Preparation

The celebration of Holy Pentecost is one of the oldest Christian holidays. Noting that neither the Apostolic Rules (rule No. 37) nor the acts of the Council of Antioch (rule No. 20) celebrate the feast of the midday, S. V. Bulgakov attributes its establishment to the time of John Chrysostom (late IV century ) ^[3] . The earliest mention of him in liturgical literature today is recorded in the Georgian translation of the Jerusalem Lecturer of the 7th-8th centuries. ^{[2] [4]} .

Gymnographic works devoted to the Middle Age date back to the 5th century ( Anatoly of Constantinople ) ^[3] . Subsequently, the songs for this holiday are written by Andrei Kritsky ( VII century ), John Damaskin ( VIII century ) and Theophanes the Confessor ( IX century ) - their works are still used in worship ^[3] . The Orthodox Encyclopedia mentions in the list of hymnographers the Meditations of John of Damascus and Kozma of Mayum (Jerusalem) ^[2] .

Until the occupation of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, the feast of the Pentecostal Meditation was one of the holidays of the Hagia Sophia - the former patriarchal Orthodox cathedral of Constantinople, once the largest Christian church in the world.

Pentecostal meditation is celebrated for 8 days, starting from the 4th Wednesday on Easter and ending with the Wednesday of the 5th week. The service of Easter Fifth Sunday — the week of the Samaritan woman — is combined with the Pentecostal midday service. This holiday does not have a feast ^[3] .

Settled in the liturgical calendar between the feasts of Easter and the Descent of the Holy Spirit , the feast of the Pentecost Meditation serves as a kind of connection between these two great Christian celebrations. Continuing to celebrate Easter, at the Pentecostal Prepament, the Church also recalls the approaching feast of the Ascension of the Lord and the Descent of the Holy Spirit:

The brotherhood enlightened by the resurrection of the Savior of Christ, and having reached the midway of the feast of the Lord, we will preserve the commandments of God discreetly, so that we will also be worthy of the Ascension celebration and the coming of the Holy Spirit ...

I have reached the divine feast of the midnight, learn the divine wisdom by the perfect Divine virtue, God’s Wisdom ^[3] .

In commemoration of “the grace of the Holy Spirit, which the Savior likened to water, giving life to those who long for salvation,” the Orthodox Church established on this day the tradition of a procession of the cross to water sources, for a small sanctification of water. Praying on the day of Pentecost Meditation “for the drink of all who long for salvation with the waters of godliness,” the church performs blessing — the blessing of water on rivers, lakes, in wells. In pre-revolutionary Russia, villagers went to fields sown with bread, where a priest sprinkled cornfields with blessed water, and peasants prayed for a plentiful harvest.

On the eve of Pentecost, the Great Vespers is celebrated separately from Matins . Although ordinary Kathisma is poetry on it (and not “ Blessed is the husband ”, as usual on the Great Vespers), they are:

• evening censer
• three parishes , emphasizing the main liturgical theme of the holiday - the calling of all people to the risen Christ:

1. Mic. 4: 2-3, 5 (the conversion of all nations to God: “ And He will judge many nations, and will convict many tribes in distant lands; and they will cross their swords for yelling and their spears for sickles; the people will not raise a sword for the people , and will no longer learn to fight ”), Mih. 5: 2-5, 8 (the prophecy about the birth of Christ in Bethlehem : “ And you, Bethlehem-Ephrath, are you small among the thousands of Judah? From me will come of you, who must be the Lord in Israel and whose origin is from the beginning, from the days eternal ”, inaccurately quoted in Matthew 26 ) - one of 8 paremias on the eve of the Nativity of Christ.
2. Is. 55: 1-3,6-13 (call to go to the living waters: " Thirsty! Go all to the waters; even you who have no silver, go buy and eat; go, buy wine and milk without silver and without payment ») - one of 13 paremias on the eve of the Epiphany .
3. Prov. 9: 1-11 (a call to turn to Wisdom “ And to the witty she said:“ Go, eat my bread and drink the wine I have dissolved; leave the unreasonable, and live, and go the way of the mind ” ”) is one of the 3 paramings of the Mother of God holidays.

and so on, as in the great vespers. However, Easter stichers are not sung ^[3] .

I am in the midst of a lawful holiday, all Creator and Master, to the forthcoming God said to Christ: Come and draw the water of immortality; We give ourselves to you, and it is true with a cry: Give Your bounties to us, Thou art the source of our life ^[3] .

- The preparation. Kondak, voice 4.

