Easter procession. Procession for Easter

You won’t even need to find out, the procession for Easter 2018: what time if you go to the evening service. The service begins on Saturday evening and continues until and after midnight. As for the procession, which is part of the festive service, it takes place some time before midnight.

About the features of the procession

If given short description Procession on Easter or on another Christian holiday, then we can say that this is a solemn procession. First come the clergy with icons and other paraphernalia, church banners. Behind them are the believers who came to the service. During the procession, a large area of ​​the church is consecrated.

The procession takes place several times during the church year. In addition to Easter, this also happens at Epiphany, at the second Savior for the blessing of water. Also, church processions are often organized in honor of some great church or state events. Sometimes the procession is held by the church for emergencies, for example, when natural disasters, disaster or war.

What else is important to know

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The painting was painted at the end of the 19th century and, according to art critics, belongs to the so-called critical realism. It seems that she denounces drunkenness in Russia and in particular in the church environment. But is there realism in this picture?

Indeed, the picture depicts drunk people very expressively. However, some points make you think: the author himself is at least a little familiar with the Christian life or writes about something about which he has a very vague idea, but at the same time dares to expose what he does not understand.

Consider what discrepancies are shown in the picture.

Easter first procession takes place during worship. Either at night after Vespers before Liturgy or in the morning after Liturgy. A strict fast before the Easter service! So when did the participants of the procession manage to get drunk??? I fully admit that AFTER the procession there will be a meal where someone will get drunk, but drunk people will be AFTER the procession, and not DURING!

Secondly, according to the artist, the procession leaves the house where people celebrated Easter and goes to the church. But if so, why is the priest in vestments? He is wearing an epitrachelion and a phelonion! According to the liturgical charter, these elements of vestments can be worn by priests only during liturgical time, but not at a meal. And why are they carrying banners, a lantern and a cross? These liturgical items are also not worn in the refectory. It happens that in monasteries the monks go from the temple to the meal in a kind of procession, but they do not have the aforementioned vestments and liturgical items.

The plot of the picture is as untrue as if people were walking on clouds.

Thus, two options are possible: either the author of the picture depicted a deliberate lie, moreover, “sewn with white threads” or the author is such a non-church person that he does not know how the Orthodox Easter service goes! It seems to me that, most likely, the second option takes place: for some reason, representatives of the Russian intelligentsia consider themselves "the smartest" and, on this basis, appropriated the right to denounce and teach everyone.

Now consider what other intellectuals see in the picture.

The most expressive are the faces of a drunken priest who has lost his human image, and a young rustic peasant woman with lowered onuchs. Obviously tipsy, she earnestly sings a prayer service, half-closed her eyes. The little man holding an inverted icon is also expressive, it must be understood that he is also not entirely sober. From the peasant house, in which the priest and the clergy celebrated the Resurrection of Christ, there is a difficult path ahead to the church, which can be seen in the distance. Judging by the degree of their intoxication, the path will be difficult ... (Pelevin Yu.A. "Perov Vasily Grigorievich, Village religious procession for Easter")

That is, the critic notices the images of individual characters, but does not notice the factual errors I mentioned, which any church person would have noticed. Thus, the critic is no more church-going than the author of the picture! The mention of a woman "singing a prayer service" also testifies to his unchurchedness. In general, the prayers are not sung by the choir, but the clergy serve, and during the movement of the procession, the canon of the holiday is sung.

It is significant that criticism cannot be accused of inattention:

Perov cannot be denied painting talent. The social and psychological characteristics of the picture characters are accurately verified. The transfer of the texture of the material is brought by the artist to the illusion of natural authenticity. Only the wooden hut is not written convincingly enough, obviously, it was painted from memory, and not from life. (there)

That is, the critic noticed about the hut, but not about the inconsistency of church life.

