What is the difference between christmas and new year. The connection between New Year and Christmas. Why do we need this - Christmas holiday

Having adopted Christianity, the Russians considered the beginning of the year on March 1. Later, in 1492, the beginning of the year was moved to 2 September. And in 1700, Peter I (a completely non-church person) ordered the celebration of the New Year to be postponed to January 1 (i.e., to January 14 in a new way): “... since the New Year is considered differently in Russia, from now on, stop fooling around people's heads and count the New Year everywhere from the first of January. And as a sign of a good undertaking and fun, congratulate each other on the New Year, wishing well-being in business and prosperity in the family. In honor of the New Year, make decorations from fir trees, amuse children, ride sleds from the mountains. And for adults, drunkenness and massacre should not be committed - other days are enough for that. ” The Decree recommended, if possible, that everyone in their yards fire three shots and launch several rockets from small cannons or small guns, and from January 1 to January 7, at night, light fires from firewood, or from brushwood, or from straw.

The beginning of the indiction (church new year) - from the Creation of the World - the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates in September. The holiday was established by Emperor Constantine the Great, who granted Christians the freedom to profess the faith, and was determined in 325 by the 1st Ecumenical Council.

In Russia, from 1492 to 1700, this day (according to the old style - September 1) began not only the church, but also the civil new year, the date of which Emperor Peter the Great moved to January 1. But in the liturgical books, the following of the new summer remains the same, and every year special prayers are served in the churches for indictment, asking for God's blessing for a new circle of life.

NEW YEAR ABROAD
In ancient Egypt, the new year was celebrated at the beginning of summer, during the flood of the Nile. In medieval England - March 1: the arrival of spring, the beginning of the year. In ancient Greece, the new year came on the day the Olympic Games began - June 22.
For the first time the new year was appointed on January 1 by Julius Caesar. In Russia, the New Year was postponed to January 1 by Peter I, in 1700 the holiday began with a parade on Red Square, and in the evening the sky was lit up by the lights of festive fireworks. Before the decree of Peter I, the New Year in Russia was celebrated on September 1 - at the beginning of autumn. Mummers walked around the yards, who sang songs, danced, wished a good harvest. Now the New Year is everyone's favorite holiday. How it is celebrated in Russia, you see every year, but in other countries ... In Italy, the Befana fairy comes to the children, she flies on a magic broom and, opening the doors with a golden key, fills children's stockings with gifts. Italian Santa Claus is called Babbo Natale. Everyone knows the Italian custom to throw away old things on New Year's Eve. It is believed that the New Year should start with everything new. French wizard - Pere Noel - leaves gifts in children's shoes. Interestingly, a family member who gets a bean baked in a festive cake receives the title of bean king and power for the whole New Year's Eve. In Sweden, the Queen of the Light Lucia arrives for the New Year, with a dish full of gifts in her hands, with a crown on her head. In the Czech Republic and Slovenia, Mikulas comes to children. To the Afghans - Navruz, to the Cubans - magician kings: Baltasar, Gaspar, Melchor. The holiday is called the Day of the Kings. The day before, the children write letters to the kings. Pasquale arrives in Colombia. No one knows how to make fireworks better than him. 108 beats herald the arrival of the new year in Japan. On New Year's Eve, the Japanese hide under the pillow a picture of a ship on which 7 patrons of happiness are sailing. The Japanese are building amazing snow and ice towns in northern cities where it is very cold in winter. In England and Germany, Santa Claus brings gifts to children. In England, old fairy tales are played for children in theaters, a procession passes through the streets: Lord Chaos leads fairy-tale heroes - the March Hare, Hobby Horse and others. In Germany, Santa Claus arrives on a donkey and the children leave hay in their shoes - a treat for the donkey. In Holland, Santa Claus arrives by ship. Children joyfully meet him at the pier. Santa Claus loves funny pranks and often gives candies and toys to children. And where did this tradition come from - to give gifts? It turns out that from ancient Rome: the first gifts were laurel branches - symbols of happiness and good luck. And greeting cards came to us from England. In 1843, the first New Year's card was printed in London.

But how did a Christmas tree become a New Year's tree? After all, the New Year is a completely different holiday! Once it was celebrated separately from Christmas. For the French, for example, three centuries ago, the year began on April 1. In Rome - March 1st. In Russia, until the 15th century, it was also March 1, and then September 1.

