Easter in literary works

[Bright Sunday]

Bright Sunday
Nikolay Gogol


In the Russian man there is a special participation in the holiday of the Bright Resurrection. He feels it more alive if he happens to be in a foreign land. Seeing how everywhere in other countries this day is almost indistinguishable from other days - the same usual occupations, the same everyday life, the same everyday expression on their faces, he feels sadness and involuntarily turns to Russia. It seems to him that this day is somehow better celebrated there, and the person himself is more joyful and better than on other days, and life itself is somehow different, and not everyday. He will suddenly imagine - this solemn midnight, this ubiquitous bell ringing, which, like the whole earth, merges into one roar, this exclamation "Christ is risen!", Which replaces all other greetings on this day, this kisses that are only heard in our country - and he is almost ready to exclaim: "Only in Russia alone is this day celebrated the way it should be celebrated!" Of course, this is all a dream; it disappears suddenly, as soon as he is actually transported to Russia, or even only remembers that this day is a day of some half-sleepy running and bustle, empty visits, deliberate not asking each other, instead of joyful meetings - if, and meetings, then based on the most selfish calculations; that ambition seethes with us on this day even more than on all others, and they speak not about the resurrection of Christ, but about who will receive what reward and who will receive what; that even the people themselves, about whom the glory goes, as if they are most happy, is already drunk on the streets, as soon as the solemn mass has ended, and the dawn has not yet had time to illuminate the earth. The poor Russian will breathe a sigh, if only he remembers all this and sees that this is perhaps only a caricature and a mockery of the holiday, and the holiday itself is not. For the sake of form, only some boss will kiss a disabled person on the cheek, wanting to show subordinate officials how to love your brother, and some backward patriot, in annoyance with the youth who scolds our ancient Russian customs, claiming that we have nothing, shout out to anger; “We have everything: family life, family virtues, and our customs are holy; and we do our duty as nowhere else in Europe; and we are people to the surprise of everyone. "

No, the matter is not in visible signs, not in patriotic exclamations and not in a kiss given to a disabled person, but in really looking at a person on this day as at his best jewel - to hug and hug him to you, as my most modern brother, so rejoice at him, as if my best friend, with whom we have not seen for several years and who suddenly unexpectedly came to us. Stronger still! More! Because the bonds that bind us with him are stronger than our earthly blood kinship, and we became related to our beautiful heavenly father, several times our closest earthly father to us, and this day we are in our true family, in his own house ... This day is that holy day on which all of humanity celebrates its holy, heavenly brotherhood, without excluding a single person from it.
How would this day come, it seemed, by the way to our nineteenth century, when thoughts about the happiness of mankind became almost everyone's favorite thoughts, when to embrace all of humanity as brothers, it became a favorite dream of a young man, when many only dream of how to transform all of humanity how to raise the inner dignity of a person, when almost half of them have already solemnly recognized that Christianity alone is capable of doing this, when they began to assert that it is necessary to introduce Christ's law more closely into both family and state life, when they even began to talk about so that everything was common - both home and land, when the exploits of compassion and helping the unfortunate became the conversation of fashionable living rooms, when, finally, it became crowded with all philanthropic institutions, hospitable houses and shelters.How it would seem that the nineteenth century should have joyfully celebrated this day, which is so to the heart of all its magnanimous and humanitarian movements! But on this very day, as on a touchstone, you see how pale all his Christian aspirations are and how they are all in only dreams and thoughts, and not in deeds. And if he really has to hug his brother that day, like a brother, he will not hug him. He is ready to embrace all of humanity, like a brother, but he will not embrace a brother. Separate yourself from this humanity, for which he is preparing such a generous embrace, one person who has offended him, whom Christ commands to forgive at that very moment, he will no longer embrace him. Separate from this humanity alone, who disagrees with it in some insignificant human opinions - he will no longer embrace him. Separate from this humanity alone, who is more visible than others with the severe ulcers of his spiritual shortcomings, who more than others requires compassion for himself - he will push him away and will not embrace him. And he will get his hug only to those who have not yet offended him, with whom he had no chance to face, whom he never knew and did not even see in his eyes. This is what kind of an embrace to all mankind will be given by a man of this age, and often the very one who thinks of himself that he is a true lover of mankind and a perfect Christian! Christian! They drove Christ out into the street, to infirmaries and hospitals, instead of calling him to their homes, under their own roof, and they think that they are Christians!