And here are the statements of the artist's contemporaries about the painting:

The pious and well-meaning spectators were shocked. Criticism appreciated the picturesque features of the canvas. Nihilists and the "advanced" public, who professed Chernyshevsky and Pisarev, took Perov's creation with a bang. Meanwhile, Stasov noted that such satire "bites painfully." Writer Kovalensky praised the picture for "fidelity to reality and for excellent technical performance." The well-known semi-official sculptor Mikeshin criticized for being "snatched ... from living reality", "seeing this as one dirt".
The reaction to Dostoevsky's painting was unexpected, after hard labor he could not stand the "negative direction", in which he found "causticity and mockery that splashed out when it became allowed." But, Fyodor Mikhailovich, oddly enough, spoke very positively about the Procession of the Cross: "Perov has almost everything true, that artistic truth that is given to true talent." (ibid.)

Again, no one noticed the mentioned factual inaccuracies. So all the mentioned critics are the same non-church people! However, they arrogated to themselves the right to talk about church life, that is, about what they do not understand.

And now let's look at the critical statements of modern atheists and "God-in-the-dushers" about modern church problems. Again, quite often ignorance in both dogma and everyday matters.

So should such intelligent people be offended that the church "ignores them"? Maybe the church is just following the advice of A.S. Pushkin: "do not challenge the fool"?

Kolyan Platkov
November 2013

To understand the picture, one must take into account that it depicts an action that simply does not exist in modern church life.

1. Place of action. This is not a temple, but a hut (I saw the temple on the left in the distance).

2. Direction of movement: from the door - to the right (for exiting). During the procession, the Nikonians go to the right. Moreover, those who are walking are clearly leaving, and are not going to make a circular motion around the building.

3. Action time. Evening. This means that this is not Easter midnight (when, in fact, the Easter procession takes place) and not the morning of any of the days bright week when the move is repeated. In any case, this liturgical action takes place around the temple.

4. A priest in blue robes, not white (if it's a night move) or red (if it's daytime). That is, not at Easter. This means that he is "on call", that is, he performs a private service.

All this means that before us is an action called "glorification". (Here's the question: is the current title of the picture exactly the author's original?)

Walking through the huts on the day of Christmas and Easter to collect alms. According to the memoirs of the 19th century, the priests were very embarrassed by this forced begging. To go to poor people in order to bring something from their poverty for their children...

At that time, the clergy did not have salaries at all. What people give, they lived for. Sometimes they themselves plowed the land or fished (as in another picture of Perov). People gave money when making demands. The number of such requirements cannot be foreseen (when someone is born or dies or gets married).

But on the other hand, there were no “diocesan taxes” either (except for strictly regulated deductions from the sale of candles or “wedding memories” specifically for the maintenance of diocesan schools for the children of the same clergy. Diocesan needs themselves were financed from the state budget.

On "glory" they went into every house, and there was a hope to save something for the next couple of months. But mostly the peasants gave food donations. They didn't have any money themselves. And the best thing for a stingy peasant was to respect the father with a glass of vodka instead of a dozen eggs.

That is why by the end of the glorification (in the picture - evening) the clergy were drunk. And so they very much expected that the state, which a hundred years earlier had taken away almost all church lands, would nevertheless take priests on a salary (this is the modern Gerch version), saving them from begging humiliation in the face of their own parishioners.

However, here is a witness:

Let's start with Easter.
Let us assume that the prayer service is served reverently. How nice it would be if, at the end of it, the priest, after blessing the family, congratulating on the holiday, wishing to spend it in a Christian way, immediately went to the next house. And the owner would give his offering delicately, not noticeable to others, or he would put it in a wearable mug, or the clergy would receive a reward for their labors from the whole village at the beginning or after the prayers. Then the walk would not lose its religious character, leaving a pleasant impression. But here's the reality. The prayer service is over, the blessing has been distributed, the host is performing with a purse; the priest, sometimes not only in a stole, but even in chasubles, holds out his hand, on which the exact coin that the clergy wants to receive is rarely placed. From this, one begins to insist on an increase, the other defends his pocket or adds nickels and even pennies. The deacon and clerks come to the aid of the first, but the second often finds lawyers in the crowd or in his family. The first prayer service in the village is especially remarkable in this respect. Almost every time many peasants think about whether it is possible to reduce the payment for a prayer service, but the clergy take care, if not to raise it, then to maintain it in the same figure. The clash begins in the first courtyard, where even the owners of other houses converge to see which side will win. If the clergy wins it, then it is already easier for him to act in neighboring houses, and if the first householder has not lost the battle, then it is resumed with great effort in the following houses, until either the matter is somehow pacified, or the weary clergy sees the futility of his efforts. That is why the first householder sometimes receives instructions from the whole village, and even during the battle, support, either by word, or by blinking and nodding.
... how many scenes can be called Gogarth. I want to describe them out of a desire not to humiliate the clergy, but to be useful to them. Perhaps those in power will see that someday it is necessary to free him from the humiliating position in which he now finds himself.
In the so-called non-single-state villages, it is necessary to go around not 200-300, but two, even 1000 households, sometimes scattered in 30-40 villages, within seven days; there will be 100-150 yards for every day. In addition, the days in Christmas time are too short. Because of this, the praisers not only go in the evening until 8 o'clock, but also arrive in the village long before dawn. I know one village where, on December 25, matins were served as early as possible on purpose, so that after it they could glorify a village of 50 households. But in the villages, before dawn and in the evening after dusk, they like to keep the gates locked; often they do this during the day, and sometimes, to be honest, having learned about the arrival of the praisers, they deliberately lock the gates. Thus, the clergy, approaching the house, must still initially knock on the window; it does not always suddenly open or open, a head will stick out of it, they will hear the words: "Priests or deacons have come," it will disappear again, and the praisers stand in the street, along which carts sometimes pass. The disadvantages are increased by the fact that the glorifiers, walking very quickly from yard to yard, sometimes leave their hats somewhere in the house, and therefore they have to stand in front of the gate in the wind with their heads uncovered. And the gates are not always unlocked soon. To avoid such embarrassment, sometimes a messenger is sent in advance, who knocks on the windows and reports that priests or deacons have arrived. There are some mistakes here: a peasant has two huts, one of which is without tenants. The messenger often begins to knock in this particular hut and does not suddenly find out about his mistake, especially in the morning, when the owners have not yet had time to get up and light the fire.
It is not uncommon, especially for deacons, when someone looks out the window at their knock, then closes it, then, after a not always short pause, looks out again and says: “There is nothing to give,” and the glorifiers go to another courtyard. This is already a caricature of the city: “Not at home, please come later,” etc.
But the gates are not locked either; one can enter the yard without waiting for permission on the street in view of the passers-by, with smiles, and sometimes even very clear ridicule. And here, however, it is not without obstacles. Peasants love to protect their yards not only with locks, but also with mutts; these, in turn, try to distinguish themselves by their zeal in return for the trust placed in them. And therefore, as soon as the glorifiers enter the yard, they sometimes meet with a friendly onslaught and barking of two or three mongrels. It takes a thick stick and a strong hand, even dexterity and courage, to keep your dresses and legs from the teeth of these privileged guardians of public safety; sometimes the owners themselves run out to help the visitors, and sometimes they seem to hear nothing; meanwhile, some rascal boy, cautiously with a roguish smile, looks out of the portage window and admires the battle taking place in the yard between two-legged and four-legged creatures. But visitors, especially clerks and seminarians, are also taking drastic measures. They already know the evil persistent mongrels, so before entering the house where they are, visitors stock up not with sticks, but with good stakes. The mutts rush headlong; some