenty years? - except perhaps with pucks in the goal...), almost all in caps, hats, some with their heads uncovered, didn’t take them off here, but he walks like this, every fourth is drunk, every tenth is drunk, every second smokes, and smokes disgustingly, with a cigarette slobbering on his lower lip. And even before the incense, instead of incense, gray clouds of tobacco smoke rise in the electric light from the churchyard to the Easter sky in brown motionless clouds. They spit on the asphalt, push each other for fun, whistle loudly, eat and swear, a few with transistor radios perform a dance routine, some hug their marukhs in the very aisle, and these girls are pulled away from each other, and look at them cockily, and wait in case they snatch them away knives: first knives on each other, and then on the Orthodox. Because all this youth looks at the Orthodox, not as younger people look at elders, not like guests look at hosts, but like owners look at flies.

Still, it doesn’t reach the knives - three or four policemen walk here and there for appearance’s sake. And swearing - not by screaming across the entire yard, but simply out loud, in a heartfelt Russian conversation. That’s why the police don’t see any violations and smile friendlyly at the younger generation. The police won’t tear cigarettes out of their teeth, they won’t pull hats off their heads: after all, this is on the street, and the right not to believe in God is protected by the constitution. The police honestly see that they have nothing to interfere with, there is no criminal case.

Pressed against the fence of the cemetery and against the church walls, the believers do not so much as object, but look around, lest they be stabbed yet, lest they take away the clock by which the last minutes before the Resurrection of Christ are checked. Here, outside the church, there are far fewer of them, the Orthodox, than of the grinning, tossing freemen. They are frightened and oppressed worse than under the Tatars.

The Tatars probably didn’t press the Bright Matins like that. The criminal line has not been crossed, but the robbery is bloodless, and the spiritual resentment is in those lips, curved like a thieve, in impudent conversations, in laughter, courtship, groping, smoking, spitting two steps away from passions Christ's. In this victorious and contemptuous manner with which the brats came to watch their grandfathers repeat the rituals of their ancestors.

One or two soft Jewish faces flash between the believers. Maybe baptized, maybe outsiders. Looking carefully, they are also waiting for the religious procession.

We all scold the Jews, the Jews constantly interfere with us, but if we look back, what kind of Russians have we raised in the meantime? If you look around, you will be dumbfounded.

And it seems that not the stormtroopers of the 30s, not the ones that the blessed Easters tore out of their hands and hooted under the devils - no! It’s like they’re inquisitive: the hockey season on television is over, the football season hasn’t started, there’s melancholy - so they climb to the candle window, pushing Christians aside like sacks of bran, and, cursing the “church business,” they buy candles for some reason.

There is only one strange thing: everyone is visiting, but everyone knows each other, and by name. How did they get so friendly? Aren't they from the same factory? Isn’t it a Komsomol organizer walking around here too? Maybe these hours are credited to them as a squad? The bell strikes overhead with large blows, but they are substituted: some kind of tinny blows instead of full-sounding deep ones. The bell rings, announcing the religious procession.

And then they fell down! - not believers, no, again this roaring youth. Now there are two or three of them piled into the courtyard, they are in a hurry, not knowing what they are looking for, which side to capture, where the move will come from. They light red Easter candles, and from the candles they light a cigarette, that’s what! They crowd around, as if waiting to start the foxtrot. There's still not enough beer stall here so that these long-haired, elongated guys - our breed - don't get smaller! - they would blow white foam onto the graves.

And Hod’s head has already left the porch and is turning here under the small bell. Two businessmen walk ahead and ask their young comrades to make way. Three steps later, a bald old man, like a church minister, walks and carries a heavy faceted glass lantern with a candle on a pole. He cautiously looks up at the lantern in order to carry it straight, and to the sides just as cautiously. And this is where the picture begins that I would so much like to paint if I could: isn’t the teacher afraid that the builders of the new society will now crush them and rush to beat them?..

The horror is transmitted to the viewer.