How did these two holidays come together? And very simply: by the orders of sovereigns. In France, the New Year was postponed to January 1 by the verdict of King Charles the Ninth in 1645, in Russia by the decree of Peter the Great in 1700. In honor of the holiday, Peter ordered "to hang branches of spruce, pine or juniper along the large and noble streets and at the gates of houses."

the conclusion is this - NG is a purely secular holiday that has nothing to do with the RH ... everyone has the right to celebrate it or not ... It is clear that we are Evangelical Christians always and do everything for the Glory of God and NG is no exception - NG is a milestone for us in life ( well, let it be on January 1 - what's the difference) - revision of what has been done, plans for the future, Gratitude to the Lord, Repentance, Hope in the Lord, Prayer for Blessing for the next Year ....

The political events of recent days have been grouped in such a way that the geopolitical game of world politicians, in which we are mostly just spectators (because nothing depends on us), has already gone on a grand scale.

It is quite possible that very soon one of the participants in this game will lose their nerve, and then ... And thenonly god knows what will happen...

Precisely therefore, the one who is supposed to know by statusabout politicians' plansmore than others, namely the head of the Roman Catholic ChurchFrancis, unexpectedly stunned the crowd of European inhabitants who gathered in Rome on Peter's Square, with the news:

World media spread around the world these words of the head of the Vatican Francis on December 21.

Why does Francis think so?

What made him utter such a fatal thought?

If I were not a philosopher and would not write successively a series of books on a biblical topic:"The Crucified Sun," The Fiery Bible, "The Enemy of the Human Race", "The Apocalypse Comes Tomorrow" and others, I would not know, of course, what is so oppressivepontiff and sets in a pessimistic mood.

I am sure that he is oppressed by the idea that the "biblical project", in which the Roman Catholic Church has played a leading role for many centuries, is approaching its finale and should end with the Apocalypse -epiphanymillions, and possibly several billions of people.

A calypse, if anyone does not know, translated from Greek, means"dropping the veil from the eyes" or "Curtain Fall", (hiding from the crowd of spectators something secret to the village).

IN there is no doubt that Pope Francis knows more than anyone, namely: when the secret ins and outs of the Abrahamic world religions will be revealed to millions of people around the world, and they they will take a fresh look at the deeds that have been done on behalf of God over the centuries by priests who call themselves followers of Christ, as well as politicians acting with their approval and consent , then for them, for all, the future action really should be presented"End of the World"or something like that.

How the best gene pool of mankind was destroyed by Catholics in the Middle Ages, these engravings tell:

And since the Vatican is today a state within a state, and since the Vatican is also a financial empire, and this financial empire is connected by the closest ties with all the world's financiers and bankers who created their financial empires in Switzerland, England, Europe and the USA, andit's all therewholethen leave the gaming scene all thesethose in power, just like that, of course, they don’t want to!

If the card lies that they will have to "leave" and leave forever, then, of course, they will try to loudly slam the "door" leading to Hell before their Exodus.

That the Exodus "powers of darkness"(this is a biblical term, by the way) will inevitably be connected with the Third World War, the head of the Vatican more than transparently hinted exactly a month ago, on November 22, 2015, that:

.

Then, about 2 weeks ago, a vigilant woman named Svetlana wrote me a letter:

"Anton, hello! Your blog works great! I began to notice some signs and symbols thanks to your work. Remembering installation with pumpkins and an airplane model stuck in them(it was erected in Vladivostok shortly before Halloween and the Airbus A321 with Russian tourists shot down over the Sinai desert), drew attention to the new installation, which appeared with us on December 9 this year. She looks very global, in the Masonic style, like this":

Photo from the article:"Near the Krasnoyarsk shopping and entertainment center an unusual installation from the Babakh store appeared" .

Svetlana Z:"It looks like clear hint topics "who's on topic" to prepare for time X. "Planet" is a shopping and entertainment center (very similar to our planet - where there is no war, there is trade and entertainment), under it is a suspicious box of "booms". I immediately want to call the security service, but who would say what number to call ... Inside the box, a campaign called "Countdown" was launched, the essence of which is that customers are given a discount (today it was 19%), which with each during the day it decreases and by the so-called New Year it will go to zero. Considering inadequate opposing side, "bang" is quite possible ... After all, Leiba Davidovich Trotsky promised, when he left, to slam the door .... True, he ended his life with an ice pick in his head ... This is such an Apocalypse.