of the visitors withstand the initial attack, while others, having made a diversion, try to cut off the retreat for the attackers. Then the attack on the mutts begins, in turn, from all sides; the poor things are late to notice the military cunning of which they have become a victim, they crumble, seek salvation in flight, but everywhere they meet the enemy: both in front and behind; they find salvation either by jumping over the fence and the back gate, or by hiding in some loophole under the barn and porch. For the most part, clergy used to wear cassocks made of homemade cloth of blue color. The mutts, having become acquainted with the described battle, afterward would hardly see, in the words of their enemies, a blue piece, as they rushed out the back gate. And after such battles they enter the peasant's hut and, out of breath, begin to praise Christ!!!
The scenes in the huts vary depending on what time of day the glorifiers come to them. If this happens early in the morning, before dawn, then only one owner or mistress meets them; they sing, and here in one corner there is a sniffle, in another real Russian snoring; there a boy, awakened by loud singing, shouted: “Mother, mother”; and here the child in the cradle sings his songs even more strongly; and all this merges into one common chorus. However, the worst time for worshipers is the first half of the day, from the moment the housewives start to heat the stoves ...
Hitherto it has been assumed that the clergy during their walks around the parish are, as they say, in their form, sober. Unfortunately, experience often contradicts this. Coming to such a sensitive subject, I find it necessary to ask sober clergymen for forgiveness for telling the truth about their drunken comrades.
Russian people love to treat themselves and others at every opportunity, with joy and sorrow, and more often because there is neither joy nor sorrow, but it’s just boring to sit. The performance of religious rites has not escaped the influence of this love, or rather passion. Whether someone was baptized, whether someone was married, whether someone died, whether it is necessary to remember him, one must certainly treat oneself and the spiritual clergy. How can one not fulfill this custom on holidays, especially on Easter, when everyone almost indulges in complete revelry? The funniest and strangest thing to notice this in educated people, at least putting themselves above the crowd. They are strongly armed against the fact that the clergy, when performing religious rites, abuse the treats of the parishioners too much, and meanwhile, if a priest comes to them on a holiday, they will try to treat him, they will be offended if he does not stop, and they will boast that if he stays with them. Wonderful you, Russian society!
Even in elegant St. Petersburg, mainly, however, in merchants' houses during Christmas time and Easter, as soon as the parish clergy sing the usual chants, sit down at the request of the owner, as is, of course, not everywhere, but not very rare, a tray with glasses of champagne: happy holiday - de need to congratulate. But this is done, for the most part, only for priests and deacons, while the clerks in the hall will either stand or treat themselves to Madeira, sherry and even vodka. In provincial and other cities, champagne is almost unknown, even Don champagne is a rarity, but on the other hand, bottles of foreign Russian wines and domestic ones are ready - purified and unrefined; even sometimes a table with various snacks is at the service of those who came. In the villages, all imitations of foreigners are abandoned; except for their native green, they don’t treat anything; unless for a non-drinking priest some rich peasant will take red or white wine.
It is not difficult to foresee the consequences of these treats. Of course, St. Petersburg is very elegant and has long forgotten the Russian proverb: "Drunk, but smart, two skills in it" - the clergy here also behave elegantly: they do not like to humiliate themselves. Maybe sometimes on Christmastide and Easter, before dinner or in the evening, you can notice in the priests more cheerfulness and liveliness in conversation than there is much of it in a normal state; clerks are occasionally even tipsy. But there are almost no unpleasant scenes here. Provincial and other cities are another matter. And here, almost the majority of priests are able to maintain their honor, cherish it, at least they do not drop themselves. But here, when walking on Easter, at Christmas time, and on church holidays in the evenings, and sometimes earlier, some need to be supported a little, for others, for some reason, the tongue sticks to the larynx, and others are even taken away and taken home, and the very singing in a common choir looks like happens to the Krylov quartet. Petersburg elegance is forgotten by many here: they are already afraid to offend the owner with a refusal, they drink and ... get drunk.
It happens even worse in the villages, although even there there are now a lot of sober priests. But the majority of members of church clergy can no longer belong to a sobriety society. They are often even justified in that. In fact, our common people have some kind of wild pleasure to get a guest drunk, especially an honored one, to the point of impossibility. The peasant is ready to argue with the priest for half an hour because of the penny asked for the demand, but. often with pleasure he will use half a ruble and a ruble for a treat. Encountering resistance to this whim, he sometimes even says: “Father, drink, so you have a quarter, and if you don’t drink, then a nickel” ...

