On January 7, Christians who follow the Julian calendar celebrate the feast of the Nativity of Christ.. This is one of the biggest holidays for believers, it is dedicated to the miracle of the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem.
Holiday traditions.
Christmas is preceded by Advent, which begins on November 28 and ends on January 6. This is not so much a time of abstinence from certain foods as a time of spiritual purification and preparation for the holiday..
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Christmas Eve is celebrated before Christmas. In the evening of this day, 12 Lenten dishes are served on the table, according to the number of apostles, among them kutya and uzvar are obligatory. On Christmas Eve, you can’t eat until the first star appears in the sky, it is considered a symbol of the Bethlehem star, which announced the birth of Christ.
Holy Evening begins with a prayer, then a Christmas candle is lit. The owner of the house before the meal should bless the dinner.
One of the symbols of Christmas was Didukh - a sheaf, which was considered a talisman and a symbol of the well-being of the house..
On January 7, it is customary to greet each other with the words \! \!
On a holiday, it is customary to attend a service in the church..
One of the main folk traditions on this day is the singing of carols.. Youth and children go from house to house and carol on Christmas Eve or from the first day of Christmas. Carolers carry with them a large star, which marked the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. It was fixed on a stick and covered with gilded paper..
Another tradition is the nativity scene, a mobile puppet theater in which performances were shown on a Christmas theme..
On the holiday, the godchildren also traditionally go to visit the godparents and congratulate them..
Divination for Christmas.
One of the traditions of the holiday is fortune-telling, they were especially popular with girls who wanted to know their fate and guessed at their betrothed.. Fortune telling was taken during Christmas time - from January 7 to 19.
Divination for love dreams.
The girl had to eat something salty before going to bed, but it was forbidden to drink water with food.. In bed, she said: " The people believed that the one who came to get the girl drunk, she would marry him..
Divination on cups.
The girls took several opaque cups (according to the number of fortunetellers). They put onions, bread, money, salt, water, sugar and a ring in them.. Each girl had to choose a cup with her eyes closed. Interpretation:
ring - wedding, onion - tears, bread - well-being, sugar - fun, water - stability, salt - you need to be careful: a person is in trouble, money is wealth.
Divination on a boot.
This method of divination was the most popular among girls.. Unmarried people had to take off their shoes from the left foot and throw the boot out of the gate. Then they looked at the result: the toe of the shoe returned to the gate - the girl will not get married for another year, if in the other direction - they will come to woo in the new year.