No, not to celebrate the present age of a bright holiday the way it should be celebrated. There is a terrible obstacle, there is an insurmountable obstacle, his name is pride. She was known in former times, but that was a more childish pride, pride in her physical strength, pride in her riches, pride in her family and rank, but she did not reach the terrible spiritual development in which she appeared now. Now she appeared in two forms. Its first kind is pride in its purity.

Rejoicing that it has become in many ways better than its ancestors, humanity of this century fell in love with its purity and beauty. No one is ashamed to boast publicly of their spiritual beauty and consider themselves better than others. One has only to take a closer look at what a knight of nobility everyone is now emerging from us, how mercilessly and harshly judges the other. One has only to listen to the excuses with which he justifies himself for not hugging his brother even on the day of Bright Resurrection. Without shame and without trembling in spirit, he says: “I cannot hug this man: he is disgusting, he is vile in soul, he has stained himself with the most dishonorable act; I won't even let this man into my front hall; I don't even want to breathe the same air with him; I will make a detour in order to go around it and not meet with it. I cannot live with vile and despicable people - can I really hug such a person as a brother? " Alas! the poor man of the nineteenth century has forgotten that on this day there are neither vile nor despicable people, but all people are brothers of the same family, and every man's name is a brother, and not some other. All at once and suddenly he was forgotten: it was forgotten that, perhaps, then despicable and vile people surrounded him, so that, looking at them, he would look at himself and look in himself for the very same thing that was so frightened in others. It has been forgotten that he himself can, at every step, without even noticing it himself, do the same dastardly deed, although in a different form, in a form not struck by public shame, but which, however, to use the proverb, is the same damn thing, only on a different dish. Everything is forgotten. They have forgotten that, perhaps, because so many vile and despicable people have become divorced, that the best and most beautiful people pushed them away severely and inhumanly and thus forced the push to become hardened. As if it were easy to endure contempt for yourself! God knows, perhaps the other was not at all born of a dishonest man; Perhaps his poor soul, powerless to fight temptations, asked and begged for help and was ready to kiss the hands and feet of the one who, moved by spiritual pity, would support her on the edge of the abyss. Perhaps one drop of love for him was enough to return him to the straight path.As if dear love was difficult to reach to his heart! As if nature had already become petrified in him that no feeling could move in him, when the robber is grateful for love, when the beast remembers the hand that caressed him! But everything is forgotten by a man of the nineteenth century, and he pushes his brother away from him, like a rich man pushes a pus-covered beggar from his magnificent porch. He doesn't care about his suffering; he just couldn't see the pus of his wounds. He does not even want to hear his confessions, fearing that his sense of smell will not be struck by the stinking breath of the unfortunate man's mouth, proud of the fragrance of his purity. Should such a person celebrate the holiday of heavenly love?

There is another kind of pride, even stronger than the first — the pride of the mind. It has never grown to such strength as it did in the nineteenth century. It is heard in the very fear of everyone being branded as a fool. A man of the century will bear everything: he will bear the name of a rogue, a scoundrel; give him a name you want, he will demolish it and only not carry the name of a fool. He will allow you to laugh at everything and only will not allow you to laugh at your mind. His mind is a shrine for him. Because of the slightest mockery of his mind, he is ready this very moment to put his brother at a noble distance and plant, without flinching, a bullet in his forehead. He believes in nothing and in nothing; only believes in one mind. What his mind does not see is not for him. He even forgot that the mind goes forward when all the moral forces in a person go forward, and stands motionless and even goes back when the moral forces do not rise. He also forgot that there are not all sides of the mind in any person; that another person can see exactly that side of a thing that he cannot see, and, about to be, know what he cannot know. He does not believe this, and everything that he does not see himself is a lie for him. And the shadow of Christian humility cannot touch him because of the pride of his mind. He will doubt everything: in the heart of a person whom he has known for several years, in the truth, in God, he will doubt, but he will not doubt his mind. Quarrels and quarrels have already begun not for any essential rights, not because of personal hatred - no, not sensual passions, but the passions of the mind have already begun: they are already at enmity personally out of dissimilarity of opinions, because of contradictions in the mental world. Whole parties have already formed, which have not seen each other, have not yet had any personal relations and already hate each other. It is amazing: at a time when people were already beginning to think that by education they drove anger out of the world, anger in another way, from the other end enters the world - the way of the mind, and on the wings of magazine pages, like an all-destroying locust, attacks the hearts of people everywhere. Already the mind itself is almost inaudible. Even clever people begin to tell lies against their own convictions, only because they do not yield to the opposing party, because pride does not allow confessing to everyone in error - pure malice has already reigned in the place of mind.

