Parental Saturdays of Great Lent– days when love and warmth for the souls of deceased loved ones are especially manifested. According to the calendar, they fall on March 23 and 30, as well as on April 6. On this day, believers pray for loved ones who are dear and close to their hearts, so that the Lord does not leave them without his prosperity.

Since this year the last parental Saturday of Lent falls on the eve of the great feast of the Annunciation, it is cancelled.

Although, with the modern rhythm of life, everyday worries and routine, the once kind and warm feelings for those we love seem to be erased. Regardless of how a person feels about church holidays, whether he is a believer or not, in any case, one must gratefully honor and remember his loved ones. That's why parents' Saturdays are special days greatest respect and honor for each other.

Rules for memorial days

The rules on all memorial days are practically the same. These days it is customary to attend churches, in particular memorial services. Believers take with them Lenten food, as a donation to the funeral table. They are distributed to all those in need: the poor and the needy. In addition to church, on Parents' Saturdays it is customary to visit cemeteries and remember deceased loved ones. It is considered a great sin to drink alcohol in a cemetery. The best thing you can do for the dead is to pray for the repose of the soul.

From the article you learned that the calendar has exactly eight days of commemoration of the departed and now you know what dates the main days fall on in 2019. By the way, in some regions of Russia, the Radonitsa holiday was equated to a day off, which once again suggests that parental Saturdays are important days when we pay tribute to loved ones.

Until the fortieth day, the deceased is called newly deceased. It is important and necessary to remember the newly departed at first after death, because commemoration makes the difficult transition for the soul easier. eternal life and helps to get through ordeals.

Days of special remembrance of the dead: what does it mean?

3, 9 and 40 – (in this case, the day of death is considered the first). The dead were commemorated these days even in ancient times.

There is also a custom to remember the deceased in:

• Birthday;
• Day Angel;
• every anniversary after death.

Days of special remembrance of the dead: what should be done on these days?

On the third day after death, the deceased is usually buried. After the funeral at funeral dinner All those present are invited.

On the remaining days of commemoration of the deceased, the closest relatives gather for a joint meal to remember the deceased with prayer. In the church, a note is submitted for the Liturgy or a memorial service is ordered, and they are blessed with kutya.

Days of special remembrance of all the dead: calendar

1. In the Orthodox Church, each day of the week is considered a special memory. Saturday is dedicated to the memory of all Saints and dead. On Saturday (meaning rest in Hebrew) the Church prays for the souls of people who have passed from earthly life to afterworld. Except daily prayers and prayers on Saturdays, there are separate days in the year dedicated to prayers for the dead. These days are called parent days:
2. Ecumenical meat-free parental Saturday - Saturday a week before Lent. It received this name because it is followed by “Meat Week,” i.e. on this Saturday it is allowed to eat meat for the last time before Lent.
3. Parental Ecumenical Saturdays- These are the second, third and fourth Saturdays of Great Lent.
4. Radonitsa- Tuesday in the second week after Easter.
5. 9th May - On this day, all those who died and tragically died during the Great Patriotic War are remembered.
6. Trinity Ecumenical Parents' Saturday- Saturday before Trinity. IN Lately Many consider the holiday of Trinity itself to be a parent's day. Actually this is not true.
7. 11 September – day of the Beheading of the Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John. On this day, the church commemorates Orthodox soldiers who died fighting for the Faith and the Fatherland. This day of special commemoration was established in 1769 by decree of Catherine II during the war with the Poles and Turks.
8. Dimitrev parents' Saturday ( November 8). Heavenly Patron faithful Grand Duke Dimitri Donskoy, having won the Kulikovo Field, performed a name-call commemoration of the fallen soldiers on the battlefield on the eve of his Angel Day. Since that time, the Church on this day, called by the people Demetrius Saturday, commemorates not only the soldiers who died for the Fatherland, but also all the deceased Orthodox Christians.

Orthodox Christians in parenting days go to church, where funeral services are performed. It is customary these days to bring sacrifices to the funeral table - various products (except meat).