I repeat, this was written to me on December 13, 2015 by one vigilant woman, one of my readers, and just the other day, the head of the Roman Catholic Church specified that"babah"can happen before the New Year, already on December 25:"This Christmas may be the last for mankind..."

Knowing Who rules the world, and how these gentlemen love to "make fun" of little people, I admit two options:

1. Inflated mass psychosis, there is a banal intimidation of people,

2. Chaos and world warreally want to untie, in accordance with the plans of the "elite" to reduce the world's population by 2/3 .

The fact that the second option is also possible, I judge by the events of a month and a half ago.

I hope everyone knows and remembers thatOctober 31, 2015in the sky over the Sinai desert, a passenger plane flying from Egypt to Russia was shot down.

At first, I, probably like everyone else, considered this catastrophe an ordinary terrorist attack, but when I read an article in Komsomolskaya Pravda that said that in honor of the satanic holiday Halloween, which also fell onOctober 31"Vladivostok restaurateurs installed a festive installation with a plane crashed on pumpkins" , I realized that the cause of the air tragedy could be completely different. It was most likely a sign, a hint or a warning.

To whom?

It is obvious that whose tourists died in a plane crash.

That is, a hint to Putin, the President of Russia.

Reference: "The main symbol of Halloween is the so-called" Jack-o'-lantern - Jack Lantern). It is a pumpkin carved with an ominously grinning face; a lit candle is placed inside the gourd. Jack O'Lanterns first appeared in the UK.

According to Komsomolskaya Pravda, the Zuma restaurant, one of the most popular restaurants in Vladivostok, greeted guests with an installation with a plane crashing into pumpkins on the day of mourning for those killed in a plane crash. Yes, yes, the installation was a mountain of pumpkins (a symbol of the Halloween holiday), from which the tail of an airplane that fell from the sky sticks out!"

Reality in this photo: what is left of the A321 passenger plane blown up in the sky over EgyptOctober 31, 2015.

In this photo, an installation in Vladivostok, made specifically for the Halloween holiday, which was also celebratedOctober 31, 2015.

Well, now it looks like we'll all be waiting for the big "BOOM" at Christmas, becausesomeonefearful of the coming insight of millions of people...

Obviously, this someone is doing everything himself so that after the "babah" what was predicted by Christ would take place. .

Application: .

Most of us this year, as in the past, on New Year's Eve and Christmas will gather with relatives and friends at the festive table. We will give each other gifts and wish a happy New Year and a Merry Christmas. But what is really behind these two holidays? The permanent expert of the LIFE Club, theologian Fyodor Raychinets, explains.

New Year: traditions

For the last few years, I have been celebrating the New Year with friends, with my family - this is a kind of tradition that is already scary to refuse. Since we celebrate in an international family, we celebrate the New Year four times: first, Georgian time, then Russian time, then Kiev time, and, finally, European time.

New Year is always associated with summing up. Looking back, we reflect on what we did and what we should not have done. As well as about what they didn’t do, but were going to do. And this is a cautious attempt to look into the future.

I have two feelings associated with the future - hope and fear: the hope that it will be better, and the fear that the plan will not work out.

If we talk about the connection between these holidays, then the chronology is correct when Christmas precedes the New Year. The Feast of Christmas is the feast of the Epiphany, and when it comes earlier than the calendar New Year, then at this final time it is good to look back and look to the future from its perspective. The New Year should be treated differently than Christmas, and Christmas should be filled with new meanings so that we get to the bottom of what we celebrate.

Christmas: essence

Christmas is generally a difficult holiday. Imagine an image of a cut down tree on which a new branch grows. Or imagine dry cracked earth from which grass emerges. What are these images about? The fact that Christmas is, first of all, a holiday of hope. But where does this hope come from? Where there are no preconditions for it. There's a dead tree that's been cut down that didn't bear fruit, and it's been cut down, but life comes in there. Fragile, vulnerable life that can be broken, trampled, crushed. But if this life is preserved, it can reveal something to you that will help to radically transform your own life. I would like for us this holiday to become a holiday of hope, which appears where there is no reason for it.