And can a man of such an age be able to love and feel Christian love for a man? Should he be filled with that bright innocence and angelic infancy that gathers all people into one family? Can he hear the fragrance of our heavenly brotherhood? Should he celebrate this day? Gone is even that outwardly good-natured expression of the earlier simple ages, which gave the appearance as if man was closer to man. The proud mind of the nineteenth century consumed him. The devil set out without a mask into the world. The spirit of pride has ceased to appear in different images and to frighten superstitious people, it has appeared in its own form. Sensing that his domination was recognized, he had already ceased to be repaired with people. With impudent shamelessness he laughs in the eyes of him, who recognizes him; He gives the stupidest laws to the world, which have never been given before, and the world sees this and does not dare to disobey.What does this fashion mean, insignificant, insignificant, which man at first allowed as a trifle, as an innocent deed, and which now, like a complete mistress, has already begun to dispose of in our houses, expelling everything that is most important and best in man? No one is afraid to transgress the first and most sacred laws of Christ several times a day, and yet he is afraid not to obey her slightest command, trembling in front of her like a timid boy. What does it mean that even those who laugh at her themselves dance like light windbags to her tune? What do these so-called innumerable decencies mean, which have become stronger than any fundamental regulations? What do these strange authorities, which have formed past the legitimate ones, mean - extraneous, collateral influences? What does it mean that seamstresses, tailors and artisans of all kinds are already ruling the world, while God's anointed ones have remained on the sidelines? Dark people, unknown to anyone, having no thoughts and sincere convictions, rule the opinions and thoughts of smart people, and a newspaper leaflet, recognized as deceitful by all, becomes an insensitive legislator of his disrespectful person. What do all these illegal laws mean, which, apparently, in the mind of everyone, is drawn by an unclean force emanating from below, and the whole world sees it and, as if enchanted, does not dare to move? What a terrible mockery of humanity! And why, with such a course of things, still preserve the outer holy customs of the church, whose heavenly master has no power over us? Or is this another taunt of the spirit of darkness? Why this holiday that has lost its meaning? Why does he again come more and more muffled to one family of dispersed people and, sadly looking at everyone, leaves as a stranger and a stranger to everyone? Is he definitely unknown and alien to everyone? But why else have people survived here and there, to whom it seems as if they brighten up on this day and celebrate their infancy, that infancy, from which the heavenly kiss, like the kiss of an eternal spring, pours into the soul, that beautiful infancy that the proud current person? Why has not man forgotten forever this infancy and, as if seen in some distant dream, it still moves our soul? Why is all this and what is it for? As if you don't know why? As if you can't see why? Why, so that although some, who still hear the spring breath of this holiday, would suddenly become so sad, so sad, as an angel in heaven is sad. And, screaming with a heart-rending cry, they would have fallen at the feet of their brothers, begging for at least one of this day to be snatched from a number of other days, only one day would be spent not in the customs of the nineteenth century, but in the customs of the eternal century, one day would only embrace and embrace a person like a guilty friend embraces a generous friend who has forgiven him everything, if only to push him away from himself tomorrow and tell him that he is a stranger and stranger to us. If only to wish so, if only to force yourself to do it, to grab hold of this day, as a drowning man grabs a board! God knows, maybe for this desire alone, a ladder is ready to throw us down from heaven and a hand to reach out to help us fly up it.