Girls in trousers with candles and guys with cigarettes in their teeth, in caps and unbuttoned raincoats (undeveloped, absurd faces, self-confident for a ruble when they don’t understand for a nickel; and there are simple-lipped ones, gullible ones; there should be a lot of these faces in the picture) tightly surrounded and watch a spectacle that you won’t see anywhere else for money.

Behind the lantern two banners are moving, but not separately, but also as if shy from fear.

And behind them, in five rows of two, are ten singing women with thick burning candles. And they all should be in the picture! The women are elderly, with firm, detached faces, ready to die if tigers are unleashed on them. And two out of ten are girls, the same age of the girls who crowded around with the guys, the same age - but how clean their faces are, how much grace there is in them. Ten women sing and walk in a united formation. They are so solemn, as if people around them are crossing themselves, praying, repenting, and bowing down. These women do not breathe cigarette smoke, their ears are filled with curses, their soles do not feel that the churchyard has turned into a dance floor.

This is how the real religious procession begins! Something came through and the animals on both sides became quiet a little.

The women are followed by priests and deacons in light robes, seven of them. But how difficult it is for them to walk, how confused they are, interfering with each other, they can hardly swing a censer, they can’t lift an orarium. But here, if they hadn’t dissuaded him, the Patriarch of All Rus' could have gone and served!..

They pass compressedly and hastily, and then - and then there is no progress. There is no one else! There are no pilgrims in the procession, because they would not be able to get back into the temple. There are no people praying, but that’s where it got flooded, that’s where our gang got flooded! Like through the broken gates of a warehouse, rushing to seize the loot, rushing to steal rations, rubbing themselves against stone barriers, spinning in the whirlwinds of the flow - guys and girls are crowding, pushing, making their way - and why? They don’t know themselves. To see how the priests will act eccentrically? Or is simply pushing around their job?

A religious procession without worshipers! A religious procession without those being baptized! A religious procession in hats, with cigarettes, with transistors on their chests - the first rows of this audience, as they squeeze into the fence, should definitely get into the picture!

And then it will be completed!

The old woman crosses herself to the side and says to another:

- This year is good, no bullying. How many police?

Ah, here it is! So this is still the best year?..

What will happen to our main millions born and raised? Why the enlightened efforts and hopeful visions of reflective heads? What good things do we expect from our future?

Truly, someday they will turn around and trample us all!

And those who set them here will also be trampled.

A few words in conclusion

Forty-nine years ago, in the ancient church vestibule of the Patriarchal Compound, a spiritual battle unfolded: good and evil again fought for the possession of the human soul. And it is very significant that among this entire crowd of militant atheists there was a procession of the cross. He walked “with firm, detached faces, ready to die, even if tigers were unleashed on them. And two of them are girls, the same age as the girls who crowded around with the guys, the same age, but how clean their faces are, how much lordship there is in them.”

One Orthodox pilgrim several years ago, already in our 21st century, also took part in the Peredelkino procession. He shares his memories:

“I visited the Peredelkino church and, fortunately, did not find “trampling on the dance floor” there, did not find that spiritual ruin described by Solzhenitsyn, but recognized Russia, being reborn through the prayers of those great people who defended the faith with their souls. There were a lot of people in the temple, there were also young people, without cigarettes, without debauchery, with a pure heart - the children of those who, perhaps, boldly and bravely walked through the ranks of the atheists on that distant Easter night of the year sixty-six. So, after a generation, reconciliation came among the people with God, with the Church and with themselves. I was among those praying, happy that Christ defeated the evil of atheism with his Easter.”

-KRASOTA- — 24.04.2011 Happy Holidays!