Hope is associated with the fact that we are not waiting for some kind of global transformation, but each of us is taking a small step towards the imaginary future that we want for ourselves. And we take this step, risking, perhaps, many or even all.

In the born Jesus Christ, I see the embodiment of what God is and how His image is laid in me. And I see the path and the life that leads to God.

Personal Steps to Christmas

The first step is not to be lazy and not to be afraid discover gospel stories the way they talk about Christmas.

According to the Holy Scriptures, religious holidays have always taken place in the family. So, it is very important not to be afraid to discover old forgotten meanings for yourself and your family in a new way.

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The second step is important, having discovered these meanings for yourself, immediately not to lose, do not close.

And third, you need dare to make them. This is risky because goodness is always risky and unpredictable. You can predict evil, but when doing good, you cannot predict how it will return to you. But whatever it turns out to be, you run the risk of continuing to do good, because it is good.

Immerse yourself in the Gospel Christmas, discover it for yourself and bring it to life - these are the three steps I would advise everyone on the eve of this holiday.

For many of us, a holiday is a generously laid table, fun and pleasant idleness. Just a red day of the calendar, when you can relax and not think about anything. And only, probably, New Year's celebrations fill the soul with excitement, inspiration and a completely unfounded belief in a miracle. The holiday is a very sacred time, especially significant and understandable for those who have not lost touch with the earth. After all, each of the major annual holidays is associated with natural cycles. The rituals that our ancestors performed these days were designed to ensure the peaceful existence of Mother Nature and people.

Special guest of the project - writer Lada Luzina

Lada Luzina:

Our pagan ancestors, worshiping Mother Earth, celebrated the New Year on the first day of spring (March 1), when the earth is resurrected after winter death and everything starts again. And January 1st is the legacy of Julius Caesar, the inventor of the Julian calendar, according to which January 1st became the first day of the year for the first time.
In 1699, Peter 1 ordered by special decree "from now on to calculate the summer" from January 1. So this date became the official beginning of the new year.

In 1918, when the Bolsheviks decided to replace the Julian calendar with the Gregorian one, time suddenly jumped two weeks ahead... That did not prevent people from stubbornly celebrating the New Year "according to the old style." What they did for ten years in a row, until in 1928 the Christmas tree-cracker holiday was banned altogether, as bourgeois, anti-Soviet and counter-revolutionary.
Only in 1935 in the USSR the New Year was rehabilitated!

In the first month of winter, a new sun is born, the day begins to increase, the light arrives. In December, one of the four major annual holidays is celebrated - the winter solstice (solstice), which the Christian Church timed to coincide with the Nativity of Christ. That day is December 25th.

Lada Luzina: “Now for most of us, December 25th passes almost unnoticed. And yet, speaking of Christmas time, it is impossible not to celebrate it. After all, pre-revolutionary Christmas (before the introduction of the ill-fated new style) fell on this day, from which a single and indivisible twelve-day period began holidays.
In America and most of Europe, they still celebrate on these dates - from December 25 to January 6, from the birth of the baby Jesus to his baptism and appearance to the world. The most famous Christmas hymn is sung about the twelve days of Christmas ... In our country, the feast of Epiphany and Epiphany has shifted to January 19, and working days are full of red dates.
Before the revolution, almost all of these days were “non-attendance” - that is, days off (it was not supposed to be present at the service). Christmas was usually celebrated at home, quietly and decorously, after attending the Christmas service. But, all the other days of Christmas time - “Christmas Day” actively went to congratulate friends and bosses, “for Christmas trees” to friends, to balls, masquerades, charity lotteries ... Alas, because of the fatal difference in time, forcing us to celebrate Christmas after the New Year , another ritual has disappeared, under the conditional name "Birth and death of spruce." As I have clarified more than once, the tree in those years was not New Year's, but Christmas. It is characteristic that in Lesya Ukrainka's story "Holy Evening" the word Christmas tree is not even mentioned - only "Christmas Tree". He was dressed up on the Holy evening and she lived only one night ... like any festive dish. For in those years, the tree was mostly edible. From the works of Vertinsky, Kataev, Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, from the memoirs of their contemporaries, one can learn that the appearance of the Christmas tree was a whole thoughtful ritual. Therefore, meeting with her - the sudden appearance of a festive princess from behind the scenes of gray everyday life - has always become one of the most striking events of childhood!
According to the written rule, the spruce was brought into the house and dressed up in the strictest confidence from the children. The kids were asked to sit in another room or taken away to visit. The sister of the poetess, Anastasia Tsvetaeva, recalled that the parents "hid the Christmas tree from us with exactly the same passion with which we dreamed of seeing it." Before calling the kids, paraffin candles were lit on the spruce branches, then the door opened and ...
“The Christmas tree was elegant, huge, up to the ceiling, and looked like some ancient queen, dressed in pearls and brocade, formidable and beautiful,” the poet Alexander Vertinsky wrote in his memoirs. Unfortunately, being an orphan who, secretly from a strict aunt, could only steal gingerbread from spruce at night, he could not learn another famous, forgotten tradition of "robbing the Christmas tree" and "destroying the Christmas tree." Decorated not so much with cracker toys as with gifts, books, sweets and gingerbread, doused with pink and blue sugar, golden and silver walnuts, oranges, tangerines, apples - the tree was given to the children on the same evening for complete looting and tearing to pieces. They were even allowed to knock down the Christmas tree on the floor (at that time we practically did not have glass toys). And the Holy Evening bore the second - the unspoken name "holiday" plucking the Christmas tree. The next day, the Christmas tree was safely thrown away ... "