But a man of the nineteenth century does not want to spend one day like that! And the earth was already on fire with an incomprehensible longing; life becomes callous and callous; everything grows shallow and shallow, and only in the sight of all one gigantic image of boredom grows, reaching immeasurable growth every day. Everything is dull, the grave is everywhere God! It becomes empty and scary in your world!

Why does one Russian still think that this holiday is being celebrated properly and celebrated in this way in one of his lands? Is this a dream? But why does this dream not come to anyone other than the Russian? What does it really mean that the holiday itself has disappeared, and its visible signs so clearly sweep across the face of our earth: the words are heard: "Christ is risen!" - and a kiss, and every time the holy midnight performs with the same solemnity, and the hums of all-ringing bells are buzzing all over the earth, as if they were waking us up? Where ghosts are so obvious, they are not without reason; where they wake up, they wake up there. Those customs that are determined to be eternal do not die. They die in the letter, but come alive in the spirit. They fade away temporarily, die in empty and weathered crowds, but they are resurrected with renewed vigor in the chosen ones, so that in the strongest light from them they spread throughout the world.Not a grain of what is truly Russian in it and what is consecrated by Christ himself will not die of our antiquity. It will spread with the resounding strings of poets, it will ring out fragrant among the hundreds of saints, the faded one will flare up - and the holiday of the Bright Resurrection will be celebrated properly before among us, than among other peoples! On what basis, on what data contained in our hearts, based on what, can we say this? Are we better than other nations? Are life closer to Christ than they are? We are no better than anyone, and life is even more disorderly and disorderly than all of them. “We are the worst of all others” is what we should always say about ourselves. But it is in our nature that this prophesies to us. Our very disorder predicts this to us. We are still melted metal, not molded into our national form; it is also possible for us to throw away, push away from us the indecent and bring into ourselves everything that is no longer possible for other peoples who have received a form and become tempered in it. That there is a lot in our root nature, which we have forgotten, close to the law of Christ, is proof of this by the fact that Christ came to us without a sword, and the prepared land of our hearts called by itself his word, that there are already the beginnings of the brotherhood of Christ in our very Slavic nature, and the brotherhood of people was with us even relatives of a blood brotherhood, that we still do not have the irreconcilable hatred of the estate against the estate and those embittered parties that are found in Europe and which provide an insurmountable obstacle to the unification of people and brotherly love between them, which is, Finally, we have a courage that is not akin to anyone, and if we all face something that is absolutely impossible for any other people, even if, for example, for example, throwing off all our shortcomings suddenly and at once, everything that disgraces the high nature of man, then with the pain of their own body, not sparing themselves, as in the twelfth year, not sparing property, they burned their houses and earthly wealth, so we will rush to throw everything off dawning and staining us, not a single soul will lag behind the other, and at such moments all quarrels, hatred, enmity - everything is forgotten, a brother hangs on his brother's chest, and all Russia is one person. Based on this, we can say that the feast of the Resurrection of Christ will be celebrated before us, than others. And my soul firmly tells me this, and this is not a thought invented in my head. Such thoughts are not made up. By the inspiration of God, they are generated at once in the hearts of many people, who have not seen each other, living on different ends of the earth, and at the same time, as if from the same mouth, are announced. I know for sure that more than one person in Russia, although I do not know him, firmly believes this and says: "Before we in any other land celebrate the Holy Resurrection of Christ!"

[Easter in the villageSmirnov E.]

Easter in the village
Smirnov E.

