Weddings on church holidays. Wedding on Red Hill: signs and traditions Why they play a wedding on Red Hill

Krasnaya Gorka is the name of the first Sunday after Lent, a holiday that symbolizes the victory of spring over winter, life over death and, of course, love over all other feelings. The name of the holiday is associated with the habit of our ancestors to gather on this day on high hills, hills - to be closer to the spring sun and have a good walk.

A wedding on Krasnaya Gorka has long been considered the key to a happy family life. This bright spring holiday appeared in Rus' long before Christianity, and has its roots in Slavic pagan culture.

Why is the slide, and even red?
Our distant ancestors met spring with festive folk festivals, after which the time for agricultural work began. The beginning of spring was marked by floods of rivers, flooding the lowlands and leaving the hillocks and hills dry, covered with the first green growth.

On the tops of these hills, young people gathered to have fun and play, accompanied by songs and round dances. The girls sang "vesnyanki" - songs about the onset of spring and warm sunny days, which served as a guarantee of a rich harvest.

The red color for the Slavs signified everything related to beauty, attractiveness and joy. Spring and summer are precisely those seasons that were most loved by the people. Let us recall the famous phrases "spring has come - red", "summer is red", "red sun". From here, according to one version, the name "Red Hill" came.

The meeting of spring was associated with Yarila - the deity of the sun, fertility and prosperity. On this holiday, everyone treated each other with round bread - a loaf, fried eggs, baked round pies. The round shape of the treats resembled the sun and symbolized Yarila.

Eggs, as a symbol of the birth of a new life, were painted red and rolled down the hill. It was believed that the one whose egg would roll the longest and remain unharmed would live happily ever after.

In Rus' there were many various holidays, church and ancient, pagan. As a legacy from a bygone culture of worshiping the forces of nature. Now some pagan events are still quite relevant, moreover, important events are timed to coincide with them. The same wedding on Krasnaya Gorka in 2019. How to spend it, what signs exist, what kind of holiday is this?

• Red hill
• Date at the Red Hill

Red hill

Ancient, pagan holiday. It is known that in Rus' people were pagans before the spread of Christianity. They worshiped the forces of nature, deified them. We met spring, tried to spend the winter with rituals so that it would leave faster. It was believed that until the winter leaves, the thaw will not come.

For example, towards the end of the 2nd month, April (or pollen) - by the beginning of May (or herbalist) in Rus', they began to celebrate spring. They sang songs, led group round dances, rolled eggs from the tops of already green hills, baked various pies with loaves, making them ruddy and round, honoring the Sun. Also, the all-night festivities were dedicated to the god of the Sun.

In addition to pies, they tried to make all dishes round. In addition to the shape of the Sun, it symbolized the circle of life. After all, with the spring, as the ancients believed, life began anew. Winter with its coldness seemed to put an end to it.

The young men put on festive, bright shirts, while the girls weaved beautiful multi-colored ribbons into their braids, then went out to Red Hill to make new acquaintances. According to beliefs, those who did not appear on time at the Red Mountain will receive a freckled, terrible wife, and the girl who missed the "event" will remain in the girls. The same people who managed to agree and find a mate for themselves could receive the blessing of Yarila himself (in Rus' he was the god of the Sun), that their life would turn out well, be happy, long.

This is how the meeting place turned over time into a separate holiday, which inherited the name "Red Hill". It is the first Sunday that will be after the beginning of the celebration of Easter with the end of Lent, when weddings were forbidden. Sometimes, after a long break, there were so many people who wanted to get married that the church simply did not have time to accept them. The lucky ones were lucky, they believe that if they manage to get married in Krasnaya Gorka, then the marriage will certainly be happy, life will be long. Like these ones .

A real union, concluded simultaneously in heaven, then on earth. Orthodox Christians themselves call the day of Krasnaya Gorka still Fomin's day, because the whole week that usually goes after Easter is Fomin's week. Then on Fomin's day, the couples agreed on an imminent upcoming wedding, and then during Fomin's week they got married, as it were. This week is a real rush for priests, they need to marry more than a dozen couples who want to.

