Wishing all those of the orthodox faith,’ Priecigus, Gaisus Svetkus’!

The following article is about certain traditions which are followed, though, I realize they may vary from different households/places.  My mother’s family, for instance, did not practice dipping their fingers in honey and making the sign of the cross on foreheads—nor that of the honey and garlic on the table.  Nevertheless, it’s interesting to read about how different people celebrate this holiday.

http://www.russia.com/blog/russian-orthodox-christmas-7-january

Irena

Kristus piedzimst!
Хрістосъ раждается!

Paldies, Irena!

Actually, I celebrate the Menaeon feasts on the New Calendar these days, thanks (well, I don’t really feel thankful for it) to Meletios Metaxakis, but your message is no less grateful to me for that.

The link you provide describes the _svjatyj večer_; I have never been able to determine how prevalent it is among Great-Russians; many seem not even to have heard of it, but I also come across references such as this link that seem to indicate that it is generally known and widely practiced.

It is certainly well known in Western Rus’, where it is also practice by the neighboring RCs &, I think, even Lutherans. Several years ago, someone directed me to a web page that described it as a “Russian” family tradition, but the young lady describing it said it that she inherited it from “Zeddo & Baba”—so she was either Bielarusian or else her grandparents spoke an Eastern dialect of Slovak (called _rus’kyj_ because spoken by Orthodox or Greek Catholics); in either case she was clearly not very proficient in it (or she would have written “dzedo” or “dziedo” and not “zeddo”. So the web site settled nothing. If you can shed any further light on this, I would be grateful.

Stephen

Hello Stephen!  I always enjoy looking up and seeing you here on LOL!  Svinet par vecam, jaunam?  Or both?  I suppose that can be a dilemma for some.  Upon hearing a sermon from Macitajs about the consumerism often attached to Christmas—people rushing out to throw out their trees, to unolad them as soon as possible after all the festivities and gluttony are over, when in fact it’s only just the very beginning, ‘jo gaisma tiko sakusies’—I felt guilty, so vowed I would keep the tree up til’ Zvaigznu Diena, pareizticigie Ziemassvetki.  As it went, I couln’t quite hold out that long.  We’ve had and continue to have an unprecedented amount of snowfall and the thought of trying to haul that tree out the door, into the woods, wading through 2 foot deep snow drifts, proved to be too daunting, weighed too heavily on my mind.  But…I did mark the ocassion with my beautiful icon, purchased from the Katedrale in Riga and burning candles, amidst those fragrant, balsam branches, which I can’t bring myself to part with, even now.  All the while, my mother preparing her kutya, her tree still intact (after all, it only had to be disassembled in short order and brought down stairs to the cellar), saying, ‘Abzelojies, vai tad vienreiz sos svetkus nevaretu vienot?!’

Getting back to your question, Stephen, I’m afraid I can’t be of much help in shedding light on the prevalence of people, knowing about, observing the ‘svjatyi vecer’.  Perhaps Andrejs K or Aleks, if he/they are reading can answer this best, since I have few contacts with Russians.  Many have passed; others, like my mother and her Russian speaking friends have intermarried, have become Lutheranized (gone over to that ‘cult’, as one Russian Orthodox priest put it).  But, never the less, she does hold certain traditions, beliefs dear to her heart, as they are a part of who she is.

As she described ‘svjatyi vecer’ in Latvia, her family (men and then the women) would first go to the sauna and by the time they returned, it would already be dark, whether stars appeared or not, hence the meal could begin with the kutya.  It was made from rice to which honey,sugar, raisins and/or cranberries were added—no milk, butter, dairy products allowed.  It was also a time to remember the dead, ‘mirusos’ and everyone would partake of 3 spoonfuls of kutya to commemorate each person who had passed on. After this the rest of the meal was eaten, which usually consisted of some type of fish.  My mother’s family did not usually attend church on Christmas Eve as it was too far away, about 20 kilometers.  And instead of a candle, there was the light (oil lamp) illuminating the ikon on the wall.  Presents were not opened until the next day when there was an open house,  neighbors, friends, relatives coming to feast and celebrate.  Another activity on Christmas Eve was the ‘koleda’.  Lanterns were covered with homemade green and/or red paper shades to be carried from house to house while people sang ‘koleda’—a kind of caroling, ‘Ziemassvetku apsveikums’.

What does come to mind concerning your original questiion is that perhaps the people you’ve met have been Sovietized(?), religion, not ever having been a factor in their lives(?)...just a thought.