At the end of the funeral service, food is distributed to the needy, church employees, and sent to nursing homes and orphanages. Food for the funeral table is also brought on the days when the funeral service is celebrated. This is a kind of alms for the deceased.

On Radonitsa and on Trinity Saturday, after church, it is customary to go to the cemetery: to clean the graves of deceased relatives and to pray.

The custom of leaving food and drink on graves has nothing to do with Orthodoxy. These are echoes of pagan funeral feasts.

You should not leave food consecrated in the church on graves and drink alcoholic beverages in the cemetery. The best thing you can do for deceased relatives is to read a prayer.

All Souls Days 2016

Video: All Souls' Day

Parents' days are memorial days for deceased ancestors. In the calendar of the Orthodox Church, each day is dedicated to a specific event, memorial days. Commemorate according to church Orthodox custom their deceased relatives are accepted into certain days of the year. They call these days parenting days or parental Saturdays, although these dates do not always fall on Saturday.

The most important parental days among the people are considered to be Radonitsa, Trinity Saturday and Dimitrovskaya, but there are also Ecumenical memorial days.

In addition, it is necessary to honor the memory of departed relatives on their birthday and on the day of death. Many people remember the deceased on the day of his angel (the saint in whose honor he was baptized).

As for parental Saturdays 2016, they are scheduled for certain days when general liturgies (funeral services) are read in churches, and every believer can join this prayer, remembering their relatives. During a year of such special memorial days- 9, of which 6 times always fall on Saturdays, they are called “Universal Parental Saturdays.” Once we honor the memory of the deceased on Tuesday on Radonitsa, and May 9 and September 11 are reserved for remembering deceased soldiers and can fall on any day of the week.

Commemoration at the Divine Liturgy (Church Note)

Those who have health are remembered christian names, and about repose - only for those baptized in the Orthodox Church.

Notes can be submitted at the liturgy:

For proskomedia - the first part of the liturgy, when for each name indicated in the note, particles are taken from special prosphoras, which are subsequently lowered into the Blood of Christ with a prayer for the forgiveness of sins

First, on March 5, the universal Meat Saturday will come. Then, on March 26, comes the second Saturday of Lent. The next parent's day is April 2. Saturday of the fourth week of Lent will come in a week, on April 9.

May 9th will be the day of remembrance of all those killed during the Second World War. June 16, the seventh Thursday after Easter, will be the day of remembrance of suicides, unbaptized and murdered violent death. In 2 days, on June 18, there will be Trinity Parents' Saturday. September 11 is the day of remembrance of soldiers who died in the war. November 5 - Dmitrievskaya Parents' Saturday.

Ecumenical Parents' Saturdays

Ecumenical parental Saturdays, or Ecumenical memorial services, according to the liturgical charter of the Orthodox Church, are celebrated twice a year:

Meat Saturday - On March 5th there will be a memorial day called Ecumenical Meat Saturday

This is the most ancient and solemn memorial day. Its history dates back to the early centuries of Christianity and should remind believers, first of all, of the Day of Judgment. According to church tradition, the first Christians gathered in cemeteries and prayed for their fellow believers, especially for those who died suddenly and therefore did not receive a decent burial.

The meaning of the ritual is to prepare as much as possible for the new, afterlife and the meeting with God of the souls of all believers, not forgetting about the souls who have left the earthly world. On Meat Saturday, people who have died from Adam to our time are remembered. IN folk beliefs the motive of preparation for the upcoming renewal can also be traced - only here we mean the renewal of nature and the transition to spring; It is no coincidence that Saturday precedes the merry Maslenitsa.

In Belarus and the western regions of Russia, Meatless Parental Saturday is a kind of meeting of all representatives of the family, both current and former. When the table is set, you can see the number of cutlery exceeding the number of those present: this is how deceased relatives are treated. On this holiday, alms are given in the name of the salvation of all Christian souls.

The everlasting psalter

The indefatigable Psalter is read not only about health, but also about peace. Since ancient times, ordering a commemoration on the Everlasting Psalter has been considered a great alms for a departed soul.

