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 show more attention to friends and loved ones, help the 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 of fasting 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 in marriage, 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, which is also called Maundy Thursday, people celebrate general cleaning in houses, they wash themselves.
However, starting from Good Friday It is no longer possible to wash, get a haircut, clean, sew, wash, knit, etc. Culinary preparations By Easter, after Thursday it will be possible to continue only 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.
Monday
On this day, a lot of tidying begins. The house is cleared of old, bulky things.
Tuesday
Groceries are being purchased for Easter. Women cook medicinal infusions. Men should not even touch herbs, tinctures, powders.
Wednesday
This is the day of washing and all sorts of wiping. On Wednesday, it is advisable to thoroughly wash, scrub the floors, and beat out the carpets.
On Wednesday of Holy Week, a special ritual against any bodily illness was remembered. It was necessary to scoop up water with a mug from a well or from a barrel on the street, or draw water from a river. After crossing ourselves three times, we covered the mug with a clean or new towel, and at 2 a.m., after crossing ourselves three times again, we doused ourselves with this water, leaving a little in the mug. Afterwards, clothes were put on the wet body without drying, and the water that remained in the mug was poured onto a bush or flowers for up to 3 hours. They say that a body washed in this way is reborn.
Thursday
On Maundy Thursday it was advised to cut the hair of a one-year-old child for the first time (cutting it before one was considered a sin), and for girls to cut the ends of their braids so that they would grow longer and thicker. All livestock were also advised to have their hair clipped for health and well-being.
On this day, Thursday salt is prepared: it is heated in a frying pan, and the salt becomes medicinal properties. It is advisable to consecrate this salt in the Temple.
Maundy Thursday is traditionally called “clean”, and not only because on this day every Orthodox man strives to be spiritually cleansed, to take communion, to accept the sacrament established by Christ.
Maundy Thursday was widespread folk custom cleansing with water - swimming in an ice hole, river, lake or dousing in a bathhouse before sunrise. ?There are many traditions associated with this day.
On Maundy Thursday they cleaned the houses, washed and cleaned everything. It was customary to collect and burn juniper branches to fumigate homes and stables. It is believed that healing juniper smoke protects humans and animals from evil spirits and diseases.
There was also a belief that eggs laid on Holy Thursday and eaten on Easter protected against illness, and the shells of eggs buried in the ground in a pasture reliably protected livestock from the evil eye.
Starting from Maundy Thursday we prepared for festive table, painted and painted eggs. By ancient tradition colored eggs were placed on freshly sprouted oats and wheat.
On Thursday morning they began baking Easter cakes, babas, small products made from wheat flour with images of crosses, lambs, doves, larks, as well as honey gingerbread. In the evening they prepared Easter.
Everyone in the family should take a handful of salt and pour it into one bag. This salt is removed and stored, and it is called “ Thursday salt", i.e. Maundy Thursday. You can use it to treat yourself, as well as your family and friends. This salt is used to make amulets for the family, livestock, garden, home, etc.
On Holy Wednesday and Maundy Thursday, it was customary to wash all domestic animals with water melted from snow - from cows to chickens - and burn the salt in the oven, which, according to folk beliefs, gained from this healing properties. In some villages, at midnight on Maundy Thursday, women were also ordered to douse themselves with water to protect themselves from illness.
If you wash your face before dawn on Maundy (Clean) Thursday, you need to say: “I wash away what they put on me, that with which my soul and body toil, everything is removed on Clean Thursday.”
On Easter morning they wash themselves with water left over from Maundy Thursday. It’s good to put a silver thing or a spoon in it, or maybe a coin. Wash for beauty and wealth. If a girl cannot get married, she needs to give the towel with which she dried herself on Maundy Thursday to people on Easter, to those who ask for alms, along with dyes and Easter cake. After this, they soon get married.
There was also a custom of burning crosses on doors and ceilings with a candle to protect the house from invasion. evil spirits. Passionate candles were given to the seriously ill or suffering difficult birth, they have healing power. From Maundy Thursday it was forbidden to sweep the floor in the house until Easter.
Friday
Cooking on this day is going well. We continued to bake and prepare for Easter. “Angels help,” say pious people.
On Friday they will sweep the corners with a rag; this rag will help get rid of lower back pain if you tie it around yourself. The same rag is used to wipe your feet in the bathhouse after washing so that your feet don’t hurt. Ash taken on the Friday before Easter will help cure alcoholism, black shaking, the evil eye and mortal melancholy.
Saturday
The last (quiet) tidy. You can also paint eggs. On this day they prepare common holiday dishes. On Saturday they brought colored eggs, Easter cakes, Easter cakes and other items to church to be blessed. And before going to the service on Easter night, they left a treat on the table so that later they could break their fast. True, they ate little by little - only symbolically, after which they went to bed.
Based on materials from the site "Woman's World"
____________________
Found an error or typo in the text above? Highlight the misspelled word or phrase and click Shift + Enter or .
Holy Week, what not to do and signs
Holy Week has begun for the Orthodox; we will describe what can and cannot be done in this article. The most important thing is that this week it is customary to keep a particularly strict fast.
To prepare for Easter, you should pray during Holy Week. Through prayer we give thanks to the Savior. It is advisable to set aside at least one day this week to go to church. And of course, these days you should definitely spread goodness to all the people around you.