Rostislavov D.: On the Orthodox white and black clergy in Russia. In 2 volumes. Ryazan, 2011, v. 1, pp. 369-378
More.

Back in 1966, not yet a Nobel laureate and not a public figure, but simply a writer and former teacher of physics and astronomy at a high school - Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote an amazing essay "The Procession for Easter" - honest and heartfelt. Let's read it and compare it with ours, with today's Easter processions all over Russia. How much has changed and, thank God, in better side! But we must not forget from what was and can be otherwise.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Experts are now teaching us that it is not necessary to paint everything in oil, as it is exactly. What is a color photograph. What is needed with curved lines and combinations of triangles and squares to convey the idea of ​​a thing instead of the thing itself. And I misunderstand which color photograph will take us with meaning the right people and will fit into one frame the Easter procession of the patriarchal Peredelkino church half a century after the revolution. This Easter today's move alone would explain a lot to us, depict it with the oldest tricks, even without triangles.

Half an hour before the Annunciation, the outskirts of the Patriarchal Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord look like a trampoline at the dance floor of a distant dashing workers' settlement. The girls in colored headscarves and sports trousers (well, there are also skirts) are vociferous, they go in threes, fives, then they will push into the church, but it’s dense there in the porch, from the evening of the early old woman they occupied places, the girls with them will turn around and go out; now they are circling around the churchyard, shouting out in a cheeky way, calling from a distance and looking at the green, pink and white lights lit at the outer wall icons and at the graves of bishops and protopresbyters.

And the guys - both healthy and shabby, all with a victorious expression (whom did they defeat in their fifteen or twenty years? - except perhaps with pucks in the goal ...), almost all in caps, walks like that, every fourth drunk, every tenth is drunk, every second smokes, but it's disgusting how he smokes, spitting a cigarette to his lower lip. And even before incense, instead of incense, gray clouds of tobacco smoke rise in electric light from the churchyard to the Easter sky in brown motionless clouds. They spit on the pavement, push each other for fun, whistle loudly, eat and swear, a few with transistor receivers play a dancer, some hug their marukhs on the very aisle, and they pull these girls from each other, and look like a cock, and wait, as if they didn’t snatch knives: first knives at each other, and then at the Orthodox. Because all this youth looks at Orthodox Christians not like the younger ones look at the elders, not like guests look at hosts, but like hosts look at flies.

Still, it doesn’t reach the knives - three or four policemen walk around here and there for show. And the mat - not with screams across the whole yard, but simply in a voice, in a cordial Russian conversation. Therefore, the police do not see any violations, they smile friendly at the rising shift. The police won't pull cigarettes out of their teeth, they won't pull hats off their heads: after all, it's on the street, and the right not to believe in God is protected by the constitution. The police honestly see that they have nothing to interfere with, there is no criminal case.

Cramped to the fence of the cemetery and to the church walls, the believers, not only to object there, but look around, no matter how they are stabbed, no matter how they demand the clock from their hands, according to which the last minutes until the Resurrection of Christ are compared. Here, outside the temple, they, the Orthodox, are much less than the grinning, wiggling freemen. They are frightened and oppressed worse than under the Tatars.

The Tatars probably didn’t press on the Bright Morning like that. The criminal line has not been crossed, but the robbery is bloodless, and the resentment of the soul is in these lips, curved like a thug, in impudent conversations, in laughter, courtship, plucking, smoking, spitting, two steps away from passions Christ. In this victoriously contemptuous look with which the jerks came to watch their grandfathers repeat the rites of their ancestors.

One or two soft Jewish faces flicker between the believers. Maybe baptized, maybe third-party. Watching carefully, they are also waiting for the procession.

We all scold the Jews, the Jews interfere with us endlessly, but it would be good to look back: what kind of Russians have we raised in the meantime? Take a look - you will be dumbfounded.