It is also good to order the Indestructible Psalter for yourself; you will feel the support. And one more the most important moment, but far from the least important,
There is eternal remembrance on the Indestructible Psalter. It seems expensive, but the result is more than millions of times more than the money spent. If this is still not possible, then you can order for a shorter period. It's also good to read for yourself.

Trinity Saturday-On June 18 there is a memorial day called Trinity Saturday.

No less significant day Trinity Saturday is also used for special commemoration of the departed in Orthodoxy. According to legend, on the fiftieth day after the Resurrection of Christ, the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and they received the gift of teaching people the Word of God.

The day symbolizes the complete cleansing of the soul by the Holy Spirit, the transition to the highest level of perfection and the introduction to universal knowledge. On Trinity Saturday, absolutely all the dead are commemorated, including those in hell.

Counts bad sign, if on Trinity Sunday it is not possible to visit the graves of relatives: then they will come to the house and begin to disturb the living. To appease the dead, sweets or remnants of a funeral dinner are left at the cemetery. There are many folk legends associated with Trinity Saturday.

Girls are not allowed to perform any homework. A Trinity wedding is an extremely ominous sign; People believe that marriage will be unhappy. Superstitions advise not to swim, because mermaids frolic on Trinity Sunday and can entice the living into their kingdom.

Parents' Saturdays during Lent

Parents' Saturdays, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Saturdays of Lent

There will be a memorial day on April 9 - this will be the fourth parental Saturday of Great Lent.

The meaning of Lenten memorial days is a manifestation of care and love for the souls of deceased loved ones. During the most important time for Orthodox Lent Divine liturgies are not held - it turns out that souls remain forgotten. Due respect is given if believers go to church and read prayers for people dear to their hearts, so that the Lord does not leave them without his mercy. It is advisable to read a prayer for the departed and at home.

We must remember that such prayer brings God’s grace to the Christian himself. In the whirlwind of everyday routine and everyday trifles, the kindest feelings seem to be overwritten; We begin to treat those we truly love with condescension, and sometimes with disdain. It’s a pity that the realization of the importance of every word or moment comes too late, and then many forget the deceased.

Regardless of whether a person considers himself a Christian or not, he must accustom himself to grateful reverence and memory - this is part of his upbringing and moral culture. Therefore, parental Saturdays are, first of all, days of deep respect for each other.

Private parent days

Radonitsa, the ninth day after Easter, is a significant day for Eastern Slavs, in which Christianity and the ancients are closely intertwined folk customs. The word “Radonitsa” has the same root as the word “rejoice”. According to church interpretation, the celebration reflected the idea of ​​the complete victory of Jesus Christ over death; It was on the ninth day after his Resurrection that the Savior descended to the dead and announced to them the good news of his Resurrection.

Commemoration of the dead in given time bears the imprint of solemnity: when visiting cemeteries, one should not indulge in noisy festivities, and the deceased should be remembered in silence. Often buried in graves Easter eggs and in a similar way they share Christ with loved ones.

In the Chernigov region, it is customary to leave crumbs in the hope that the ancestors will appear, feast on them and bring news. There is a sign on Radonitsa: whoever calls out to the rain first will be luckier. From Radonitsa, funeral services begin in Orthodox churches.

Day of Remembrance of Orthodox Soldiers Killed on the Battlefield for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland -11 September

The commemoration of Orthodox warriors on this day was established in Russian Orthodox Church by decree of Empress Catherine II in 1769 during Russian-Turkish War(1768-1774). On this day we remember the Beheading of John the Baptist, who suffered for the truth.

Compared to other memorial days and parental Saturdays, this day seems the most poignant and tragic. The celebration is associated with the biblical legend of Herod. During the celebration, King Herod, delighted with the dance of his stepdaughter Salome, vowed to publicly give her everything she wanted.

At the instigation of her mother, the treacherous Herodias, Salome asked for the head of the prophet John the Baptist on a golden platter. The king, fearing universal condemnation, complied with the request. Since then, the holiday has become the embodiment of courage and perseverance in the fight for faith and a just cause.