Holy Week, 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. 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.
Holy Week 2018: signs before Easter
IN Maundy Thursday they clean, wash, wash everything in the house. Starting from Thursday, nothing is given or taken out of the house until Easter. On Friday they will sweep the corners with a rag. According to signs, this rag helped to get rid of lower back pain if you tied it around yourself. They used the same rag to wipe their feet in the bathhouse after washing so that their feet would not hurt. Ash, taken from the oven on Friday before Easter, helped to recover from alcoholism, black shaking, the evil eye and mortal melancholy.
On Friday they look out the window, noting who they will see first: if a man, then to prosperity for three months. If a person gets sick at this time, he will quickly recover. Any problem will be easily resolved.
If you see an old woman, then there will be a succession of three months of failure and illness. And if you see a young woman first, you will live without problems for these three months. If you are lucky and your family appears first before your eyes, this means peace in your family, reconciliation of those who are at odds.
According to signs, a dog means longing, a cat means profit, birds mean a new acquaintance and good news, a disabled person means the death of a loved one.
Of course, everything preparatory work: cooking, painting eggs, must be completed before Easter Sunday. On Easter morning they wash themselves with water left over from Maundy Thursday. It’s good to put a silver thing or a spoon in it, or maybe a coin. This type of washing will bring beauty and wealth.
If a girl cannot get married, then she needs to give the towel with which she dried herself on Maundy Thursday, along with dyes and Easter cake, to those who ask for alms. Then the desired marriage should take place quickly.
What can you do during Holy Week?
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.
On Tuesday it is best to put things in order: wash, iron, take apart.
In the middle of the week, it is advisable to visit church and prepare everything for the festive table.
Preparations for Easter begin on Thursday. 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 is the day of service, which begins at midnight. Orthodox believers go to church for worship.
“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, how can you not attend that service on Thursday evening during Holy Week when everyone gathers in front of the Crucifix, erected in the middle of the church 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 terrible sin, and over-concern is not such a terrible weakness, because people really have a lot of worries: they have family, friends, there is work, there are responsibilities that we must fulfill.
But if we have these responsibilities, if we have our work, if we have our worldly life we put it first, then there is no room left in the soul for Christ, then we live an earthly life, the earth. 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, this is how to prepare for Easter and how to enter the 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
During Holy Week - the last six days before Easter, there is a lot to do. Each day of this period is called “great” and it has its own characteristics, its own traditions and prohibitions, signs and beliefs. Let's take a close look at Holy Week and determine what cannot be done, and what will be important to do.
Since Holy Week is church calendar- this is the most mournful and strict time of fasting, that is, there are many prohibitions, what cannot be done. They concern not only and not even so much nutrition in Lent, how much correct spiritual work on oneself - going to church for the Liturgy, reading religious literature, confessing and taking communion.
Each day of Holy Week is called Great and has its own rules, restrictions and signs of what not to do. But the list of obligatory things includes visiting a temple or independently reading at home the events that happened to the Savior in his last days in the city of Jerusalem on the earth in general.
Important! Time Holy Week was always dedicated to especially strict observance of fasting and intense prayer. So, you need to keep everything to a minimum and give up entertainment. If possible, during these times, while leading a modest and quiet life, one should also do good deeds.
Read more materials on the topic:
- Don't ignore Lent. Even if you have not fasted before this period, at least for the last six days, give up at least meat and dairy products, eggs and fish.
- Don't live relaxed. On the contrary, you need to gather all your strength and try to visit the temple, work on your soul, and do good deeds.
- Do not spend time at entertainment events, refrain from singing and dancing.
- Starting from Good Friday, you can't clean your house. Also on this day you should not paint eggs or bake Easter cakes - this can be done on Maundy Thursday before or on Holy Saturday after.
- The shell from the sanctified easter eggs and crumbs from Easter cakes should not be thrown away - it is recommended to bury them in the ground.
Important! You often come across the question online about what to do if 40 days fall during Holy Week. We studied the answers of the priests - they advise moving the commemoration to the first day of remembrance of the dead, which in the calendar comes immediately after Easter. This is Radunitsa on the second Tuesday after the Resurrection of Christ.
What to do during Holy Week
Every Orthodox believer who is preparing for Easter according to all the rules and canons must Great week take communion. This can be done on Thursday, Saturday or Sunday.
Liturgies are celebrated on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Going to church every day, after all, no one canceled work, is quite problematic for a modern city dweller. But you will definitely need to find time to go to evening services on Wednesday and Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Fasting during Holy Week and what to eat by day:
- On Monday, refrain from hot food and vegetable oil, plus the main prohibitions of Lent. You can eat fresh or pickled fruits and vegetables; nuts and honey provide excellent energy.
- On Tuesday, eat exactly the same as on Monday.
- On Wednesday, the laity are allowed only cold food and still no vegetable oil.
- On Thursday you can strengthen your strength for the next two strict days. Hot food and the use of vegetable oil when preparing food are allowed.
- On Friday you should try to abstain from food, giving preference to water and bread.
- On Saturday it is advisable to keep the same strict fast as on Friday, but if this does not work out, then stick to dry eating.
- Easter comes on Sunday, which means Lent ends and there are no more dietary restrictions.