Easter is the great holiday of the Orthodox church calendar. Bright Sunday of Christ, the most solemn and joyful Christian holiday. It symbolizes the renewal and salvation of the world and man, the triumph of life and immortality over death, good and light over evil and darkness. In Orthodoxy, Easter is the most important holiday for believers: “the king of days,” “the holiday of holidays, the triumph of triumphs,” the church calls it. “Passover” (“passover”) is a Hebrew word, translated it means “transition”, “passing”. According to the Law of Moses, the celebration of this day was established by the ancient Jews in memory of the exodus from Egyptian captivity, as a sign of gratitude for the liberation and support of fugitives during their long journey.
Illarion Pryanishnikov


Christian Easter is the memory of the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God Jesus Christ, his death on the cross and resurrection. The meaning of the holiday is the salvation of all believers from spiritual death, the granting of eternal life to them, thanks to Christ’s atonement for Adam’s original sin and his victory over the forces of evil, the devil, and the destruction of hell. Salvation brought into the world by Christ, as liberation from sin, affecting both the righteous who had already died and those not yet born, symbolized freedom of choice, and the asceticism and life of Christ pointed the way to God. Christian Easter is celebrated after the Jewish one, since according to church history, on the eve of the Jewish Easter after the festive supper, Christ was betrayed by the Apostle Judas Iscariot in the Garden of Gethsemane, doomed to torment and crucified on the first day of the holiday (15th day of the month Nisan according to the lunar Jewish calendar), and resurrected on night from Saturday to Sunday.

The holiday of Christian Easter (as well as Jewish Passover) is celebrated according to the lunar calendar, so it does not have a constant date (there are 28 days in the lunar month, which overlap the solar year of 354 days). According to the resolution of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325), Christians celebrate Easter after the Jewish Easter (coinciding with the first full moon after the vernal equinox) on the first Sunday after this full moon. The time for celebrating Easter is calculated for many years in advance and is recorded in tables - Easter, every 532 years the numbers, days of the week and phases of the moon are repeated, following in the same order, they make up the great Easter circle. According to the calendar, the celebration always falls between April 4 and May 7 according to the new style.
Dinner at Emmaus. Caravaggio, 1603, National Gallery, London


Russian peasants learned about the date of the holiday in church from the priest or from the church elder. In the west of Russia, folk methods of calculating Easter were also known. So, knowing that Easter is always celebrated after the full moon in the last quarter, and there is always a new moon on the “zagovins”, they observed the moon on the Christmas holidays and calculated the length of the meat-eater by the number of weeks, and, consequently, the beginning of Lent and Easter. If it was a new month at Christmas, then the meat-eater should have lasted 8 weeks (counting the oil season), and if on New Year, then 9. The time of Easter was also judged by the duration of the meat-eater last year: if it was 5 or 6 weeks, then in the present should be 8 or 9, and the next - 6 or 7. This method was largely inaccurate, but it is based on observation of the real pattern of Easter.

The Easter service, taking place on the night from Saturday to Sunday, is the logical conclusion of the service of all the previous days of Holy Week, dedicated to the events of the Gospel. Easter Matins begins at exactly 12 o'clock. The resurrection of Christ is announced by the solemn ringing of bells (blagovest), and all the candles and chandeliers in the church are lit. The church choir begins to quietly sing the stichera: “Thy Resurrection, O Christ the Savior, the angels sing in heaven, and grant us on earth with a pure heart to glorify Thee,” a priest with a three-branched candlestick and a cross in his left hand, with a censer in his right, censers around the throne in altar. The curtain on the royal doors is pulled back, the singing becomes louder, the priest censes the throne again, after which the royal doors open to full singing, and the joyful ringing of bells begins.