Visu labu,

Irena

PS It wasn’t until just very recently that I realized that Christmas doesn’t quite have the same significance as Easter to those of the Orthodox faith.  If I may use the word ‘significance’ here, not ruffling any feathers, for lack of coming up with a better term.  And from a strictly religious point of view, I think I can understand why that may be.  Christmas, the birth of Christ is certainly a blessed event, but it’s the beginning—the promise of what is yet to come.  While Easter is the fulfillment of that promise—the resurrection, life ever lasting.

Irena, I will see if I can find a description of the svjatyj večer as celebrated in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and send it to you.

You are right about Pascha being the real big thing; Christmas is one of the Twelve Great Feasts, whereas Pascha is in a class of its own. Still, each of the major feasts was in the traditional society pretty important. Nowadays I try to persuade my Greek parish that the parish patronal feast—the Beheading of John the Baptist—should be observed by not eating from a plate, and not eating cabbage or head lettuce or vegies of similar shape. The Greeks have somewhat different customs—the Vasilopita at New Year is was new to me, while they have never heard of the Kračun at Christmas.

The koljady, by the way, are in general borrowed from Ukrainians or Bielorussians. The Great-Russian tradition had “Spiritual Verses,” preserved as far as I know only among Old Believers. “Nebo i zemļa” et al are part of a larger phenomenon of folk hymns developed in Wester Rus’ and borrowed only comparatively recently by Great-Russians. “O kto, kto Nikolaja ļubit” is another example now widely known by Russians.

As for whether the people I have asked are “Sovietized,” this is possibly so in some cases but can’t be generalized. Years ago I heard about some students at St Vladimir’s Seminary who were still in contact with their ancestral traditions enough to organize and celebrate the svjatyj večer, which apparently was regarded as quite strange by the Russian and Russified majority there—not a particularly Sovietized sample of Russians in the USA. And in fact there were many fewer Sovietized people in North America in those days—we have them now as recent immigrants in much greater numbers.

Stephen

Stephen - I believe you are correct about borrowed from Ukrainians. It is also quite true that Easter is by far a greater event as far as rituals etc go - does the blessing of the Easter baskets also occur in the Greek Celbration - are there also traditional greetings and replies? If I recall correctly - the Ukrainian Easter greeting is “Christ is risen” with the reply being “He is risen indeed”. Sorry if it is a little early for Easter.

Sniks writes:

“Stephen - I believe you are correct about borrowed from Ukrainians. It is also quite true that Easter is by far a greater event as far as rituals etc go - does the blessing of the Easter baskets also occur in the Greek Celbration - are there also traditional greetings and replies? If I recall correctly - the Ukrainian Easter greeting is “Christ is risen” with the reply being “He is risen indeed”. Sorry if it is a little early for Easter. “

Sorry to be a little late in replying! Yes, there are similar customs with the baskets, and the traditional greeting & reply is pan-Orthodox:

In Greek: Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!                Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!

In Latvian: Kristus Augšāmcēlies!      Patiesi Augšāmcēlies!

In Lithuanian: Kristus prisikėlė!            Tikrai prisikėlė!

In Estonian: Kristus on ülestõusnud!      Tõesti, Ta on ülestõusnud!

In Scots Gaelic: Tha Crìosd air èiridh!    Gu dearbh, tha e air èiridh!

Stephen

Hi Irena, Stephen and the rest of you,
I do not wish to intrude in your discussion about Greek orthodox religion. However, I have a short incident in my early life involving above religion. It often comes to my memory when there is a talk about religion. This is one of the times.
It happened very, very long time ago. It was my first week at school. The first day a lot of things were sorted and established of each new scholar. One of the things was to find out which religion we belonged to. When it came my turn to disclose my religion, I was very sure that I belonged to “pareizā ticībā, and so I was Pareizticībnieks”.
  I can’t remember how often, I think twice a week, we, Pareizticigie, had to stay an hour after lessons for the religion. So it went for several weeks until my mother got suspicious of my late coming home. After seeing the teachers I was relieved of my extra curriculum, and at the same time I found out that I was only a Protestant and nothing special.
 
  Well, after all, that’s what the school is for; learning.

Hi Felikss!

I very much enjoyed your story and in no way are you intruding!

It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that most of us have a tendency to think that we belong to the ‘pareiza ticiba’.  BTW, and however,  I have often wondered how this term, ‘pareiza’ came out.

Irena