Date at the Red Hill

Its date shifts every year, because the holiday is associated with Easter. For 2019, Easter is April 28, then Krasnaya Gorka will be held on May 5.

For antiquity, a wedding dedicated to Krasnaya Gorka was considered extremely beneficial in terms of housing and economics. A new person appeared in the house before the start of the main sowing work, garden chores. Working hands! The wedding and on Krasnaya Gorka in 2019, she has trouble-free signs.

If you spend it cheerfully, noisily, then the harvest will certainly be plentiful, rich, just like the happiness of the young. There was another belief - they say such weddings last for many years and never end in divorce.

How should a wedding like this go?

There are many traditions, various signs, and according to them, rituals have been developed over the years that are mandatory for young people to perform. For example, a young couple planning a wedding first came to visit those already married at the beginning of this year. The newlyweds gave them instructions, wished them happiness and always treated them to delicious dishes, in which eggs were added. It symbolized the world, as well as harmony with beauty - painted krasnki, then baked in ashes, also scrambled eggs.

Unmarried people tried to get to that Krasnaya Gorka faster than others in order to feed and caress the pregnant cow, which, according to legend, gave them a chance to start a family and become mothers faster. If the groom got an egg with a special, double yolk, this promised him the desired wealth, while the bride - twins.

At the wedding itself, a specially dressed sorcerer came to the temple, to wish after the rite of love, to give protective amulets so that the evil eye does not fall, so that damage does not happen. Then, already in the hut of the young, the sorcerer drew crosses with his own finger in all corners, and under the bed of the newlyweds he placed grass in a bowl, having read the spells, for good luck.

The bride always attached some red jewelry to her outfit (dress). This is a talisman for beauty, harmony in the future life of the spouses.

At the wedding, soon several pairs of free guys and girls appeared in front of the spouses. Then they scattered, following the command, and everyone whom the groom catches first gets married before the rest.

The couple was surrounded by a round dance created by the guests, who then joined hands, walked, following the hour hand around the standing couple, wishing harmony, love, happiness, and necessarily well-being.
By the end of her wedding, the bride blessed the unmarried bridesmaids for a quick marriage, wrapping them with her ribbon, which she pulled out of her own hair.

Many ancient, good wedding traditions now attract young people. In dresses, white and red colors are more often used, these are symbols of purity, hope with the arrival of the long-awaited spring. The awakening of nature, the first warm days, blooming flowers - why not a favorable time for a wedding? Of course, all seasons are beautiful, and it doesn’t matter when to get married, but it is spring that attracts people more than others.

This, combined with numerous jokes, proverbs and jokes of relatives, is the choice of bridesmaids, this is an exciting selection of a wedding dress. After all, the bride should come out the most beautiful, fabulous at the wedding. Real flowers, bright ribbons, balls often prevail in the design.

It is not in vain that they say that traditions, customs of ancestors should be preserved, then passed on to other generations. Then tell the growing children how the wedding went then, what Red Hill means and why the anniversary falls in the spring.

Many customs are associated with the protection of the young. For example, wedding chores should be dealt with by people close to the newlyweds, preferably mature women who love the newly-married couple and do everything for their protection and future happiness. With special diligence, the same wedding loaf is baked for young people. By the way, you can’t distribute it to anyone later. They bit off the young - that's it, don't treat anyone else to them. It is believed that this is how the spouses distribute their happiness.

By the way, those who want to get married in the spring really occupy April tightly, because you can’t get married in May. Again, trust. They say whoever creates a family in May, warm days, will then toil. In March, yet, and April is just right. Therefore, by the spring the churches are already preparing for a busy period. Especially Red Hill, a holiday known since paganism.

It is interesting how, with the spread of Christianity, the church tried to get rid of the ancient holidays. For example, remove Easter, but alas, people's love conquered everything, even the times of the USSR, when they had to believe only in the bright communist ideals and the nearest beautiful future.