Here is a rural temple, often wooden and squalid, stands in solitude, shrouded in the gloom of the night, quiet and starry, and next to it is a cemetery lined with wooden crosses. Nothing disturbs the silence of this night: there is no human noise in the streets, you can not hear the creak of wheels and the knocking of carriages, except here and there the deaf croaking of frogs is heard in ditches, potholes and low places filled with water from the melting earth, and rare the screeching cries of seagulls, rushing in a crowd over a lake or over a river that spills over the meadows, are echoes of nature awakening from winter sleep. But at midnight the bell struck. Another blow, another ... Far away in the quiet night and in the open, the rumble of a bell is heard! Like the pressure of the waves of the sea at the prescribed time of high tide, at regular intervals following one after the other and covering one another, sound waves rush in air space, laying on top of one another; they sweep through the mountains and forests, across the plains and fields, “through all the surrounding villages, waking everyone and everything to life and to everyone and everything, proclaiming the joy of the Resurrection from the dead and the triumph of life over death, in everyone and in everything evoking the anticipation of eternal life, ageless and imperishable.These sounds, proclaiming joy, will penetrate the soul of a traveler who was accidentally caught that night, will touch the ears and those few who, due to various circumstances, had to stay at home, will pour joy and consolation into their sorrowful hearts, and will overshadow their faces with the joy of the Resurrection from the dead.
“The silence was amazing ... Suddenly something seemed to stir the still air. A thick, long, wave-like sound barely audible reached the ear - and again everything was quiet ... But then the sound was repeated, already much clearer, metallic, even thicker and more prolonged - but this one, just like the first, rolled in a large wave, carried away somewhere, disappeared, as if it had melted into thin air - and again a pause, long, solemn, full of something mysterious ... A third blow rang out - this began the evangelism. "Heavy Campanus" hummed regularly and smoothly in a thick, soft, velvet tone; as the waves poured its mighty sounds, rolled over the bay, through the forest, ran into ravines and valleys, broke through the granite strongholds of the coastal rocks and rushed uncontrollably, flew over the boundless surface of the abounding lake. The stoust mountain echo with endlessly bizarre ripples began to repeat the majestic blows of the bell on deep gorges and hollows, and the whole neighborhood was filled with a continuous, incessant sound, everything hummed, rang, everything revived, responded, began to speak.

The evocative bell hums invitingly ... How much miraculous charm, blessed illumination is in this holy sound, how much church sweetness there is! What an Orthodox heart, hearing this dear sound, will not be hammered with reverential trepidation, whose hand will not hasten to fold into the sign of the cross! How he irresistibly attracts to himself, what peace, sobering up, how much moral vigor and strength he pours into his soul. There is no weakness that does not feel strength and strengthening; there is no grief and sorrow that would not dissolve into peace and joy; there is no despondency that would not be elated with hope and reassurance at the sound of this sacred verb. The villain's hand raised for a terrible crime, when the bell strikes, powerlessly falls and throws a deadly weapon ...

Our Russian ringing makes an irresistible impression even on people of foreign and other faiths. One American, who was in Moscow at the time of the holy coronation of Emperor Alexander III and had access to the Kremlin, says that he was struck here by such a mass of sounds that he had never heard or imagined before. Choirs sang, orchestras played, enthusiastic "hurray!" the masses; all this was grandiose, solemn, uplifting ... But then Ivan the Great struck and triumphantly hummed, and after him all the bells of Moscow struck and began to hum and, merging into one common tremendous ringing, rushed royally over the stogny of the main city. At this moment, according to the stranger, his emotional excitement reached an extreme degree, he was possessed by some incomprehensible trepidation, and tears of delight poured from his eyes.

The Orthodox Church assimilates the wondrous meaning and deeply mysterious meaning of the ringing of the bell. In her prayers, at the consecration of the "Campanian" or the bell, she asks him for grace by "ringing" her to excite believers to the glorification of the Holy Name of God, to quench and calm down formidable phenomena in nature: storms, thunder and lightning, to drive away from the fences of the faithful air forces "and extinguish" all their fiery fiery, even arrows at us "; she compares the bell with the Old Testament silver trumpets, created by the prophet Moses at the command of God; she recalls the "trumpet sound" of the priests over the bell, at which the solid walls of Jericho fell and collapsed.

The Russian people found a worthy expression of the church significance of the bell in their mighty solemn ringing, in their tall, peculiar bell towers; he loves the bell and worships it, he decorated it with ornamental beauty, he is proud of it.This is his salvation stronghold, his victorious banner, his solemn confession of his best and most cherished hope in the face of the whole world - that which is dearer and more sacred to him than he is strong and invincible ...
O Orthodox Russia! Lift up with your horn, raise up your strength, roar into your "campans" and into your "heavy" ones, and let the voice of their ringing sound from sea to sea, from end to end of the earth; may he announce to all your friends and foes that your highest glory and strength is your holy, Orthodox faith; let all your adversaries tremble and be scattered, let all the walls of Jericho that are erected against you shake and fall! .. ”(Church singing in the Valaam monastery. St. Petersburg, 1889, pp. 15-18).