Although the Great Vespers is celebrated, there is no polyeleos at the matins, but only great glorification . Two festive canons are sung at the Pentecostal Presentation: Theophanes the Confessor (with Sunday irmos 4 voices ) and Andrew of Crete . Before the ninth song of the canon, “Honest” is not sung. Catavasia is composed of the irmos of the second canon.

An ordinary reading from the Acts of the Apostles is performed at the Liturgy ( Acts 14: 6-18 ), and the Gospel reading is devoted to the theme of the holiday - Christ's sermon in the Temple on the occasion of the feast of tabernacles ( John 7: 14-30 ). On the day of the Intercession, the irmos is the irmos of the ninth song of the second holiday canon: “Alien to the mother virginity”, in the following days (up to giving ) - irmos of the ninth song of the Easter canon “Svetisya” ^[3] .

Iconography emphasizes the theme of Meditation as the feast of Christ the Teacher. Icon painters reflect the content of the festive Gospel reading of John. 7: 14-30 , which in the saddle in the matins is retold as follows:

The Lord of all in the church, standing, feasting on honest Pentecost, talking to a Jew, revealing himself to be bold in my opinion, like the Tsar and God, the torment of those bold: he will bestow upon us all for charity, great mercy ^[5] .

- voice 5.

The image may also be interpreted as an earlier episode from the childhood of Jesus:

In such editions, the image of the Virgin and Joseph appears.

Jesus is portrayed as a lad or a youth sitting in the midst of the elders listening to him. Yerminiya Dionisia Furnoagrafiota points out: “ In the temple, Christ sits on an elevated seat and holds an unfolded scroll in one hand, and holds out the other. On both sides of it scribes and Pharisees sit and, looking at each other, are perplexed. Behind the seat are Joseph and the Virgin. She points him to Christ ” ^[6] . Moreover, the figure of Christ is traditionally enlarged in comparison with them, emphasizing his spiritual superiority.

In Pskov, there is the Pentecostal Church of the Intercession of Pentecost built in the 15th-16th centuries at the Spassky Compound , which is currently transferred to the Spaso-Eleazarovsky Monastery ^[7] .

Day Names

Russian Prepalavigne, Swimming, Preplavigne ^[8] , s.-rus. Right environment ^[9] ; Belor. Prapalavenna, Perapala serada ^[10] , Gradavaya, Gramavaya, Palavensky serada, Seradaponitsa ^[11] ; Ukrainian Rakhmansky great day, Overflow, Rights midway ^[12] ; bulg. Rusalsky den, the Russian environment ^[13] .

Traditions

Ethnographers have repeatedly noted that the feast of Meditation is one of those "the true meaning of which is almost completely incomprehensible to the people." The peasants interpreted symbolism and church positions in their own way, timed to the holiday those actions that were thought to contribute to the growth of herbs and bread, the health of people and livestock ^[14] .

On this day rivers and lakes were consecrated ^[15] . “They drank this water when it’s bad who gets sick. Cattle to eat from the eyes, then go for the woman. She turns the sieve and pours holy water, and he (the cattle) is all agitated and tired (stands up) ” ^[8] . It was believed that the sacred power of water increased if, during its collection and transfer to the house, special conditions and prohibitions were observed. The first of these requirements was walking on water in the early morning before sunrise. Highly valued was the water that it was possible to collect before everyone else, it was called Nepochat ( Ukr. Nepochat , Russian non-drinkable ). When typing, it was forbidden to pour water from a bucket or scoop it up a second time, it was necessary to observe complete silence when transferring it to a house ( Rus. Dumb water ). They washed their homes with such water, watered the sick, sprinkled cattle, beehives, farm buildings, used for fortune telling ; a vessel with water was buried in a field, in a vineyard, laid in the base of a house under construction, etc. ^[16]

During the blessing of water that day, they doused each other with water ^[12] . In Podillia, it was believed that if a witch was doused with water that day, she would not be able to stop the rains and the summer would be fruitful ^[12] . Usually, a moleben was served on the preparation during a drought ^[17] .

We went to the forest for grass. They made fried eggs in the forest (see Cumulation ).

In the village of Rostosh of the Voronezh region on the "Praplavenie" they "prayed the trigger." Women gathered and dressed up in kokoshniks. One woman cooked. Men of a plow made a circle in the earth, and in it a cross. In it, the girls were "smelling", dancing, singing. This was done on the "plant" (square, wide street). We walked the plant with harmonica ^[18] .

In Siberia, they said about this day: “Our Lady sailed to the stone” or “The Mother of God sailed on a holy ice floe” ^[15] .