In 1769, when Russia was at war with Poland and Turkey, the church included it in the Charter as the Day of Remembrance of soldiers killed in battle, so that the feat of compatriots would remain for centuries. On the holiday it is necessary to strictly fast; It is forbidden to even eat fish. It is believed that if you eat nothing but bread, you can make a wish at night.

There is a superstition that on September 11 you should not pick up sharp objects, as well as anything that somehow resembles a head. However, superstition contradicts the commandments of the official church.

Sorokoust about repose

This type of commemoration of the dead can be ordered at any hour - there are no restrictions on this either. During Great Lent, when the full liturgy is celebrated much less frequently, a number of churches practice commemoration in this way - in the altar, during the entire fast, all the names in the notes are read and, if the liturgy is served, then parts are taken out. You just need to remember that those baptized in Orthodox faith people, as in the notes submitted to the proskomedia, are allowed to enter the names of only baptized deceased.

Dmitrievskaya Saturday is another day associated with the special commemoration of deceased soldiers. The appearance of the celebration refers to the victory over Mamai's horde in the Battle of Kulikovo.

According to legend, Dmitry Donskoy asked Sergius of Radonezh himself for a blessing for the battle. The Tatar-Mongol yoke was defeated, native land managed to save it from desecration, but it came at a very bloody price: about 100,000 soldiers died. The army also included two monks: Peresvet and Oslyabya.

Starting from the 19th century, the holiday was strictly observed in all military units: a special memorial service was served on Dmitrievskaya Saturday. They prepare for Dmitrievskaya Saturday in advance: a day before the celebration, it is customary to go to the bathhouse and wash, and after leaving, leave a towel for the ancestors.

It is customary not only to visit graves, as on all other Saturdays, but also to celebrate a magnificent funeral feast there. On holiday, the whole family gathers at the table. Folk wisdom states: the more magnificent the table, the happier the forefathers will be, and the happier the forefathers, the better and calmer the survivors will be. One of the dishes must be pork. It is important to remember only good things about the deceased and to have someone from the youngest generation present during the conversation. There is a sign that if there is snow and cold on Dmitrievskaya Saturday, then spring will also be cold.

One of the most painful sights in the world is funerals performed by atheists. Now everyone has come home from a fresh grave. The eldest gets up, raises his glass... And at this moment everyone simply physically feels that they can and should do something for the one to whom they just said goodbye.

Prayer for the departed is a need of the heart, and not a requirement of church discipline. The heart demands: pray!!! And the mind, crippled by the school lessons of atheism, says: “There is no need, there is no one to pray for and for no one: the heavens are full only of radio waves, and from that person with whom we lived three days ago, there is nothing left except that ugliness, which we have just covered with earth.”

And even this internal error is reflected on people’s faces. And such unnecessary words are heard: “The deceased was a good family man and social worker”...

We were not there - we will not be. So isn’t a person whose life flickers absurdly between two abysses of nothingness nothing more than a “dead man on vacation”?.. I will die, and the world will remain complete, like a brand new egg. Boris Chichibabin once gave a ruthlessly precise definition of death as it appears to an unbeliever:

How few bright days there are in life,
There are so many blacks!
I can't love people
Crucified God!
Yes - and that one! - is of no use to them
Only meat in the pit
Who doomed the tender sky
Hungry and shame.

What do people take out of the cemetery? What could the deceased himself gain from the experience of his dying? Will a person be able to see meaning in the last event of his earthly life - death? Or is death “not for the future”? If a person crosses the border of time in irritation and anger, in an attempt to settle scores with Fate, this is exactly his face that will be imprinted in Eternity...

That’s why it’s scary that, according to Merab Mamardashvili, “millions of people not only died, but did not die a natural death, i.e. one from which no meaning for life can be derived and nothing can be learned.” After all, what gives meaning to life gives meaning to death... It is the feeling of the meaninglessness of death that makes the funeral of atheists so difficult and unnatural.

For comparison, compare your feeling in the old cemetery, where the peace of people is guarded grave crosses, with what your heart feels when visiting Soviet star cemeteries. You can walk with a peaceful and joyful heart - even with a child - through the cemetery of, say, the Donskoy Monastery. But there is no sense of peace in the Soviet Novodevichy...