The lines quoted involuntarily remind us of the following words of a highly educated husband, a professor: “Whoever arms himself against the noise of kind-hearted bells (as they expressed themselves in Ancient Russia. evangelical ".
In the evening, the people who have come from the distant surrounding villages, who have settled in the temple and near it or in neighboring houses in advance in anticipation of the holiday, will start up and revive, and those who have been sleeping until then will quickly rise and fill the temple. Twilight still reigns in the temple, only lights flicker faintly around the shroud in the middle of the temple. Here the priest has already blessed the midnight office, for the last time the sadly solemn singing of the canon is heard in the church: “By the wave of the sea who hid the ancient persecutor of the torturer, the saved youths are hidden beneath the earth ... shuddered to many ... Thy Theophany, Christ, who was merciful to us, Isaiah saw the non-evening light, from the night maturing crying: the dead will rise, and those who are in the grave will rise, and all earthly ones will rejoice ... Inexpressible miracle, having rescued the saints in youths from the flames, dead in the grave, lifeless is relied upon, for our salvation ... Fear, fear, heaven, and let the foundations of the earth move: behold, the living is imputed to the dead in the highest, and is strangely accepted into the grave ... Do not weep for Me, Mother, see in the grave, in His womb without seed you conceived a Son: I will rise and be glorified, and I will exalt with glory incessantly, like God, who magnifies Thee by faith and love. "

What pithy and wonderful chants! How much poetry and feelings they have! In them, everyone hears an echo of the wandering and sorrowful life lived in this world, the end of which death is the common lot of all living; but behind her, behind death, life is felt. They sound a confident expectation after death, in an unknown future, life, and a better and most perfect life, and this feeling fills the soul with some kind of special sadness for that life beyond the grave, or with joy and anticipation of it. The singing is simple and artless, but what a power of feeling is in it: the sounds spill over into one another, and with them the feelings either rise upward, thereby signifying the rise, fullness and strength of the feeling of sadness, then sharply fall down, depicting the depression of feeling and its depth and with its overflows instilling in the heart more and more shades of sadness, but such sadness through which, like a sunbeam through a cloudy sky, joy shines through - an incomprehensible, inexplicable, unconscious joy of anticipation of a different life, eternal. This feeling of the joy of the Resurrection, like a spark under the ashes, is hidden somewhere in the depths of the soul: you grieve, but you feel that joy shines through the sorrow. This is the false voice of human nature itself, unconsciously rejoicing in its own resurrection.

But now the shroud is taken and carried away to the altar on the throne: Christ is risen, but His Resurrection has not yet been proclaimed in words. A cross is brought out of the altar, a symbol of the most shameful death of a criminal, which was prepared for the Son of God on earth,and right there next to the image of His Resurrection from the dead; banners are taken - the banners of the victory and triumph of the teaching of Christ over the evil and untruth of human beings and death itself; the gates of the altar are opened, and the priest comes out in a shining robe, with a cross and a lighted candle in his hand. A moment - and a solemn and significant song: “Thy Resurrection, Savior Christ, the Angels sing in heaven; and honor us on earth with a pure heart to praise Thee ”- announces the vaults of the temple, breaks out and, breaking the dead silence of the night, spreads through the cemetery and as if wakes up the dead from their long sleep. This procession of the cross around the church, with the ringing of bells, under the starry sky, on a quiet spring night, presents a wonderful sight; already illuminated inside, from the outside the temple seems to be enveloped by a long and narrow moose of light from the people walking around it with burning candles.