In Ukraine, the main symbol of Christmas was Didukh, the spirit of grandfathers. Didukh is a heritage of the most ancient cult of Ukrainian rituals. It is an unthreshed sheaf of bread, for which the first or last sheaf squeezed out on the field is left.

Lada Luzina: "The first sacrament of the Christmas Eve in Ukraine was the bringing into the house of Didukh - a sheaf of wheat. Congratulating the family on the holiday, the owner put "grandfather" in a place of honor. hut from the field in the fall. At the end of the winter festivities, it was ground and a new field was sown with this grain in the spring. But, as Grushevsky testified, in addition to the eloquent name Didukh (Grandfather's Spirit), this symbol of the Forefather had another - Karachun.
At Christmas, it was customary to honor all the dead - their own and others, sinners and the righteous. For them, the leftovers of food were generously left for the night and the crumbs were scattered on the floor. But in front of great-grandfather Didukh-Karachun they put a separate bowl - a sacrifice in the form of bread with kutya. Kutia has long been considered a dish for commemoration of the dead. The second indispensable attribute of the Christmas feast is a broth, a symbol of life. Life and death reigned that night on the table, outside the window and in the sky...
It was believed that the well-fed souls of the dead - "grandfathers" big and small - protect their descendants from all sorts of misfortunes. And the well-known winter caroling and generosity, during which the boys and girls dressed up in scary masks and the casings turned inside out, walked around the huts, knocked on the windows and collected sausages with pies in bags - nothing more than a carnival procession of spirits demanding generous and tasty gifts . The foreman of carolers was traditionally called Grandfather (he did not have to utter a single word). And the meaning of the offering was traditional - to buy yourself a happy, fruitful and well-fed coming year. Moreover, the Old Slavic New Year, directly connected with Karachun and Kolyada and giving us carols as a keepsake, was celebrated by our ancestors exactly on the winter solstice, on the longest night. It was a celebration of life and death.
Some consider Karachun the twin of Chernobog, others the winter incarnation of Veles, the god of cattle mortality. Still others claim that this was the name of the black snake. Every year he swallowed the old sun. But in the morning the goddess Kolyada gave birth in the waters of the Dnieper to the little son of Bozhich - a new world. Death gave birth to life. Just as the cut sheaf of Didukh gave birth to new crops, just as our Forefather gave birth to all of us. And this circle was endless ...

The current New Year tree, which we decorate with toys from childhood, inherited from our mothers and grandmothers, has essentially turned into the same Didukh - the spirit of grandfathers, in which we used to see a way to connect with our ancestors.

According to tradition, 12 dishes should be present on the Christmas table. In Western Ukraine, the owner of the house took a little from each of them and put them in a separate bowl. After that, dough was kneaded on this basis and Christmas bread was baked. By the way the bread turned out, they predicted the future: if the bread turned out to be magnificent and beautiful, then the year would be happy and profitable for the whole family, unsuccessful - to deprivation. If the upper crust is incited, the next year threatens with troubles: there will be illnesses or the family will break up. If the grain falls, pestilence will attack the cattle.

