On August 28, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates one of the twelveth holidays in Orthodoxy - the Assumption of the Virgin. The people call this day "the great pure". This holiday ends the two-week Dormition Fast.
Dormition of the Virgin
On August 28, one of the most important Christian holidays is celebrated - the Assumption of the Virgin. Very little is known about earthly life and the circumstances of the death of the Mother of God. Several fragmentary information about her, reported in the Acts of the Apostles, and an apocryphal work by an unknown author "On the Assumption of the Virgin" have come down to us. These sources made it possible to compose the history of the life of the Mother of God after the execution of her son - Jesus Christ.
According to legend, after the ascension of the Savior, Mary lived for another 12 years. She first settled in Ephesus with Mary Magdalene and John the Evangelist. And the last years, the Mother of God spent in Jerusalem, where she often communicated with the Apostle Luke, who wrote down a lot in his Gospel from her words.
3 days before her death, the archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary, warned her about this and handed her a palm branch. According to church legends, by the hour of the Assumption of the Mother of God, all the apostles had gathered at her bedside, except for Thomas. Suddenly, light filled the room where Mary was lying, and the apostles saw Jesus Christ appearing for the most pure soul of the Mother of God. Mary's body was buried in the Gethsemane cave, where her parents and Joseph were already buried.
The Dormition is interpreted by the church not as death, but only as a temporary separation of the soul from the body.
Arriving in Jerusalem 3 days after the Assumption of the Virgin Thomas, he asked to open the tomb to say goodbye to the deceased. When this was done, they found only fragrant veils in the cave, and Mary's body was no longer in the tomb. At the same moment, the Mother of God herself appeared to the apostles and told about her Ascension.
From the history of the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin
In early Christianity, when a complete biography of the Virgin Mary did not yet exist, the Dormition of the Virgin was not celebrated. It is believed that this holiday arose around the 5-6th century, after the theological disputes about the "divine essence" of the Mother of God had ended. The last period of her earthly life is described in the essay "The Legend of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos." It is the only source on which the church relies.
In Russia, the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos merged with the previously celebrated festival of grain growers in honor of the end of the harvest. The wide veneration of the Mother of God, as the patroness of farmers, ensured the Assumption of the Virgin popularity among believers.
Dinner in peasant families on this day was special, Uspensky. It usually consisted of sour milk with oatmeal.
On this day, after a prayer service, a procession was usually made in the church to the compressed fields. This was done in gratitude for the harvest and in the hope for the future. On the day of the Assumption, a worldly feast was held, for which they baked pies from new flour and brewed "brotherly" beer. The Dormition was considered the last summer day, so for the first time in the evening they lit torches or candles in the huts - and dined in the light.