Here is a stretched long light ribbon closed at the entrance to the temple; solemn ringing of all the bells; banners, icons and the priest are already in the vestibule, and before the enclosed doors of the church, a repeated and joyful sound is heard: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling death upon death and giving life to those in the grave”, interrupted by the words of a prophetic Old Testament song: “May God rise and be scattered Him, and let him that hates Him flee from His presence! As if it disappears and so it disappears, as the wax melts from the face of fire, so let sinners perish from the face of God, and let the righteous rejoice! This day, which the Lord has created, let us rejoice and be glad in it! " The hearts of all light up with the light of sincere and genuine joy, and not that earthly joy that a person sometimes rejoices when he receives some earthly satisfaction or pleasure, not with the joy of food and drink and earthly, carnal pleasures, but with higher, spiritual, heavenly joy. But everyone rejoices in his own way, in accordance with his spiritual development and moral superiority: the more spiritual and moral a person is, the cleaner his mind and heart are from earthly thoughts and attachments, the freer he is from malice and deceit and the more righteous in his life before God, thus his joy is higher and more perfect. Thus, everyone prepares for himself a certain degree of joy and bliss after death. The fact that the joy of the Resurrection is preached for the first time in the vestibule of the church, at the doors of the prisoners, and the removal from the face of God and the destruction of sinners is immediately proclaimed, and the righteous are called to joy, mentally transfers everyone to that event distant from us for a whole series of centuries, when the Lord with His soul after death he descended into hell and there proclaimed to all the forgiveness of sins and the joy of eternal life, and took out of it the souls of all who waited for Him with faith and believed in His preaching.

Here the priest opens the doors of the temple with a cross, the first enters them, and the people are already behind him, signifying that Christ with the cross destroyed the barrier that separated man from God, and opened the entrance to the kingdom of heaven for everyone, himself being the first to ascend to heaven. The temple, illuminated from top to bottom, and the people standing with lighted candles - all this represents a continuous sea of ​​light; the sounds of joyful Easter hymns rush to heaven, telling everyone's heart about the light and joy of that never-ending, never-ending, never-ending day of eternal life that will come for everyone after the resurrection from the dead, and the hearts of those praying are filled with greater and greater joy. In the feeling of spiritual peace and joy, evoked by these chants, one can already hear the echo of that blissful posthumous state, one can vividly feel and, as it were, anticipate the joy of that life of the next century, that state after the resurrection, when "the righteous will shine like the sun," "saved peoples they will walk in the light "and" God himself will dwell with them. " The open gates of the altar and the frequent appearance of the priest for incense with a cross and a candle in his hand signify this communion of God with men.The cross is in his hand and his incessant proclamation "Christ is risen!" They say to the hearts of those who pray that all the joy of eternal life is delivered through suffering and death on the cross of the Lamb, slain from the creation of the world for the salvation of all. But while singing the Easter stichera "Holy Easter has appeared to us this day," the touching rite of Christianization begins, a rite that expresses, on the one hand, the confession of faith in the Risen from the dead and one's own resurrection, and on the other hand, mutual communication in the heavenly joy of all after the resurrection , in the future life. They bring out the altar cross, the image of the Mother of God and the icon of the Resurrection, the priests come out with the cross and the Gospel, face the people, and mutual kissing begins with mutual greetings: "Christ is risen!" - "Indeed he is risen!" At the same time, they give each other eggs - a weak under the commonness of our life, hidden, like an embryo in an egg, in dust and decay, and which has to re-emerge from them and bloom in the magnificent color of incorruption and immortality. How does the sticheron that is sung at this time correspond to such fraternal communion and joy: “It is the day of resurrection, and we will be enlightened with triumph, and we will embrace each other, rtz: brethren! and to those who hate us, let us forgive everything by the Resurrection, and thus cry out: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and giving life to those in the graves! " Many pious people keep the egg of the first Christianization in church on this day for a whole year, and next Easter they break their fast with it. It has been learned by experience that the eggs of those who christen with true joy and a pure heart for a year or more are kept completely fresh, without undergoing any spoilage, if only fresh ones were used for christianization. We had to break our fast with an egg that lasted for five whole years, and it was completely fresh and without any smell.
Unfortunately, this beautiful rite of Christianization is increasingly falling out of use, especially in cities, and behind them in villages - a clear sign that with the decrease in faith and love now, pure spiritual joy has disappeared. The miraculous word of St. John Chrysostom, full of divine love and forgiveness of all rich and poor, noble and ignorant, friends and enemies, fasting and non-fasting, calling to enter into the joy of the Lord and rejoice with each other, completes the solemn Easter Matins. The Easter hours that follow her, also consisting of only joyful hymns, and the divine liturgy, this saving supper of love, also performed openly and solemnly, points us to that endless day of our future life after resurrection, when we all partake of the Divine and will be in love and union with Him.