Christmas bread is present on the table all holidays. Then it is wrapped in a clean linen and fed throughout the year to livestock if they are sick.

See how to make bread

Probably everyone remembers the fairy tale "Twelve Months". In it, each of the 12 months of the year endows the main character with her gift. But you just have to take a closer look and you understand: the fairy tale is right. Each month has its own energy. And everyone brings something different to our lives. Therefore, we decided to come up with our own New Year tradition - gratitude to the past year, to each of the 12 months. If possible, remember what important events happened in the past year, what you learned and what you achieved. Write them down on a piece of paper with words of gratitude to those Universal forces that helped, taught and guided you. And before midnight, burn it - let the energy of fire deliver your gratitude to the addressee. By focusing on achievements and positive, you are charged with new energy and the desire to move on.

What is the beginning of the year? This is a moment to evaluate past events and determine the way forward. That is why during this period people actively guess. Fortune telling reveals subconscious motives and desires, and it is they who create the events of our life. But one can not only guess. It's best to just look inside yourself and ask: "What do I want? What makes me happy and happy?" And these aspirations write down on a piece of paper. And then put your wishes in a box-book so that throughout the year they remind us of the chosen path.

How to make a box-book see

The energy of natural materials present on the festive table will strengthen the connection with the natural rhythms of the earth and space.

Lada Luzina: "A legend has been preserved that has absorbed both theosophical disputes and ancient cults. On the night when Jesus was born, all the plants came to bow to him. The very Egyptian palm tree appeared first, followed by birches, oaks, poplars, eucalyptus trees, cedars ... And along with them and a modest Christmas tree. Other trees tried to shield her from the eyes of the baby. But suddenly a miracle happened. The stars swirled in the sky and fell down, decorating the fir needles with burning lights. The second legend tells that at the hour of the Nativity of Christ all the trees in the world blossomed and gave fruit, so apples appeared on the tree…

Until the middle of the 18th century, all the toys on the Christmas tree were edible and very symbolic - without the admixture of secular tinsel. The Christmas tree was decorated according to special canonical rules: if the tops of the first trees were crowned by the pagan sun, it was very soon replaced by the Star of Bethlehem. The legacy of ancient sacrifices - fruits candied in honey replaced wafers, which were obligatory in the Middle Ages, later - cookies and gingerbread, reminiscent of the unleavened bread used in the sacrament ceremony. Burning candles symbolized the light that illuminated the earth at the birth of Christ, and at the same time the essence of Christ's sacrifice. According to the rules, there are exactly twelve of them - as many as there are months in the year and Christ's apostles, but in any case, the number must certainly be even. And, finally, red apples, personifying the forbidden fruit that the universal ancestors ate.

According to another legend, in 1848 in Germany there was a crop failure of apples. And on Christmas Eve, good Christians went to bow to the glassblowers in the city of Lausch, so that they would make glass apples for them to decorate the church fir. Whether there was a harvest that year or not, it is officially considered the date of birth of Christmas tree balls, which are still loved today. In fact, they appeared a little earlier, but due to the complexity of manufacturing, glass "apples" were worth their weight in gold and were made to order only for noble persons. One thing is true in the legend - it was in the German Lausch in the middle of the 19th century that the production of balls was first established in the world. Twenty years later, a gas plant was opened there, which until the 1920s was considered the world's best manufacturer of Christmas decorations.

Wood is a very warm natural material. Our ancestors actively used wood both for the production of household items and for decorating the house. Wooden Christmas decorations, figurines on New Year's theme - the best decor for a festive feast.

Lada Luzina: "The worship of trees (especially unfading, not subject to winter) and the decoration of these and these were inherent in almost all ancient peoples. On the winter solstice, the Egyptians planted trees in their homes with palm branches, the Romans lit candles on tree branches during Saturnalia. In Russia, colorful ribbons birch was dressed up - it was the first to bloom after winter. And the cult of pine-spruce trees was developed among many tribes. But our favorite "Christmas tree is elegant" is German by nationality. In ancient times, the Germans went to the forest in winter to dress up the chosen tree with multi-colored rags and burning candles.