In my life there was a case of such a direct meeting. . They were buried in the Zagorsk city cemetery. And so, for the first time in decades, priests came to this cemetery - openly, in vestments, with a choir, with prayer.

While the students were saying goodbye to their classmates, one of the monks stepped aside and quietly, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, began to walk among the neighboring graves. He sprinkled them with holy water. And there was a feeling that a word of gratitude was coming from under each mound. The promise of Easter seemed to dissolve in the air...

Or here is another example of human indestructibility. Try to pick up a book and pray for its author. When you pick up Lermontov, say to yourself, opening the page you need: “Lord, remember Your servant Michael.” When your hand touches Tsvetaeva’s volume, sigh about her too: “Forgive, Lord, Thy servant Marina and accept her in peace.” Everything will be read differently. The book will become bigger than itself. It will become a meeting with a person.

Pushkin (God rest your servant Alexander!) among the circumstances that make a person human, named “love for the tombs of their fathers.” Each person is waiting for departure “ on the path of the whole earth ”(Joshua 23:14).

One cannot be fully human who has never been visited by the thought of death, who has never, in the recesses of his heart, repeated the words that he uttered: “ Lord, how will I die?

The event of death, its mystery is one of major events throughout a person's life. And therefore, no excuses like “no time”, “lack of leisure”, etc. will not be accepted either by conscience or by God if we forget the road to our parents’ graves. I hope we will never live to see the years when Helena Roerich’s dream comes true: “cemeteries in general should be destroyed as breeding grounds for all kinds of epidemics.”

For Eastern mysticism, the human body is just a prison for the soul. Once released, burn and throw away. For Christianity, the body is the temple of the soul. And we believe not only in the immortality of the soul, but also in the resurrection of the whole person. That is why cemeteries appeared in Rus': the seed is thrown into the ground in order to rise with a new cosmic spring. According to the word ap. Paul, the body is a temple of the spirit living in it, and, as we remember, “a temple that is desecrated is still a temple.” And therefore the bodies dear people It is customary for Christians not to be thrown into a fiery abyss, but to be placed in an earthen bed...

Before the beginning and in the days before we take the first step towards Easter, the word of our love for all those who walked the path of life before us sounds under the arches of churches: “Rest, O Lord, the souls of Thy servants who have fallen asleep!” This is a prayer for everyone, because, in the wonderful words of Anastasia Tsvetaeva, “there are only believers and non-believers here. All believers are there.” Now they all see what we only believe in, they see what they once forbade us to believe in. And, therefore, for all of them our prayerful sighing will be a precious gift.

The fact is that not all people die. After all, Plato asked: why, if the soul spends its entire life fighting with the body, then with the death of its enemy it should itself disappear? The soul uses the body (including the brain and heart) like a musician uses his instrument. If the string breaks, we no longer hear the music. But this is not yet a reason to claim that the musician himself died.

People grieve when they die or see off the dead, but this is not evidence that beyond the door of death there is only sorrow or emptiness. Ask the child in the womb - does he want to come out? Try to describe to him external world- not through affirmation of what is there (for these will be realities, unknown to the child), but through denial of what nourishes him in the mother’s womb. Is it any wonder that children come into our world crying and protesting? But isn’t this what the grief and crying of those who are leaving are like?

If only the birth was not accompanied by birth trauma. If only the days of preparation for birth were not poisoned. Just so as not to be born into a future life as a “monster”.

In general, unfortunately, we are immortal. We are doomed to eternity and resurrection. And no matter how much we would like to cease to exist and not carry our sins to the Judgment, the timeless basis of our personality cannot simply be blown away by the wind of time... The “good news from Jerusalem” was that the quality of this ever-existence of ours can become different, joyful, extrajudicial (“ He who hears My word does not come to Judgment, but has come from death to life ”In. 5.24).

Or is it unclear what the soul is? Does she exist? What it is? - Eat. The soul is what hurts a person when the whole body is healthy. After all, we say (and feel) that it is not the brain that hurts, not the heart muscle - it is the soul that hurts. And on the contrary, it happens that during torment and sorrow, something in us rejoices and sings purely (this happens with martyrs).

