What to eat during Holy Week? Lent: do's and don'ts. Holy Week, what not to do on each day of Holy Week

Our tips will help you prepare properly for Easter. You will find out what trials we face during the last, Holy Week before the bright holiday of Christ's Resurrection.

Holy Week is dedicated to the memory of last days the life of Jesus on earth, about the suffering that befell him: about human deceit, about torment, execution, death and repose. This week Orthodox people It is customary to keep a particularly strict fast. The clergy call for compassion following the example of our Savior. At least in our thoughts, we must feel what the Son of God experienced for all of us.

To prepare for Easter, one should pray during Holy Week. Through prayer we give thanks to the Savior. It is also advisable to set aside at least one day to go to the temple. And of course, these days you should definitely bring goodness to all the people around: this is how we cleanse the soul and praise the memory of Jesus.

What can you do

During Holy Week, it is advisable to renounce human vanity and immerse yourself in the anticipation of the great holiday. These days the strictest fast is in force, which is usually observed. It is necessary to put the house and soul in order, to finish all the things started. If you have repairs, try to get it done before Thursday. Cleaning, painting and saying prayers are activities that are best done. on Monday. During Holy Week we should read the parables of Christ, which remind us of his worldly life. On Tuesday It’s best to put things in order: wash, iron, take apart.

Midweek It is advisable to visit the church and prepare everything for the festive table. On Thursday Preparations for Easter begin. Water on this day brings cleansing from sins, so you should wash yourself. That's why this Thursday is called “Clean”. You can light a candle brought from the temple: it will protect the house from troubles and misfortune. On Friday you need to devote the day to remembering the passion of Christ and praying intensely. On Saturday It is advisable to get up early and prepare Easter treats. Sunday- day of service, which begins at midnight. Orthodox believers go to church for worship.

What not to do

In the week before Easter, strict fasting cannot be ignored. It is worth giving up meat products, fish, dairy and eggs. These days we cannot live relaxed: with such an attitude we neglect the salvation of God. During Holy Week, you should never spend time in entertainment places, so avoid singing and dancing. It is prohibited to lead a dissolute lifestyle, sin, insult, gluttony, or lie. You can’t be in the hustle and bustle; it’s better to renounce some things that prevent you from concentrating on the upcoming holiday.

During Holy Week, you should get rid of envy, callousness and anxiety in your heart. The Friday before Easter is considered the strictest day of fasting: you cannot eat food until the evening and clean the house. Also at this time it is not advisable to laugh, rejoice and have fun - this is a day of great sorrow. You cannot sleep until Saturday morning, otherwise misfortune will overtake you.

On Sunday the food that will be left over festive table, under no circumstances should you throw away the shells easter eggs should be buried in the ground.

Holy Week will go well and make you happy if you follow simple rules and spend these days in memory of the Savior. Give up everything sinful and place happiness and love in your heart. Prayers will help you cleanse your soul and prepare for a bright holiday that will bring you not only benefit, but also joy. Happy holidays, good mood, and don't forget to press the buttons and

07.04.2017 06:15

IN Easter week our life is filled with the joy and light of God. Many people often wonder about...

Let's look at Holy Week: do's and don'ts, as well as other aspects of this important period. This week is called “Passionate” or “Great”. The first name, of course, is given to the period in honor of the fact that these days we remember the suffering of Jesus Christ, which he endured on earth in order to atone for the sins of mankind.

Also, every day of this period is called “great” because it falls on short term before the Great Easter holiday. On these days, from Monday to Saturday (inclusive), believers observe a particularly strict fast. But here it is important to remember that fasting is not just about giving up meat and eating once a day. It includes repentance, prayers, awareness of human sinfulness.

Important information about Easter days

What should you definitely know about the period about which so much is said in this material? Of course, first of all, what is Holy Week: what can and cannot be done on each day. There are especially many traditions and beliefs among the people: someone counts money three times so that it is sure to be found. Some people douse themselves with water at dawn for health reasons. As for church traditions, they do not single out any day of Great Week: every day is important and special in its own way.

