The traditions of the holidays often look familiar, but go back to strange events and legends. So, let's say, the day of any saint - his holiday - is, as a rule, either the day of his death, or the day of gaining his relics. Moreover, in the church tradition such a holiday is completely devoid of any mournful component. It is always a holiday. Let's say there is a feast of the Beheading of the head of John the Baptist, there is a feast of the Finding of the head of John the Baptist. On the Day of the Beheading of the Head of John the Baptist, the stepdaughter of King Herod performed a beautiful dance at a feast in honor of her stepfather's birthday, and in return for him asked to bring her the head of the baptist prophet.
That is, it turns out that one of the most important Christian holidays falls on the birthday of one of the bloodiest tyrants in history.
The same applies to the feast of love, family and fidelity, established in honor of Saints Peter and Fevronia. This is the day of the transfer of their relics - that is, exhumation and re-burial. And nothing. Just a holiday - fun and solemn.
The tradition of celebrating All Saints Day comes from the Revelation of John the Theologian, where it says: “A great many people, whom no one could count, from all the tribes and tribes, and peoples and languages, stood before the throne and before the Lamb in white robes ... These are who came from great tribulation; they washed their clothes and made their clothes white with the Blood of the Lamb. ” The symbolism, again in a secular sense, is rather gloomy - the Blood of the Lamb.
In the West, it is customary to celebrate the day before All Saints Day, that is, October 31. This is Halloween (from English All Hallow's Eve - the evening before the holiday).
The holiday itself involves gathering all who are holy or simply righteous before the Lord's throne. That is, the action is exclusively pious, solemn and godly.
The day before the holiday is celebrated as a kind of carnival, which you need to dress in with all kinds of evil spirits and scare people. It is like a doomsday - the last opportunity to throw out all the bad, unclean, to surrender to worldly passions, leaving only the spirit ready for the holy holiday.
As you know, you will not sin - you will not repent. Halloween is necessary so that people, after trying on unclean persons, realize their sinful nature and turn to the throne of God with a heart full of sorrow for their unrighteous lives.
Therefore, there can be nothing wrong with the celebration of Halloween - a carnival is necessary, just as the moment of purification following it is necessary.
The main character of Halloween - a pumpkin with a candle inside - comes from an ancient Irish legend, according to which the drunkard Jack twice tricked the devil.
At first, Jack drank with Satan, and when he had to pay, he asked him to turn into a silver coin to prove his power. After that, Jack put the coin in his pocket, where a silver cross was already lying. So the devil was trapped, and for the release offered Jack a year of a comfortable life. After that, Jack asked the devil to climb a tree, and he carved a cross on the trunk, but for liberation he asked the devil for ten years of life without incident.
As a result, as we understand from all the stories about transactions with the devil, Jack did not live long, and after his death he was forced to roam forever on the Earth, having only an empty turnip with coal inside.
So, it turns out that Halloween pumpkin is not a symbol of fun, but eternal ordeal. She must be reminded of them.
Everything related to Halloween - history, symbolism, and the tradition of changing clothes - sends us to a sad warning. But man is so arranged that, seeing a reminder of death, he, in order not to lose his mind, begins to have fun, saying death: "Not today." It works the compensatory mechanisms of the psyche. It is believed that an involuntary smile can be a normal and purely reflex reaction of an organism to terrible news.
Why is this holiday close to the consciousness of Russian people? It is because of his shameless spit on the fact itself and the prospect of death.
Russia has experienced so many tragedies that it simply cannot believe in bad signs and bad signs - they mean nothing to us. Another mockery of the fact that life, in fact, is finite, is precisely the Russian tradition.
Halloween and its celebration need not be afraid. Because there is no death, although it is always somewhere nearby.
And the fact that people prefer to have fun in the face of death is evidence of the triumph of human nature.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.