“There is no death - everyone knows that. It became boring to repeat this. Let them tell me what they have…” asked Anna Akhmatova. Parental Saturdays, dating back to the holiday, speak about “what is.” Holiday... But this is the day of the death of the Mother of God. Why is it a holiday?

But because death is not the only way death. Dormition is the antonym of death. This is, first of all, non-death. These two words, which differ in the language of any Christian people, mean radically opposite outcomes of human life.

A person cultivates within himself the seeds of love, kindness, faith, takes his soul seriously - and his life path crowned with the Dormition. If he brought destruction to himself and the world around him, wounded his soul wound after wound, and the dirt from it, unkempt and overgrown, splashed out - the final, mortal decay will complete his lifetime attenuation.

From now on (in the sense - from the time of the resurrection of Christ) the image of our immortality depends on the image of our love. “A person goes where the mind has its goal and what it loves,” said.

On the icon of the Assumption, Christ holds in his arms a baby - the soul of his Mother. She was just born in Eternity. "God! The soul has come true - Your most secret intention!” – one could say about this moment in the words of Tsvetaeva.

The soul “came true”, was fulfilled - and in the word “dormition” one hears echoes of not only “dream”, but also “ripeness” and “success”.

“Time to die ”(Eccl. 3.2). Perhaps the most striking difference modern culture from Christian culture - in the inability to die, in the fact that the current culture does not isolate this time in itself - “the time to die.” Gone is the culture of aging, the culture of dying.

A person approaches the threshold of death, not so much trying to peer beyond its line as endlessly turning back and calculating with horror the ever-growing distance from the time of his youth. from the time of “preparing for death,” when “it’s time to think about the soul,” it became the time of the last and decisive battle for a place in the sun, for the last “rights”... It became a time of envy.

The Russian philosopher S. L. Frank has an expression - “the enlightenment of old age,” a state of final, autumnal clarity. The last, sophisticated clarity, which is spoken of by Balmont’s lines, written off by “modernity” in the section of “decadence”:

The day is only good in the evening.

Believe the wise law -
The day is only good in the evening.
In the morning despondency and lies
And the swarming devils...
The day is only good in the evening.
Life is clearer the closer you are to death.

Here wisdom came to man. Wisdom is, of course, not scholarship, encyclopedicism, or erudition. This is knowing a little, but the most important. That is why encyclopedists went to the monks - these “living dead”, who, when tonsured, seemed to have died to the vanity of the world and therefore became the most living people on earth - and went to them for advice. Gogol and Solovyov, Dostoevsky and Ivan Kireevsky, who personally talked with Hegel and Schelling, found their main interlocutors in. Because here the conversation was about “the most important things.”

The most important thing Plato, the father of philosophers, called this: “For people this is a mystery: but everyone who truly devoted themselves to philosophy did nothing else but prepare for dying and death.”

In the middle of our century, Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople spoke about the time of dying:

“I would like to die after an illness long enough to prepare for death, but not long enough to become a burden to my loved ones. I would like to lie in a room by the window and see: Death has appeared on the next hill. Here she comes through the door. Here she is going up the stairs. Now she’s knocking on the door... And I tell her: come in. But wait. Be my guest. Let me get ready for the road. Sit down. Well, I'm ready. Let's go!.."

Placing life in the perspective of the end makes it precisely a path, gives it dynamics, a special taste of responsibility. But this, of course, is only if a person perceives his death not as a dead end, but as a door. A door is a piece of space through which one enters, passing through it.

You can’t live in a door – that’s true. And in death there is no room for life. But there is still life beyond her threshold. The meaning of a door is given by what it opens access to. The meaning of death is given by what begins beyond its threshold. I didn't die - I left.

And God grant that already on the other side of the threshold I could utter the words inscribed on the tombstone of Grigory Skovoroda: “The world caught me, but did not catch me.”

“Does it matter how you believe” - M., 1997.