We can say that Friday stands apart precisely within the framework of the church rules of Holy Week. Following biblical scriptures, the church believes that it was on this day of the week that Jesus Christ was crucified, and then, on the third day, that is, on Sunday, he was resurrected. On Good Friday, any work is prohibited (of course, for regular work to modern man you will have to go, but you must definitely refuse to do housework and kitchen work). On Good Friday, fasting is as strict as possible and it is recommended not to eat anything until the shroud is taken out.

Maundy Monday

On this day, they begin cleaning the house and area in preparation for Easter. Fasting for a person is a way to cleanse himself physically, prayers and repentance are a way to cleanse himself spiritually. But not only the person, but also his home must be prepared for the big holiday.

Maundy Tuesday

This day of Lent is intended to continue cleaning the house and continue your spiritual preparation for the Easter holiday. Since on the eve of the Resurrection of Christ the house needs to be thoroughly cleaned, the sooner it starts, the more time there will be on Maundy Thursday - the last day when you can clean the house in order to perform a variety of rituals.

Note! After the end of Maundy Thursday, you can no longer clean the house until Easter, and then throughout the holiday week. It is for this reason that it is recommended to start cleaning the house at the beginning of Holy Week, and not leave everything until the period of Clean Week.
Thursday.

Great Wednesday

Again, we continue to prepare ourselves and our homes for the holiday. It will be necessary to adhere to the same strict rules on this day, Holy Week: what can be done and what cannot be done. As for nutrition, during the first three days of the Great Week you can eat only plant foods and only cold. That is, preparing food, vegetable oil is prohibited.

It is important to attend church and pray during this period. In principle, if you don’t have time to go to church for a service, you can pray at home. It is important to do all this with awareness, sincerity and love.

Maundy Thursday

Well, many people know about this day of Holy Week and many are looking forward to it with great impatience. Because, rules, Holy Week: there are many things you can do and what you can’t do on Maundy Thursday, and there are more conspiracies and rituals, prayers than any prohibitions (as it will be, for example, the very next day on Good Friday) .

On Maundy Thursday it is customary to finish cleaning the house and complete all the laundry. You should not ignore cleaning on this day, because it is believed that if there is dirt in the house today, then throughout the year there will be constant quarrels and squabbles in this house. Great .

Other beliefs on Maundy Thursday:
For the first time in Rus', it was customary to cut children's hair on Maundy Thursday. Also, some wool is cut off from livestock on this day to ensure their health and well-being throughout the year.
In the morning, you must wash everything in the house - this will protect your home from illness and quarrels.
On this day you cannot borrow anything from home, and the rule remains until Easter.
In order for money to flow throughout the year, it will be necessary per day Holy Thursday count them three times: at dawn, at noon, and also at midnight.
You can prepare Thursday salt. Each family member should take a handful of salt and pour it into a cloth bag. Heat this salt in a frying pan and then store it in the red corner for a year. If someone gets sick, add this salt to their food.
On Thursday you can remove the damage from yourself. To do this, wash yourself before dawn, saying: “I am washing off what they put on me. Let both body and soul be clean. Amen".
Already on this day you can replace the dough for flat cakes and Easter cakes, which will be prepared in
Holy Saturday.

Good Friday

You cannot do anything, and it is recommended to abstain from food until the shroud of Jesus Christ is brought into the center of the temple during the evening service. Holy Week: what you can do and what you can’t do applies specifically to Good Friday. This applies directly to prohibitions.

If a secular person will definitely have to go to work on this day, then housework: sewing, washing, knitting, cooking, must be postponed. Working on this day is a great sin. Good Friday is the day when Jesus Christ was crucified; it is the most mournful day of the year.

Holy Saturday

On this day of Holy Week, fasting is observed according to the same rules as the first four days. You can no longer clean the house, sew or do laundry, but you can completely devote yourself to preparing the most different dishes for the Easter table. On this day, food is also blessed in temples.