At the end of the Liturgy, the people, leaving the church, immediately break their fast with the brought and consecrated Easter and eggs and hurry home not before, as having visited the graves of their parents, brothers and relatives. It is touching to see how, having come to the grave of their departed and dear relatives, both old and young christen with them, greeting them with their words: "Christ is risen!" Others break an egg on the grave and eat right there; others leave him completely at the grave. Be that as it may, but this connection of souls living on earth with the souls of the afterlife is very touching and has its own deep meaning of living heart communication and unity of the living with the dead - the meaning of faith in life beyond the grave and the general resurrection of the dead. Who knows, maybe the one who Christians now at the grave with his relatives will not live to see the next Easter and will calm down right there ... This comes to the mind of everyone who Christians at the grave, reconciles him with the necessity of death, its inevitability and strengthens the confidence in the resurrection more strongly in his consciousness dead. It is remarkable that on this day even death itself ceases to be terrible for a person filled with a sense of the joy of the Resurrection of Christ.

After the liturgy, the clergyman with a procession of the cross goes to the homes of its parishioners: in front of the selected parishioners they carry the altar cross, the image of the Mother of God, the icon of the Resurrection and the Gospel, behind the priest and other members of the clergy walk in light vestments and with a cross in hand. They enter every house with icons, and a short Easter prayer is served everywhere. Sometimes during the whole Bright week they go from village to village, passing fields, meadows and forests and often crossing the lakes and flooded rivers in boats and canoes; and there will not be a single house, the most pitiful shack, where the joyful news of the resurrection from the dead is not brought in and where the Resurrection of Christ is preached. This involuntarily resembles the walking of the apostles with the preaching of the Resurrection of Christ and their carrying this joyful message to all ends of the universe. The ringing throughout the week, from morning to evening, throughout the week also preaches the Resurrection of Christ and eloquently testifies to the greatness and joy of the remembered event. What a majestic picture would appear to the eye if one looked from a height, at some distance from the earth, these days of Easter on the Russian land!

No matter how wonderful and majestic this orchestra is this incessant all-day ringing in several tens of thousands of churches of our vast fatherland, and what an extraordinary and touching spectacle would be portrayed by the clergy, in church vestments and with a procession of the cross, marching across the face of the Russian land in different directions, from the village to village, from house to house! ..

This is how the Easter holiday in the village is celebrated, among the simple and fubo, but believing Russian people, and there are many special, peculiar delights in such a celebration, which are completely unknown to the inhabitant of the city, and especially the capital. In big cities, it’s not at all the same: there is no such solemnity, and little pure and genuine joy that is given to ordinary hearts and people who live closer to nature. The divine service itself is performed more hastily and with many omissions of the rite of Christ, and there is no going from house to house with icons; the very spirit of joy is precisely hiding where, oppressed by the external deathly tension not only of the divine service itself, but also of the attitude of the worshipers to each other and to their priest. If the joy of the Resurrection sounds in church hymns, chanted, moreover, in a lifeless, viscous melody, without any strength of feeling, if it casts its rays on those praying in the church through the barrier of the deathly strained atmosphere of the very performance of the service, then not into many hearts this joy pervades. This is hindered by the lack of concentration and peace of mind among residents of large noisy cities with a vigorous activity. The pursuit of profit, pleasure and constant preoccupation with one or the other do not give the inhabitants of such cities the opportunity to spiritually rejoice and have fun; and because of this they only touch joy, but do not rejoice, joy is near them, but not in them. If anyone rejoices in the city as it should, then perhaps only a person of a righteous life and some poor man and sufferer who are free from earthly concerns and whose hearts are purified by grief and suffering. But are there many people in the city with a pure and calm soul ...