Parents' Saturdays in 2019 are days of special remembrance of the deceased. At this time in Orthodox churches They perform a special commemoration of Christians who have passed away, and believers visit the graves of their relatives who have left this world in cemeteries. Parents' Saturdays church calendar throughout the year seven.

Special days of remembrance of the dead began to be called parental Saturdays because, first of all, they remembered their deceased parents, and then other deceased relatives and other close people. According to another version, the name was formed because it was once customary to call the deceased parents, that is, “those who went to their fathers.”

Ecumenical Parents' Saturdays

If we are talking about universal parental Saturday, it is understood that all baptized Christians are commemorated. Seven days before the start of Lent, Meat Ecumenical Saturday is celebrated. Meat Saturday is called Meat Saturday because it falls on the week of the same name, which is also called Little Maslenitsa. This is the first parents' Saturday in March.

On the eve of Pentecost, Trinity Day is celebrated Ecumenical Saturday . On Trinity Saturday, all baptized Christians are also remembered in prayers. On these days, special universal memorial services are held. They serve a memorial service “In memory of all Orthodox Christians who have departed from time immemorial, our fathers and brothers.”

Five other parenting Saturdays

Radonitsa or Radunitsa falls on the Tuesday after St. Thomas Week, that is, the second week after the Holy Week Christ's Resurrection. main topic this day is the victory of the risen Christ over death. On this day, according to tradition, believers visit the cemetery and glorify the risen Son of God at the graves of deceased relatives.

May 9, the day of victory in the Great Patriotic War in churches they serve a memorial service for the many soldiers who gave their lives for the salvation of their homeland. Many families have lost someone close to them in this terrible and long war. Therefore, on this day they remember all the fallen soldiers, thanks to whose feat the a great victory, and their loved ones who died during the war.

Dimitrievskaya parental Saturday is also associated with military actions that only took place several centuries earlier. It's about about the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. Initially, on this day they commemorated soldiers who died during a large-scale battle.

Later, this day was transformed into the day of remembrance of all the dead, which is indicated in the Novgorod chronicle of the 15th century. It is known that in 1903, Emperor Nicholas II issued a decree ordering a memorial service to be held in memory of the soldiers who died for the Motherland “For the faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland, who laid down their lives on the battlefield.”

In 2019, Orthodox parental Saturdays are celebrated in the following order:

• March 16 - Meat Saturday
• March 23 - Saturday of the 2nd week of Lent
• March 30 - Saturday of the 3rd week of Lent
• April 6 - Saturday of the 4th week of Lent
• May 7, Tuesday - Radonitsa, church-wide commemoration of the dead
• May 9 - Commemoration of deceased soldiers
• May 26 - Trinity Saturday
• November 3 - Saturday Dimitrievskaya

Features of parenting Saturdays

On the days of universal parental Saturdays, memorial services and funeral services are held, during which believers read prayers for their deceased relatives and ask God for forgiveness of their sins. According to the charter, during the parental Saturdays of the second, third and fourth during Lent, funeral commemorations are not performed, that is: funeral litanies, litias, memorial services, commemorations of the 3rd, 9th and 40th days after death, magpies. These days are specially set aside for believers to pay tribute to loved ones.

On Friday evening, on the eve of parental Saturday, a great requiem service (parastas) is served in churches. For the funeral Divine Liturgy You can send notes with the names of your deceased relatives. On this day ancient tradition It is customary to bring Lenten products and Cahors to the temple for the liturgy. Wine and Lenten products brought to the temple on Friday are called brought “on the eve.”

In former times it was customary for believing parishioners to bring Lenten dishes for a common table in the temple, where it was possible to remember dead relatives dear to the heart. This tradition has been preserved, only on a smaller scale.

Lenten products and Cahors are left on a special table in the temple. This food is used for the needs of the temple and for distribution to poor people who are under the care of one or another parish.

Often believers are faced with a choice - to visit the grave of a relative on Parental Saturday or come to church for a service. The clergy are more inclined to believe that sincere prayer, which can be performed during a special service, is much more important for the souls of your loved ones. Therefore, it is recommended to give preference to visiting the temple.