These are the prohibitions, recommendations on what must be done, and others important aspects Holy Week must always be remembered. It's not just time strict fasting and prayers, this is the time active preparation for the holiday of Easter.

Immediately upon completion Palm Sunday The last week before Easter begins, which is called Passion. Each day of this week is called the Great Day - since it was on these days that events took place that had special meaning V Orthodox Christianity: The Last Supper, the betrayal of Judas, the crucifixion of Christ - and then his Resurrection. That’s why every day has its own special and even mystical meaning.

Let's look at what you can and cannot do these days before Easter, and what signs and traditions exist.

Do's and Don'ts during Holy Week

Great Monday. Finished everything renovation work around the house, cleaning construction garbage, they took out old, unnecessary things.

Great Tuesday. They finished repairing clothes, sewing, cutting, darning, ironing and the like. The meltwater collected this year was used to wash livestock to protect them from disease.

Great Wednesday. At night, from Tuesday to Wednesday, they took water from a river or well into a large jug or mug, and made the sign of the cross three times. At two o'clock in the morning they poured this water on themselves, leaving a little at the bottom, making the sign of the cross three times. Dressed on a wet body clean clothes, and the remaining water was poured under a tree or bush. This meant the birth of a washed body and, according to signs, protected from illness for the whole year.

Maundy Thursday - or Maundy Thursday. Maundy Thursday falls on April 13th in 2017. Maundy Thursday or Maundy Thursday is the fourth day of Holy Week, the strictest week of Lent.

Swimming on Maundy Thursday has a symbolic meaning; on this day you need to wake up before sunrise and have time to swim. It is believed that in this way, as in Epiphany bathing, a person washes away all his sins, and all illnesses and illnesses will bypass him.

On Maundy Thursday you need to go to church for confession and communion. On this day, according to customs, it is customary to do general cleaning at home before Easter. It is after going to church on Maundy Thursday that you need to clean the house.

You need to clean very thoroughly, not superficially - you should wash all objects in the house, including the ceilings. There is a sign that if you clean your house well on Maundy Thursday, then the house will be clean for the entire next year. Again, cleanliness in the house will reflect the inner purity of the soul of a Christian believer.

In addition, it is necessary to wash all textiles and prepare traditional Easter food: Easter cakes and colored eggs.

Customs and signs for Maundy Thursday

1. Preparation Thursday salt. Each family member should take a handful of salt with clean hands and pour all the salt into a common pot. Every time the house is cleaned, salt should be added to the water for washing floors. It is believed that this custom helps improve the environment in the home.

After the grandiose cleaning carried out on Maundy Thursday, houses are not swept or cleaned according to custom until Easter.

2.The most famous sign on Maundy Thursday - count the money three times - in the morning before dawn, at lunch and at sunset. It is believed that money will not be transferred in this way in the house.

3. Another one of the signs of Maundy Thursday is associated with Easter baking - if the treat turns out to be heavy and doughy, it means that the believer will have to wait the same year.

4.On Maundy Thursday, children’s hair and the ends of women’s hair are also cut - it is believed that this will make them grow better and be voluminous.

5.Women who are unhappy in their personal lives are instructed to go waist-deep into the river on Thursday night. Previously, it was believed that such a woman would soon meet her betrothed and her personal life will get better.

6.On Maundy Thursday you can plot for a good income. To do this, you need to throw a handful of coins into the water that you are going to wash your apartment while saying: “Money, keep going - don’t transfer, grow, multiply, don’t get to the enemy!”

On this day, they completed cleaning the house - they washed everything clean.

“He who has peace in his soul will find heaven in hard labor,” says a Russian proverb. Let us recall one of the works of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. He describes how convicts, shackled in chains, on Easter, having felt the grace of the Lord, having been involved in the Mother Church since childhood, sing the Easter stichera by heart: “May God rise again and let His enemies be scattered.”