In Russia, the German Christmas tree heritage simply could not help but take root - just because the majority of Russian tsars traditionally married German princesses. The first, as always, was Peter I, with the proviso that his adored Anna Mons was not his wife, but his mistress, and not a princess, but the daughter of a master from a German settlement. But it was he who issued in December 1699 the well-known decree “On the big streets, near deliberate houses, in front of the gates, put some decorations from trees and branches of pine, spruce and cerebellum against the samples that are made at Gostinaya Dvor”, and “meager people” on means “even though each one should put a tree or a branch on the gate or over his temple ... but stand that decoration of January on the first day.”
The efforts of the great reformer were not crowned with success. For some reason, spruce took root only in taverns. From the time of Peter the Great to Pushkin's time, innkeepers honestly continued to decorate their establishments with coniferous "trees", where it stood from the New Year all year - withered, showered, lopsided - becoming a kind of symbol of drunkenness. Taverns were called by the people "trees", nodding towards those who had drunk: ""It can be seen that Ivan Yelkin was visiting."
In the 18th century, Christmas trees were often used to decorate places for all kinds of winter festivities, but they were not allowed into the house. According to Russian legend, the Christmas tree became a “member of the family” when the future Emperor Nicholas I married a Prussian princess, who was named Alexandra Feodorovna in Orthodoxy. In April 1818, their first son Alexander, also a future emperor, was born, and in December the first domesticated Christmas tree was placed for him in the palace.

And for a snack, a few Christmas divinations from Lada Luzina:

FORTUNE ON GROUPS OR HAT

What is needed for this?

Buckwheat (or hat), paper, pen.

How to do it?

Cut pieces of paper, write your desires on them, roll the pieces of paper into a tube. Pour buckwheat into the basin (if one is not at hand, replace it with a regular hat). Put paper tubes there and mix ... Several people can participate in this divination. Then the pieces of paper are distributed among the fortune-tellers, and everyone writes something of their own on them.

Warning!

When someone pulls out your cherished desire - it's very insulting!

Blindfold Fortune Telling

What is needed for this?
A scarf, a table and many different items symbolizing the possible events of the coming year. Usually the following characters participate in my divination:

A large bill means big money.
A trifle - money for daily bread
Condom - sex
Pupsik is a man
wedding ring - marriage
Scissors - thrill
Candy - sweet life
Compass - unexpected changes
A pen is work (it’s just that for me, work is associated only with writing!)
Flower - inspiration
Electric light bulb - rays of glory
A ball, tangerine or any other round object - the birth of a child.

If necessary, all these items can be replaced with others - those that you have at hand. For example, a baby doll - a “man” can be exchanged for a photo of a specific man, scissors - for a knife, etc. By themselves, things do not matter - only what they symbolize matters!

How to do it?

Things are laid out on the table. One of the fortunetellers is blindfolded, they help her twist three times and bring the table down. Take the thing that you find first. If you accidentally grab two at once, both are waiting for you! This process (blindfolding, spinning, blind search) is worth doing three times. After that, return all the items to their place and give way to a friend ...

Warning

Do not put items on the table that symbolize something bad for you.

FORTUNE ON THE BOOK

"Let's guess," said Dasha. Here is some book; each of us should take turns opening it at random, and the other should name any line on the right or left side. The content will be a prophecy for us.”
A.K. Tolstoy "Ghoul"

What is needed for this?

Any book, but fiction is better. Mine will do too. For example, the novel "The Kyiv Witches" usually turns out to be very "eloquent".

How to do it?

One young lady picks up a book, and the other voices her question aloud: “What awaits me this year?” (you can also set another, more urgent one), then calls the page number and line number (top or bottom). The line must be read to the end of the sentence, that is, to the point. And it can begin at least from the middle of a word - it doesn’t matter (if you named the fourteenth line, the thirteenth line does not concern you!).
The process is repeated three times. All three "prophecies" are written down on paper. After that, we read them out loud as a single story, and together we try to understand: what does this mean?

Warning!

The results are very unexpected...

Good fortune and Happy New Year!

Design idea and decor: Inna Karnaukhova

Floral compositions: Tamila Kubrakova

Tamila Kubrakova and Inna Karnaukhova

The material uses excerpts from articles by Lada Luzina.