The Easter procession around the church begins, the meaning of which is the meeting of the risen Christ. Parishioners and the church clergy with an altar cross, icons, banners and burning candles leave the church, the gates of which are closed. At the head of the procession they carry a lantern (according to legend, the myrrh-bearing wives, heading at night to the Holy Sepulcher, blessed their path with a lantern), then - an altar cross, banners and icons; then the choristers, clergy and deacons come with the gospel and the icon of the Resurrection of Christ, and the parishioners complete the procession. During the procession, believers, following the church clergy, sing the Easter stichera: “Thy Resurrection, O Christ the Savior...”.
Vasily Grigorievich Perov Rural religious procession at Easter


The Church compares the participants in the procession with the myrrh-bearing women who went from Jerusalem to the tomb of Christ to wash Him with incense and were the first to meet Him risen. Therefore, believers, leaving the church with a procession of the cross, go out to meet Christ. In this regard, Christian dogmatics also sees in the participants in the procession the descendants of the forefather Adam, who doomed humanity to death by violating the ban, who rush to a new life, to immortality, embodied in Christ.

Having walked around the temple, the procession stops in front of its closed western doors, symbolizing the sealed stone that closed the entrance to the cave where Christ was buried. Here the priest censes icons, banners and believers and baptizes the temple gates, proclaiming: “Glory to the holy, consubstantial, life-giving and indivisible Trinity,” after which they begin to sing the troparion for the first time, “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tomb bestowing life." The song is repeated several times before the doors open and the believers enter the temple singing “Christ is risen,” like the myrrh-bearing women who brought the good news to the apostles. From the point of view of the church, this also symbolizes the entry of the Savior with the souls of the Old Testament righteous into heaven.
Nikolay Pymonenko. 1891


Upon returning to the temple, the priest sings the troparion three times: “Christ is risen from the dead...”. The royal gates are opening again, which symbolizes the opening of the gates of heaven by Christ, once closed to the descendants of those who transgressed the divine prohibition of Adam and Eve. The climax of the service comes when the Easter canon “Resurrection Day, let us enlighten people...” is sung. Each hymn of the canon is accompanied by a repetition of the troparion “Christ is Risen from the Dead,” and between the songs the priest, holding a cross and a burning candle in one hand, and in the other the censer with which the church burns incense, greets the people in the church with the exclamation: “Christ is Risen!” to which the believers respond: “Truly he is risen!” After the song “Let’s hug each other, brethren!” Believers in the temple worship Christ. After the Christening at the end of Matins, the word of John Chrysostom is read and the liturgy is performed, and after it the Holy Gifts are taken out of the altar, and communion begins.
Procession of the cross in Yaroslavl. 1863 Alexey Bogolyubov.


In the villages on Easter night, as soon as the bells ringing, announcing the resurrection, everything was immediately illuminated with lights. The church building and the bell tower were covered in the lights of lanterns hung the day before; fires flared up near the church; outside the village, at road intersections, on hills and high river banks, tar barrels were set on fire, which were sometimes raised on poles. The coals left over from the fires were collected the next morning and placed under the roof eaves to protect the house from lightning and fire. The candle, with which they walked around the church in processions of the cross, was also preserved, attributing magical properties to it. In many places, before the start and end of the festive liturgy, it was customary to shoot from guns. In some places, it was mostly hunters who shot, confident that they would certainly kill the devil with a shot, and at the same time, wanting to ensure a successful hunt for themselves throughout the year.


After the service, the peasants, who did not have time to bless a variety of food for the Easter home meal on Holy Saturday, lined up in the church fence waiting for the priest. They stood in two rows, men with bare heads, women in festive clothes, each holding a tablecloth with an Easter cake on which a candle was burning. For the consecration of the "paska" the peasants threw small copper coins - ten kopecks and nickels - into a bowl of holy water from which the priest sprinkled. In the north of Novgorod province. After the end of the Easter service and the blessing of the Easter cakes, they ran home as quickly as possible to break their fast, because they believed that the one who runs faster would handle the harvest before others, and would collect every last grain from his field.