“Adam was in paradise, and in Adam there was paradise,” said the once great Russian preacher St. Innocent of Kherson. “In every place let my soul bless the Lord.”

A Christian, who is such not by name, but by life, is called to make his very heart a camp church. And indeed, whether in solitude, among people, in the place of your everyday work, or in the circle of your family, God is always with you and in you.

And His grace inseparably abides with us, which means it is necessary to try, in every place and at every second of our existence, from the inside, mind and heart, to cry out to the Lord: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner!” And sing on Easter: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and giving life to those in the tombs!”

Just repeat, as children do, calling on their mother or father: “Christ is risen! Truly risen!” And then the space around us will be illuminated by divine grace in exact accordance with the words St. Seraphim: “Acquire the Easter peace of Christ - and thousands around you will be saved.”

But no matter how busy a person is, he can always find such evening services in which no one will forbid him to participate.

Even if you are an astronaut orbiting around the Earth, you can watch the service from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on your tablet and participate in it in spirit. And if you are just an installer or a high-altitude worker, or a doctor in intensive care, look for what free windows you have during Holy or Bright Week.

Well, why not visit Holy Week on Thursday evening, that service when everyone gathers in front of the Crucifix, erected in the middle of the temple and, having lit candles, listens to the priest's measured reading of passages from the Passion Gospels?

Well, after the Twelfth Gospel, how can you not take a burning candle or lamp home so that, by depicting a cross on the ceiling with soot, you can protect your home from evil spirits?

Bright Week is a daily morning and evening service. On Easter, at the evening service, the priests change their vestments from red to white, then to green and yellow. And all this is so that we remember how the resurrected Christ each time in a new, unrecognizable way appeared either to Mary Magdalene, or to the apostles locked in the Upper Room of Zion, or even to a large circle of apostles on the Galilee Mountain. And we must try to grab the edge of this Easter joy.

I think that anyone in Russia who wants to will always find the opportunity to leave some kind of inscription on the desktop: “I went to the base” or “sanitary day”, “library day” - and go to church. You know, whoever seeks must be the architect of his own happiness.

Archpriest Alexy Uminsky: Live the Passion Season as honestly as possible

If you can’t go to services during Holy Week, then how can you try to live it?

As honestly as possible, as seriously as possible. There are cases when a person cannot for some reason - people work, for example. Often something completely unexpected for many happens during Holy Week; people get sick during Holy Week. But still, the inner experience of these days can be perceived very deeply by us.

I know one wonderful story that happened to a close friend of a friend of mine who really wanted to go to the service of the Twelve Gospels during Holy Week, but nothing worked out for her. She asked God so much that He would give her the opportunity to go, but it didn’t work out. Something changed, she was called in for some interview about new job, all this dragged on, she couldn’t, she didn’t have time. And she was so deeply worried, with such a feeling of loss and suffering that she could not be at the service of the Twelve Gospels, she came to her home on Thursday evening, and suddenly accidentally noticed that the willow from the year before last, which had stood in her vase without water, blossomed.

Archpriest Vladimir Novitsky: Easter must remain in our hearts

I think that we still need to wait for Easter, to remain in anticipation of this event. Remember that there are maybe a few days left before Easter, that we need to wait for it, that we need to prepare for it, that this is very serious. And you need to change something in yourself, reconsider your life, maybe free your heart from everything superfluous, superficial, unnecessary, so that the Lord can enter there. So that this Easter is not only external, so that this Easter is inside, in our hearts.

Look what's in our hearts? After all, we often suffer from such diseases and problems as absent-mindedness: absent-mindedness, absent-mindedness of the soul as a whole, absent-mindedness in the heart. Then all kinds of addictions also torment us and fill our soul. And over-concern, of course.

Over-concern is one of the main evils, oddly enough. The Lord says: “Do not burden your hearts with drunkenness, gluttony and the many worries of this world.” You see, the Lord puts being too busy on a par with drunkenness. It would seem that drunkenness is such a terrible sin, and being too busy is not such a terrible weakness, because people really have a lot of worries: they have family, friends, there is work, there are duties that we must fulfill.

