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Transfiguration of the Lord or the day of the consecration of apples?

Perhaps there is no person in our time who would not know that “Spasy” , on which it is customary to consecrate various fruits and other gifts of nature. A more enlightened one will say that the word “Savior” – short for “Savior” – refers to three summer holidays: Honey Savior, Apple Savior and Third Savior. I would like to say a few words about these holidays.

Honey Spas. On this day, August 14, , the Orthodox Church celebrates the Origin (or Destruction) of the Honest Trees of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord ; This holiday was established in Byzantium in the 9th century. In August, when dangerous epidemics began due to the heat and lack of clean water, it was customary to wear the Holy Tree of the Cross on roads and streets to sanctify places and to ward off diseases, calling for help the power of the Crucified and Risen Lord Jesus Christ. In the Russian Church, this feast was combined with the remembrance of the Baptism of Rus’ on August 1 (according to the old style) 988 years old; the legend about this was preserved in the annals of the sixteenth century: “The great prince Vladimir of Kiev and all Rus’ was baptized on August 1.” In honor of this, processions to the water were made everywhere, where the rite of small water consecration took place; because of this, the holiday was sometimes called “The Savior on the Waters”. The generally accepted name “Honey” holiday was due to the fact that, according to popular belief, from that day on, bees cease to carry a honey bribe from flowers. Strict guardians of folk customs only from the first Savior began to eat honey, having previously consecrated it in the temple.

Apple Spas. In the Russian folk tradition, the holiday of the Transfiguration of the Lord (August 19) is called the Second or Apple Spas, because. Around this time, it is time for apples to ripen. In Rus’, especially for this day, apples were brought in cartloads, and every more or less wealthy person considered it his duty to distribute the fruits to the poor and sick. Until that day, it was not supposed to eat apples and all garden vegetables, except for cucumbers. The custom to consecrate the fruits is quite ancient, and dates back to the VIII century, to the times of the Byzantine Empire. The basis for establishing the custom to consecrate the fruits on August 6 (according to the old style) was that in the east by this time the fruits ripen, the most important of which – ears and grapes – are brought to the temple for blessing and as a token of gratitude to God for receiving these fruits for food person. In Rus’, in relation to our realities, in those places where grapes do not grow or do not ripen by this time, apples are consecrated on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

Third Spas. August 29, The Orthodox Church celebrates the transfer of the Image Not Made by Hands of Our Lord Jesus Christ from Edessa to Constantinople. The Savior Not Made by Hands is a special type of image of Christ, representing His face on the “ubrus”, that is, the board. According to legend, the Image of Christ Not Made by Hands was captured for the Edessa king Abgar after the artist sent by him failed to depict Christ: Christ washed his face, wiped it with a cloth that left an imprint, and handed it to the artist. This day is popularly called the “third Savior”, or “nut”, “bread” Savior. This day was called Nut Savior because nuts ripened for this holiday; The holiday was called the Savior of Grain because the end of the harvest of bread was associated with it. On this day, pies were baked from the flour of the new harvest; popular sayings are also known: “The Third Savior has stored up bread”, “If the Third Savior is good, there will be kvass in winter.”

There are always a lot of people in churches these days. But not because people honor these church holidays, but because something is consecrated in the church… For many people, Orthodoxy has become a religion that provides some kind of ritual and magical services. The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord has become the day of the consecration of water, behind which long queues line up; note that people do not come to pray and especially honor this holiday, but for “holy water”. The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem turned into Palm Sunday – the day when you need to bless the willow and be sure to whip each other with it. The Bright Resurrection of Christ, Easter, the central event of the Divine plan for man, when Christ resurrected, breaking the bonds of hell, and thereby gave us the opportunity to be saved, in the minds of people turned into a day of consecration of Easter cakes, eggs and other food. The consecration of apples completely obscured the true meaning of the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

On August 14, in addition to the celebration of the Pronunciation of the Precious Trees of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, our Church commemorates the holy martyrs of Maccabees, their mother Solomonia and teacher Eleazar, who suffered for their faith in 166 BC. from the Syrian pagan king Antiochus Epiphanes. In the minds of the people, this day turned into the holiday “Poppy”, when a poppy was consecrated in the church, which was then stored all year and was revered almost on a par with holy water, and was also used (which is already essentially paganism) for various divination and rituals .

But this is how Orthodoxy – the path to salvation given to us by the Lord – really loses its true meaning. And the reason, of course, is not in folk culture and not in peasant traditions. Christian culture is naturally formed in a certain environment and bears its imprint. So in Rus’, Orthodoxy absorbed folk traditions and transformed them. But the external must not close the internal for us. The consecration of water, Easter food, fruits and eating them in itself does not make a person closer to God, is not capable of changing a person internally.

The most important thing that we must understand for ourselves is that the Lord calls us all to salvation. But what is this “salvation”? The answer is simple – it is unity (or connection) with God, and the connection both in the future life, and in this, temporal one. But between man and God since the fall of the first people there has been a barrier – sin. Sin blinds a person, closes the way for him to communion with God, just as rain clouds block the sun. Therefore, the main task for a person on the path to salvation is the fight against sin, deliverance from sin in oneself. And this a person achieves with the help of faith in God and life according to the Gospel, through participation in the sacraments established by God; faith alone is not enough, faith alone does not save us: “Faith without works is dead,” as the apostle James says in his epistle (James 2:17). Our good deeds, the fulfillment of the gospel commandments are just our evidence of true faith in God, show our desire to transform our sinful nature and become closer to God.

As we have already said, the name “Spas” is an abbreviation for “Savior”, which, in fact, means “saving us. ” And it is the consciousness and feeling that one is perishing in sins and the recognition of Christ as the only Savior who can lead a person out of the sinful abyss and heal sinful wounds with His grace to turn to God in this way. As long as a person perceives the Gospel and the whole structure of church life superficially, as long as it is only an interesting spiritual tradition for him, he will not see his Savior in Christ; Christ, in essence, he does not need. Christ is needed only by those who have seen the abyss of sin into which they have fallen and from where they cannot be saved without a Savior.

Therefore, while tasting the fruits blessed by the Church, one should not limit one’s “spiritual” life only to this. Our Lord and Savior calls us all to salvation, to unity with Him. And on the thorny path of human perfection, his spiritual growth, only strong faith, hope in the boundless mercy of God, purification through the sacraments established by God and union with Him in the sacrament of the Eucharist can help a person in a difficult struggle with sin.

Press Center of the Holy Dormition Church.