In Belarus, the people gave their explanation for the day: “On this day, Jesus Christ swam and swam across the sea. From this day it is allowed to swim to Ilya (July 20) . ” On Prepovolta advised to plant onions so that it was not too bitter. It was said that wild birds guard their nests on this day, and therefore they can be easily caught. It was believed that if the clothes were dried in the “Perapala Serada”, which was also called dry, the mole would disappear ^[10] .

In Bulgaria, there is a belief that on Wednesday Meditation (25 days after Easter), which is popularly known as the “Rusal Wednesday”, mermaids “gather on the road”, therefore women didn’t spin, weave, sew or similar classes didn’t practice for the sake of health. According to legend, the mermaids come to the "Savior" ( Ascension ). In the Bulgarian village of Valya-Pergey (Moldova), it was believed that on this day - here they also call him “Chernata Srida” - “ mermaids ” (or “ mermaids ”) come; wormwood was consecrated in the church; women are going to "meet" them at a meal with lean dishes and wine, in which they put wormwood ^[13] .

Sayings and signs

• If the preparation is shallow, then there will be no spill (Perm.) ^[19] .
• In preparation, the Virgin Volga swam (Volga) ^[19] .
• Meditation, the right milieu is Rohmani Great Day (Ukrainian) ^[9] .

• Brockhaus and Efron. Meditation // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Water / L.N. Vinogradova // Slavic antiquities : Ethnolinguistic dictionary: in 5 volumes / under the general. ed. N. I. Tolstoy ; Institute of Slavic Studies RAS . - M .: Int. Relations , 1995. - T. 1: A (August) - G (Goose). - S. 386-390. - ISBN 5-7133-0704-2 .
• Ermolov A. S. Folk agricultural wisdom in proverbs, sayings and signs: The nationwide month. - SPb. : Type of. A.S. Suvorin, 1901. - T. 1. - 691 p.
• Calendar ceremonies and ritual poetry of the Voronezh region. Afanasyevsky collection. Materials and research. - Vol. III / Comp. T.F. Pukhova, G.P. Hristova. - Voronezh: Publishing House of the Voronezh State University, 2005 .-- 249 p.
• Kvilinkova E.N. Calendar customs and rites of the Gagauz // News of Gagauzia. - 2001. - No. 9, 16, October 23 . Archived on June 20, 2012.
• Kovalov A. I. Rusalia in the views of the Bulgarians of the Republic of Moldova // International Scientific Conference “Preservation of Cultural Heritage in the Countries of Europe” (Chisinau, September 25–26, 2008). - Chişinău: "Busines-Elita" SRL, 2009. - S. 244–248 .
• Orthodoxy and traditional folk culture of the Ryazan region. - Ryazan: Ryaz. reg. scientific method. center of Nar. Creativity, 2001. - 220 p. - (Ryaz. Ethnogr. Vestn.).
• Russian proverbs and sayings / Ed. V. Anikina; Comp. F. Selivanov, B. Cirdan, V. Anikin. - M .: Fiction, 1988. - 431 p. - (Classics and contemporaries). - ISBN 5-280-00027-2 .
• Vasilevich St. A. Belarusian folk kalyandar (Belor.) // Paezia of the Belarusian earth calendar calendar. Stock. Lis A. S. .. - Mn. , 1992. - S. 554-612 . Archived on May 11, 2012. (belor.)
• Lozka A. Yu. Belarusian folk kalyandar (Belor.) . - Mn. : Polymya, 2002 .-- 238 p. - ISBN 98507-0298-2 . (belor.)
• Sapіga V.K. Ukranian People Holy That Sound . - K .: Tv “Knowledge of Ukraine”, 1993. - 112 p. - ISBN 5-7770-0582-9 . Archived February 17, 2014 on Wayback Machine (in Ukrainian)

• Pentecost Worship Service Text
• Bulgakov, S.V. Mesyatseslov and Triodion of the Orthodox Church: [ Russian ] . - 1898.
• Bulgakov, S.V. Triode Color. Handbook for clergymen : [ Russian ] . - 1900.
• Glinsky Readings (link unavailable from 12-05-2013 [2290 days]) : “ Giving the Feast of the Pentecostal Meditation”
• The Bright Resurrection of Christ: “The Pentecostal Apprentice”
• Pentecost Handover Celebration
• Orthodox calendar on pravoslavie.ru
• Church holidays
• Presentation // Russian Ethnographic Museum
• From Pascha to Pentecost: The Penticostarion period / Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto (unavailable link from 12/05/2013 [2290 days])