But if we put these responsibilities, if we put our work, if we put our worldly life first, then there is no room left in the soul for Christ, then we live an earthly life, an earthly life. And then we are no higher than a drunkard.

Maybe even worse, because everyone still blames drunkards, they resign themselves, they feel that they are sick people, and do not pretend to anything and understand their weakness. And we think that we are doing something else, that we are good, that we are useful, necessary people, and so on, and so on. But in fact, we are empty inside, we are all caught up in the worries of this age.

That's when we remove these worries... It's not that we don't do them, no. We simply put something else first. It is very important to have the correct scale of values, the purpose of life: why do we live, what will we live to see, in the end, what do we want from life, why do we work, what is most important? The most important thing, after all, is pleasing God according to the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing more important than this.

When the Lord comes first, when we put Him first every time through the effort of faith, then we will overcome over-concern, because then we simply will not take on unnecessary worries, but will do what is necessary.

And then the heart will be freed, cleansed, and then we will be able to absorb the grace of God, which the Lord gives us abundantly and without measure, then we can accept Christ within ourselves, be with Christ. And it’s good to think about this during Holy Week, to prepare for Easter in this way and to enter into Easter period. In addition to reading the Gospel, of course, in addition to prayer, this goes without saying.

Recorded by Daria Mendeleeva, Tamara Amelina

Video: Victor Aromshtam, Alexander Basalaev

The last week before Easter is called Passion in memory of the last days of earthly life, death and burial of Jesus Christ. In 2019 it will last from April 22 to 27 and will end Happy holiday Easter 28th.

What should you not do during Holy Week?

On these days, believers observe strict fasting. This is not only certain restrictions in the diet, but, first of all, cleansing the soul.

At this time, you need to avoid going to the theater, cinema, watching entertainment programs on TV, otherwise fasting will be meaningless.

What should you do during Holy Week? Believers should take a break from worldly, everyday affairs and devote themselves to spiritual concerns.

Spend more time in prayer, try to manifest more attention in relation to friends and relatives, provide assistance to poor and sick people.

What is prohibited during Holy Week? You should not be angry, quarrel, show impatience with people, use foul language, or judge people. the last week Lent should be calm, peaceful, spent in prayer and communication with the Lord.

Also these days you can’t guess about the future. As the priests say, people are not given to know what will happen to them in the future, but it is enough to know the past and live in the present. Believers should face life's circumstances with an open heart and try to make choices worthy of a Christian in any situation.

What can you do during Holy Week?

It is also called Clean or White Week, taking into account the adherence to spiritual and physical purity by believers. These days believers refuse intimacy married, and wedding ceremonies are not held in churches.

On Monday, you can start cleaning the house, remembering that cleaning and laundry should be completed on Thursday. All rituals of this day are aimed at cleansing the house of negativity that has accumulated over the winter and preparing for Easter.

On Maundy Thursday, also called Maundy Thursday, people do general cleaning in their houses, wash themselves.

However, starting from Good Friday It is no longer possible to wash, get a haircut, clean, sew, wash, knit, etc. After Thursday, culinary preparations for Easter can only be continued on Saturday.

How is fasting observed during Holy Week by day?

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (April 22, 23 and 24, 2019, respectively) you must refrain from cooked food, that is, limit yourself to raw vegetables and fruits.

On Maundy Thursday, April 25, 2019, you can eat hot food, adding vegetable oil to it, and drink a little wine.

Saturday April 27, 2019, before the appearance of the first star, is also considered a time of strict fasting, then dry eating is recommended for the rest of this day.

What should you not do during Lent during Holy Week? Consume products of animal origin and break your fast before the appointed time, serving Easter cakes, Easter cakes and colored eggs until Sunday.

We hope that our article about what is allowed and what is prohibited during Holy Week will help you spend these days following established traditions.