You can read a prayer for the departed: “Rest, O Lord, the souls of your departed servants: my parents, relatives, benefactors (their names) and all Orthodox Christians, and forgive them all sins, voluntary and involuntary, and grant them the Kingdom of Heaven.”

How to spend All Souls' Day

Before going to the temple, write down on a piece of paper the names of all deceased relatives and other close people whom you would like to mention while reading the prayer. Previously in Christian families existed very important tradition- from generation to generation, write down the names of all deceased relatives. This is how family memorials were formed, which were used during the reading of funeral prayers.

On days of special remembrance of the dead, it is very important to think about what death is, perhaps to rethink own life and relationships with loved ones, try to reconcile in all controversial issues.

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh speaks very accurately and succinctly about the issue of the relationship between life and death. For fifteen years he worked as a military doctor, and after forty-six years he was a priest. Here is one of his quotes: “Russians believe in life, go into life. And this is one of the things that every priest and every person must repeat to himself and others: we must not prepare for death, we must prepare for eternal life.”

Children's prayer for deceased parents

Lord Jesus Christ our God! You are the keeper of the orphans, the refuge of the grieving and the comforter of the weeping. I come running to you, an orphan, groaning and crying, and I pray to you: hear my prayer and do not turn your face away from the sighs of my heart and from the tears of my eyes. I pray to You, merciful Lord, satisfy my grief over separation from my parent (my mother), (name) (or: with my parents who gave birth and raised me, their names) - his soul ( or: her, or: them), as having departed (or: departed) to You with true faith in You and with firm hope in Your love for mankind and mercy, accept me into Your Heavenly Kingdom. I bow before Your holy will, which was taken away (or: taken away, or: taken away) from me, and I ask You not to take away from him (or: from her, or: from them) Your mercy and mercy. We know, Lord, that You are the Judge of this world, you punish the sins and wickedness of the fathers in children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, even to the third and fourth generation: but you also have mercy on the fathers for the prayers and virtues of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. With contrition and tenderness of heart, I pray to Thee, merciful Judge, do not punish with eternal punishment the unforgettable deceased (unforgettable deceased) for me Thy servant (Thy servant), my parent (my mother) (name), but forgive him (her) all his sins ( her) voluntary and involuntary, in word and deed, knowledge and ignorance, created by him (her) in his (her) life here on earth, and according to Your mercy and love for mankind, prayers for the sake of the Most Pure Mother of God and all the saints, have mercy on him (her) and eternal save me from torment. You, merciful Father of fathers and children! Grant me, all the days of my life, until my last breath, not to cease to remember my deceased parent (my deceased mother) in my prayers, and to beg Thee, the righteous Judge, to order him in a place of light, in a place of coolness and in a place of peace, with all the saints, from nowhere all sickness, sorrow and sighing have fled. Merciful Lord! Accept this day for Thy servant (Your) (name) my warm prayer and give him (her) Your reward for the labors and cares of my upbringing in faith and Christian piety, as He taught (taught) me first of all to lead You, my Lord, in reverently pray to You, trust in You alone in troubles, sorrows and illnesses and keep Your commandments; for his (her) concern for my spiritual progress, for the warmth of his (her) prayer for me before You and for all the gifts he (she) asked me from You, reward him (her) with Your mercy. Your heavenly blessings and joys in Your eternal Kingdom. For You are the God of mercies and generosity and love for mankind, You are the peace and joy of Your faithful servants, and we send glory to You with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

P.S. Death is an inevitability that each of us will face at one time or another. And a person’s position both in earthly life and after death depends on the correct attitude to this issue. Metropolitan Anthony reminds us that it is very important not to commit such a common sin as an indifferent or insincere attitude towards a dying relative with ostentatious care.

On the days of remembrance of the dead, you will mentally replay these moments again and again: when you could have spent a few more minutes with your loved one, and not referred to being busy and important daily matters, you could have given him more warmth, but did not.

These days are important both for the deceased, whom living relatives can help with their sincere prayers, and for the living themselves, who, preserving the memory of the family, can grow spiritually and care not only about earthly, but also about eternal life.