The material was prepared by Inna Karnaukhova

What else can you do for Christmas?

• A star on a caroling stick. Cut out an eight-pointed star from thick, non-corrugated cardboard. We glue it with foil or white paper, which we paint with gold or silver acrylic paint (gouache can leak if the star falls under snowfall). The finished star can be pasted over with sparkles, "rain", finely chopped tinsel.
• Christmas decorations - nuts for the Christmas tree. To do this, wrap the walnuts in foil. Or foil candy wrappers. Do not forget to glue a ribbon or thread inside to hang a nut on this loop.
• The simplest Christmas decoration is satin ribbon bows.
• We select and make Christmas tree animals ourselves - those that are mentioned in the Bible. Skimnes, unicorns, whales, donkeys. We read about each of them in the Book of Books. And this is also part of the education of children. You can use the origami technique. You can do it easier: children draw the selected animal on thick paper, cut it out.
• Toys-photos on the Christmas tree. To do this, we take a sheet of thick cardboard, tinsel, ribbon, photographs of children (or images of temples, drawings of children with wise men, shepherds - whatever images you like). Cut out two identical circles from cardboard (you can circle a cup or saucer). From the photos we cut out circles of the same size. Glue a photo to the front side of each cardboard circle. To the inside of one of the circles we glue the tinsel and one end of the loop from the tape. We glue two circles. This photo-toy can be presented to grandmothers, godparents, you can hang it on your Christmas tree.

On the fifth of January we do cleaning: we vacuum, wash the floors, mirrors. You can prepare some food for Christmas so that you can stand at the stove less on Christmas Eve. Make drinks ahead of time. For example, this: remove the seeds from lemons (or oranges), grind the pulp in a food processor with sugar. On Christmas night, all that remains is to dilute this mixture with water, and you will get a very tasty and healthy natural lemonade. On the same day, you can make aspic, jelly. Peel the onions, garlic, if they are needed for Christmas dishes. Bake unpeeled vegetables - on Christmas Eve they will only have to be peeled, finely chopped and sent to the salad. All this can be done with children. We try to prepare everything that can be done in advance for Christmas Eve so that there is less fuss on Christmas Eve. If you distribute things over several days, you can do more, and less likely to fall into irritation from “as-always-we don’t have time to do anything!”. We hang clothes for night service, we iron ribbons for girls. In the evening of this day, pour boiling water over wheat for kutia, cover it well - so that tomorrow it will cook less.

On January 6, the morning in the temple begins with the reading of the Royal Hours. It will be difficult for children to endure two standings in the temple during one day and an early awakening before the night Liturgy, so in the morning we usually read the service at home. Amazing prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, prayers that prepare us for the meeting with the Holiday. Then we decorate the Christmas tree, decorate the house, icons. For a nightly conversation, we make salads, bake meat that will be delicious to eat cold (for example, boiled pork). So that at night, when we return from the temple, it remains only to set the table. We cook juicy. The most delicious kutya that we have made looks like a real dessert: wheat, honey, a lot of prunes soaked in hot tea with bergamot beforehand, and all this is sprinkled with grated dark chocolate. When it starts to get dark, we have time to finish all the work. The holiday begins. The table is covered with a white tablecloth, covered with straw. Candles are lit on the table and in front of the nativity scene, garlands on the windows are turned on. We sing the Christmas troparion and sit down at the table. And on the table - kutya in a common wooden bowl, from which we will eat together with wooden spoons ...

And soon, today is Christmas! We go to bed to rest before the night service. Together we read short "children's" prayers before Communion, put the children to bed. They slowly fall asleep, while the parents continue to pray aloud by the candle, read the canon of the Nativity of Christ. Adults also manage to relax, because everything has already been redone.

It's time to get up for the night service. We turn on the disk with records of carols and thus wake up the sleeping ones. Children jump up and rush to get dressed as soon as possible. This moment from childhood is the most-most ... But we will not talk about this anymore. This is already Christmas, not preparation for it.

The preparation is over, the fast is over, the Feast is beginning. When the whole earth will sing to the Lord, as it sang two thousand years ago, and when people will sing in joy, and we will also sing, with our whole house, together with our holy Church, we will sing glory to the Newborn Savior of the world.