Signs associated with the Red Hill

1. It is enough to throw a coin into the nearest well to attract good luck, and for a year.
2. A bad sign if a girl or a young man cannot participate in the folk, free festivities of Red Hill. The year will be bad.
3. Marrying by the day of the Red Hill is considered a good start for a happy, prosperous life.
4. If a girl visits the festivities in the company of a man, then soon she will find her betrothed. It is advisable to bring a stranger.
5. It would be nice to complement the hairstyle with a ribbon from the bride's outfit, then it will be much easier to find love.
6. Girls should bring something red into their outfits, it attracts the Sun, multiplying success and good luck.
7. The owner of the house should treat everyone with Easter cake. This will drive away the ailment and strengthen the family.

Krasnaya Gorka is a cheerful noisy youth holiday, which takes place exactly one week after Easter, symbolizes the arrival of sunny spring, the awakening of nature. Slavic peoples have revered it since ancient times, waited impatiently and prepared in advance - they sewed beautiful clothes, taught songs, baked round holiday loaves, dyed eggs.

When is Red Hill celebrated?

Pagan rites in our time are closely intertwined with Christian ones, but the original meaning of the holiday remains - the search for a worthy life partner. Its name is also quite understandable - the hill warms up well with the sun, the grass on it rises earlier than in the lowlands, so the hill was chosen as the place for the festivities, and “red”, as you know, means “beautiful”. Young people, dressed up in the best clothes, will gather for a walk this year as well, in order to celebrate the Krasnaya Gorka 2017 holiday, which will be held on April 23, in a cheerful atmosphere. There are other names for the ancient Slavic action - Antipascha (in the sense of "instead of") and Fomino Sunday, in honor of the Apostle Thomas, who did not believe in the resurrection of Christ until Jesus appeared before him on the eighth day after the ascension.

Traditions of the Red Hill holiday

Spring celebrations were dedicated to Yarila - the young God of the sun and rebirth, a symbol of love, tenderness, purity. The deity with clear blue eyes was depicted in the brightest, joyful colors - the sun illuminated his blond hair, a scarlet cloak developed behind his shoulders, and grasses and flowers grew on the places where his bare feet stepped. Krasnaya Gorka in 2017, as before, will gather a noisy youth company in nature, boys and girls should not miss the opportunity to have fun, show their best side. It has long been believed that those who did not come to the holiday doom themselves to an unsuccessful marriage or loneliness. Some villages in Russia today celebrate the holiday in the old traditions, which have acquired details and become a truly spectacular event. Tourists from cities come there to admire and participate in folk festivals themselves. Of the most beautiful young ladies, they choose the best - a songstress and ringleader, they call her Leda or Lada, under her leadership, young people lead round dances, echo her in singing. Games are held, in a modern way - competitions in which the guys demonstrate valiant prowess, and the girls, decorated with colorful ribbons and bright wreaths, demonstrate dexterity, mastery, and cheerful character. It is believed that finding a couple on this day means laying a solid foundation for future family life. From that day on, marriages began en masse.

Rites of the holiday Krasnaya Gorka

In festive ceremonies there was a place for women of the older generation. Rural women undertook to protect their village from diseases, misfortunes, natural destructive phenomena - fires and floods. Even before sunrise, they gathered outside the outskirts, harnessed to a plow and led a furrow around the village, reading salutary prayers - the deeper the furrow was, the more reliable the protection of the settlement from crop failure, drought and similar adversities was considered, the resulting cross was also a good sign. What date is Krasnaya Gorka 2017, you can find out from the church calendar, on this day rituals are performed that inspire young people for the upcoming family life.

Girls and boys launch colored eggs from a hill, an even slope and a surviving egg - fortunately and luckily, they also threw a coin into a well or other body of water, while making a wish. And you can ensure a long life and health by praying to Krasnaya Gorka - it is believed that both God and deceased relatives will hear the request, who will certainly help in later life. And for wealth at dawn, one should wash in front of the icon, the result will be the best if the eldest of the family will wash the younger ones.

Church ceremonies are still honored by parishioners to this day. The solemn service ends with the distribution of the prosphora, called antidorom, you need to take a chunk on your right hand, placed on your left in the form of a cross. They eat consecrated bread on an empty stomach, right in the church.