If there was not even a chapel in a village, on a secluded farm or settlement, the peasants gathered in someone’s hut or on the street to sing “sacred hermos” until the “first rooster” or until they were tired. The same thing happened in the 20-30s of the 20th century, when churches and chapels in many places were closed and destroyed, but the custom of celebrating Easter with a solemn service was preserved. In the eastern regions of the Novgorod region. On the “terrible” Saturday, on the night of Easter, they did not sleep, “waiting for Christ.” Closer to midnight, everyone gathered on the street or on the hill to “meet Christ,” and as soon as 12 o’clock came (“Christ has arrived”) the men fired their guns (“They drive away the enemy (the devil)”), and the women sang “Christ is Risen.” They usually sang until one in the morning and went home, and in the morning they said Christ and broke their fast. If it was not possible to consecrate the Easter cake in the church, then it was simply sprinkled with holy water, brought from the church by someone earlier.
Easter table. 1915-1916. Makovsky A.V.


One of the most important moments of the holiday was the Easter morning meal. After a long and harsh fast, even adult peasants, and especially village children, were looking forward to the “breaking of the fast” and rejoiced at the Easter egg. A mandatory part of the Easter table were eggs and Easter cake blessed in the church, and here and there Easter cottage cheese. The eldest in the family, usually the father, started the meal. When the whole family gathered at the table, the father-owner put an egg on the shrine and prayed in a voice, the family members repeated the prayer “Amen” in chorus, then everyone sat down, the owner personally peeled the first Easter egg, cut it and gave each family member a piece. After this, Easter cake and other treats were also distributed. Very often, breaking the fast began not with fasting food, but with fasting food: with oatmeal jelly prepared on Maundy Thursday, with a spoonful of vegetable oil or grated horseradish, which lay behind the icons from Thursday of Holy Week and was considered a prophylactic against fever.


In many places, any entertainment on Easter day: secular songs, dancing, playing the harmonica, drinking, etc. - were considered by the people as indecency and a great sin. In the Russian North and Siberia, on the first day of the holiday, peasants tried to avoid all pleasures, sat at home, spending time eating, drinking and resting. Going to visit neighbors on this day was either generally considered indecent, or began only in the evening - “from puberty.” The main celebration, the beginning of youth festivities - “games”, took place on the next day of the holiday, which was replete with entertainment.
Children rolling Easter eggs.1855. Koshelev N.A.


In many places, the legacy of church rounds, combined with the ancient tradition of protective and preventive rituals, was the rounds of the village by its inhabitants, mainly women and girls, on the 2nd - 3rd day of Easter. Early in the morning, neighbors with icons on towels (sometimes with a burning candle in a lantern) gathered on the outskirts of the village. They walked around the village singing “Christ has risen from the dead”; they did not enter the houses; at the end of the tour, the icons were washed with water from the well, after which the water was considered holy, it was kept at home and used as a preventive and medicinal remedy for illness. The women who performed the ritual believed that it was able to protect the villagers from various misfortunes, especially from hurricanes and fire.


Children's, sometimes youth, house-to-house visits on the first day of Easter were also common almost everywhere. In the morning, after Easter Matins, the village children gathered in groups of 10 - 20 people and went to “be Christed,” “Christified,” “Christified,” or “Christ glorified.” Entering the house, they congratulated the owners three times: “Christ is risen!” They answered: “In truth he is risen!” and presented them with colored eggs, pies, sweets, a piece of Easter cake, etc. It was considered shameful not to give gifts to children; the owners specially prepared for their arrival, saving treats.
Kustodiev B.M Meeting (Easter Day). 1917


After the Easter meal, the departure of the “god-bearers,” or only the next day, the festive festivities began. At the end of the Easter liturgy, boys, boys, girls, sometimes adult men and women gathered in the church bell tower; thanks to their efforts, the bells did not stop ringing from early morning until 4-5 pm from the first day of Easter until the end of Easter week (until Saturday). Festively dressed young people gathered on the street, where swings were installed especially for Easter. Accordions played, girls and boys danced, sang songs, boys and men competed in various games, including games with Easter eggs, the rest of the villagers came to watch. Often the greatest celebration took place in one of the villages of the parish, where guests, especially young people, gathered. In some villages, fairs were also held on this day. It was not uncommon for girls’ round dances to begin on this day. Adults, going to another village, visited relatives, drank, treated themselves, and sang drinking songs. If visiting on Easter was not customary in a given area, then women and men gathered in groups separately from each other, women talked, men played cards.
B. Kustodiev Easter card (1912)