Wedding on Krasnaya Gorka

After completion, it is allowed to play weddings. It is necessary to pay attention when Krasnaya Gorka 2017, what date the holiday falls on, is of great importance - marriage in May should be avoided. It is believed that if you get married this month, you will suffer all your life. 2017 will delight the young - April weddings do not contradict the conclusion of a happy union. The upcoming 2016 holiday fell in May, so especially superstitious youth postponed the fateful event, and are waiting for the wedding on Krasnaya Gorka in 2017 to finally come. And young people who have just found each other go to visit married couples who got married last year - for advice and blessings. It is customary to treat them with scrambled eggs resembling the sun and specially baked round bread.

Wedding and wedding ceremonies held on Krasnaya Gorka 2017 are a holiday for everyone. Unmarried youth are gaining experience in order to hold a celebration on the same day in the coming years in compliance with ancient traditions:

• commemoration of ancestors after the wedding, treats were left at the cemetery, and deceased relatives, especially if they were parents, were asked to protect the young family;
• rolling eggs in the mountains - the newlyweds simultaneously launched krashenki and watched the process, whether the eggs would roll side by side or scatter in different directions, which one would run away faster;
• travel to the church, or the registry office, and back to the house - the roads must certainly be different, preferably confusing, in order to mislead the evil spirits that decide to interfere with the happiness of the young;
• bread and salt - symbols of the sun, prosperity, warmth are especially honored on this day; at wedding celebrations, all guests are treated to the same loaf;
• red and white colors were considered the main ones at weddings celebrated on Krasnaya Gorka. In the old days, the bride wore a red dress on this day. Now the halls are decorated in these shades.

A wedding on Krasnaya Gorka will certainly become the happiest event in the life of the young, well-being and love will accompany a married couple until the end of their lives.

Every couple in love who has decided to legitimize their relationship faces a difficult choice of the date of this most exciting and important event in the life of every person. For some, this issue has long been resolved - for example, a couple adjusts vacation dates. Someone chooses from several options.

Well, someone seeks to time the wedding to a certain event, so that the holiday becomes bright and eventful! Newlyweds often choose symbolic dates, such as the date they met, or just a “beautiful number” like 01/18/18. Traditionally, registry offices are full of brides and grooms on the days close to Valentine's Day (February 14).

Also now very popular for marriage is the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity, or the Memorial Day of Peter and Fevronia - July 8th. In addition to this holiday, there is another holiday, however, undeservedly less popular. It's called.

This holiday has come down to our days from the time of paganism, and with the advent of Christianity, it is closely intertwined with the traditions of celebrating Easter. Krasnaya Gorka is celebrated on the following Sunday - in 2019 it will be May 5th. In the old days, the opportunity to get married and play a wedding after the end of a long strict fast gathered in churches all over Russia a huge number of couples striving for a marriage crown. Also in this spring time, hot field and economic work set in, so that every peasant family was glad to have more workers. Common work united the young family, helped to unite.

There were many signs - it was believed that the guys and girls who got married on Krasnaya Gorka receive God's blessing for a strong and happy marriage. The newlyweds on Krasnaya Gorka wished all the single and unmarried happiness, a speedy marriage, presented the guests with pysanky and krashenka - painted and dyed eggs. An egg with two yolks that came across to the bride or groom promised the birth of twins, wealth.

By the way, according to one version of the origin of the name "Red Hill", it was customary to choose a hill near the settlement as a place of celebration so that everyone could freely accommodate. It is not without reason that in Russian culture the word “red” was also used in the meaning of “beautiful”, we still use the stable combinations “beautiful girl”, “red sun”.

It was believed that the red color must be present in the dress of the bride - for the beauty of life in marriage. The meeting of spring and weddings were celebrated on a grand scale, with games, songs, dances, round dances in the fresh air - the more fun the wedding, the happier the young will live. It is quite possible that many signs are not so relevant in our time, but just turning to native traditions will make the wedding colorful, warm and memorable!