In some places, on this day or on one of the days of Easter week, the parents of the engaged invited each other to visit. During the meal, the engaged guy and girl, sitting next to each other in the red corner, became the center of everyone's attention, they were treated to vodka, and wishes were expressed. At the same time, the guy had to look after the girl, address her as “you,” by her first name or patronymic or with the words “my betrothed bride,” and serve sweets on a plate. After lunch, the “groom” and “bride”, hugging each other, rode a horse around the village. In Nizhny Novgorod province. The newlyweds were visiting their parents that day. An obligatory gift from a young husband to his wife’s father was Easter cake, for which, to “pray for Easter,” the father-in-law called relatives and friends to visit him.




Easter is one of the most important dates for commemorating the dead. On the one hand, this is connected with the church idea of ​​the death and resurrection of Christ, the atonement of original sin and the transmission of ancestors - the ancient righteous and prophets to paradise. On the other hand, it correlates with the pagan agricultural ideas of the Slavs, according to which any cycle of rituals aimed at predetermining prosperity and harvest is associated with the commemoration of ancestors as givers of benefits. The church prohibited visiting the cemetery on the first day of Easter, dedicating for this purpose the Tuesday following Easter, St. Thomas week - Radunitsa. In many places this custom was strictly observed, but in some places, especially in the western and southern Russian provinces, the ban was not adhered to. In the east of the Novgorod region. On the eve of Easter, at night, housewives placed on the table or on the shrine a plate covered with a napkin with a treat - breaking the fast “for parents”, which contained eggs and pieces of Easter cake. At the same time, the hostess invited the dead: “Come, parents.” It was believed that in response to the invitation, “parents” came to break their fast that night. In the morning, treats were distributed to children who came to congratulate them on the holiday.
Easter. 1842. Mokhov M.A.

In some places, people entered the church cemetery immediately after the festive liturgy with a blessed “paska” (Kulich). Approaching the grave of one of the relatives, they said Christ to the deceased: they bowed, kissed the cross and placed “in their heads,” to the cross, a crumbled egg, a piece of Easter cake and cheese Easter, while singing “Christ is risen...”, but the dead - “parents” were not remembered, explaining that “you cannot remember on Easter, only on Radunitsa.” They crumbled the egg for the birds and called: “Birds of heaven, peck.” It was believed that this treat eased the fate of the deceased in the next world. In many villages, a whole egg was placed at the cross. At the same time, the peasants of the Novgorod province, expecting that one of the beggars would take the offerings from the grave for the remembrance of the soul of the deceased, said: “Whoever takes the egg, bow forty times for the deceased, forty times ask for the eternal kingdom of the Risen One.”
In some places there was a belief that on the first day of Easter you could see your deceased relatives and even talk with them. Knowledgeable people advised to do this by quietly hiding in a church with a passionate candle in your hands, while everyone else was leaving the church in procession.

Easter, according to popular belief, is characterized by a special state of the world. The boundaries between the real and other worlds become transparent, and it becomes possible to communicate with the dead, to see what was previously inaccessible. The peasants believed that on the eve of the holiday, after sunset, it was dangerous to go out into the yard or onto the street, as werewolf devils walked there. The devils are especially angry at this time. With the first strikes of the bell, they fall from the bell tower, where they had previously been hiding, and after Easter Matins they find themselves tied up and walled up in attics, in dark corners of courtyards, and within church walls. If you go to the attic with a lit Easter candle, you can see a tied up devil, and you can hear the torment and fuss of the devils in the church walls by putting your ear to the wall. To recognize witches, it was advised to stand with the charmed cottage cheese at the church doors when people begin to gather for the service.
Easter.