Have you ever heard of a wedding on Krasnaya Gorka? In the old days, our ancestors, the pagan Slavs, had an abundance of holidays. Today I will talk about the celebration of the Red Hill.

Krasnaya Gorka is a pagan holiday of fun, joy, the victory of spring over a long harsh winter. The Eastern Slavs considered this day the beginning of spring and the birth of a new life for all nature.

In Rus', the hill was celebrated on the first Sunday following Easter. It was a special day for which the housewives diligently prepared: they baked lush loaves and ruddy pies, cooked scrambled eggs. It is interesting that the prepared dishes necessarily had a round shape of the “sun”, which symbolically reminded of the beginning of the life cycle.

The holiday was celebrated on a grand scale: mass festivities and celebrations, bonfires with round dances and fairs of brides, calling spring and cheerful songs. Among other things, this holiday carried its symbol - the meeting of new love, the birth of a new family.

Krasnaya Gorka was considered a holiday mainly for girls, it was the first spring festivities for young girls. Although it was impossible to do without daring fellows that day - all the young people put on their best elegant clothes and went to get acquainted with each other at the celebration, to seek their own happiness.

The celebration took place on the hillocks, where the snow melted first of all, and fresh green grass appeared, hence the popular name of the holiday - “red” (that is, beautiful) hill.

Every unmarried girl and every single guy, already ready to start a family by age, were obliged to take part in the celebration of the slide. Dodging participation in mass festivities was condemned by public opinion, caused ridicule and was even considered as a great sin, followed by severe punishment, celibacy, childlessness or early widowhood.

Rites and traditions

In Rus', many weddings were traditionally celebrated on Krasnaya Gorka. It was believed that if the wedding was played on this special day, the young people were guaranteed a long and happy married life. If a wedding was celebrated on a hill in a village or village, all the mass festivities and the wedding itself merged into one big holiday.

There was an interesting rite called "Hailing the Young" - young people or only girls went around the yards with congratulations (thus calling out) to the young. On Saturday, on the eve of the celebration of Krasnaya Gorka, even before sunrise, hailers dressed in festive shirts gathered in a cheerful crowd.

It was planned to call out those young people who got married in the past Krasnaya Gorka. Not a single young married couple was to be missed. Under the windows of the young couple, the hailers sang and danced.

I already wrote about the two main signs of a wedding on Krasnaya Gorka: if you get married on this day, then your family life will definitely be happy, and if you stay at home, then there will be no wedding this year. Other signs are no less interesting.

Wish Fulfillment Note

They believed that if you throw a coin into the well on the day of the holiday, then your cherished desire will certainly come true and there will be happiness in life.

egg rolling

Eggs were rolled onto Krasnaya Gorka from a natural slope and a built hill. It was believed that if the egg rolls smoothly, but stops smoothly and does not beat, then a prosperous year awaits.

The newlyweds also took part in this fun, pushing eggs from a hill and watching how they roll down - next to each other or separately, at the same pace or at different speeds, how they stop - together, or one of the eggs rolled further.

According to what they saw, the young concluded what kind of family life awaits them next year.

A sign about wealth

It was believed that if you wash your face with water from the icon on the day of the Red Hill, you will definitely get rich. But it was impossible for anyone to just talk about the fact that this ritual was carried out in the family!

A note about longevity

Whoever reads prayers this day will be granted a long life.

Wedding and wedding on this day

Today, a wedding on Krasnaya Gorka is no less popular - many young couples want to return to the traditions of their people and get married on this very day.

Every year, the time of the celebration of Krasnaya Gorka causes a real stir in the registry offices and churches. In 2018, the celebration falls on April 15, in 2019 on May 5, and in 2020 it falls on April 26.

If you decide to celebrate your wedding on Krasnaya Gorka, I recommend a celebration in the original Russian style.

Wedding clothes will be traditional elegant Russian-folk costumes of the bride and groom, harmoniously combined with the general style of the wedding, if red, red-white ribbons, wild flowers are used in the design.

It’s great if the photo zone is made using such elements as bulk apples, Khokhloma painting, teddy bears, accordion and balalaikas.