And after all, it seems not the stormtroopers of the 30s, not the ones that the consecrated Easter was pulled out of their hands and hooted under the devils - no! They are, as it were, inquisitive: the hockey season on television is over, the football season has not begun, melancholy, - so they climb to the candle window, pushing Christians like bags of bran, and, scolding the "church business", they buy candles for some reason.

Only one thing is strange: all the visitors, and everyone knows each other, and by name. How did they get along so well? Are they from the same factory? Isn't the Komsomol organizer walking around here too? Yes, maybe these hours are recorded for them as a squad? The bell strikes above the head with large blows - but a substitute: some kind of tin blows instead of full-sounding deep ones. The bell rings announcing the procession.

And then they threw it down! - non-believers, no, again this roaring youth. Now two and three of them have piled into the yard, they are in a hurry, not knowing themselves what they are looking for, which side to capture, where Hod will come from. They light red Easter candles, and from the candles they light up, that's what! They crowd around, as if waiting for the foxtrot to begin. There is still not enough beer stall here, so that these forelocked stretched out guys - our breed does not grow smaller! - they would blow white foam on the graves.

And Hod's head has already left the porch and is now turning here under a small blasphemy. Two businessmen walk in front and ask the young comrades to part a little. After three steps, a bald-headed, elderly peasant, resembling a church clerk, comes along and carries on a pole a heavy faceted glazed lantern with a candle. He cautiously looks up at the lantern to carry it straight, and to the sides just as cautiously. And from here begins the picture that I would so much like to paint if I could: isn’t the vigilante afraid that the builders of the new society will now crush them, rush to beat them? ..

Horror is transmitted to the viewer.

Girls in trousers with candles and guys with cigarettes in their teeth, in caps and in unbuttoned raincoats (undeveloped faces, absurd, self-confident for a ruble when they don’t understand a nickel; there are simple-lipped ones, gullible; there should be many of these faces in the picture) tightly surrounded and watch a spectacle that you can't see anywhere else for money.

Two banners are moving behind the lantern, but not separately, but also shy as if from fright.

And behind them, in five rows of two, are ten singing women with thick burning candles. And they should all be in the picture! The women are elderly, with firm, detached faces, ready to die if tigers are set on them. And two out of ten are girls, the same age as the girls who crowded around with the guys, the same age - but how clean their faces are, how much lordship in them. Ten women sing and march in solid formation. They are so solemn, as if they are baptized around, praying, repenting, falling into bows. These women do not breathe cigarette smoke, their ears are covered with curses, their soles do not feel that the churchyard has turned into a dance floor.

This is how the real procession begins! Something made its way and the animals on both sides quieted down a bit.

The women are followed in bright robes by priests and deacons, there are seven of them. But how uneasy they go, how they strayed, interfering with each other, almost not to swing the censer, not to raise the orarium. But here, if he had not been dissuaded, the Patriarch of All Russia could go and serve! ..

Concisely and hastily they pass, and then - and then there is no move. There is no one else! There are no pilgrims in the procession, because they would not be able to crowd back into the temple. There are no worshipers, but then it flooded, and then our brew flooded! As through the broken gates of a warehouse, in a hurry to seize booty, in a hurry to plunder rations, rubbing themselves against stone ropes, spinning in the whirlwinds of the stream - guys and girls are crowding, pushing, making their way - but why? They themselves do not know. See how the priests will be eccentric? Or just pushing - is that their job?

Procession without worshipers! Procession without those who are baptized! The religious procession in hats, with cigarettes, with transistors on their chests - the first rows of this public, as they squeeze into the fence, must still get into the picture!

And then it will be completed!

The old woman crosses herself aside and says to the other:

- This year is good, no fouliganism. How many police.

Ah, here it is! So this is still the best year? ..

What will happen of these born and raised our main millions? Why the enlightened efforts and reliable foresights of thoughtful minds? What good do we expect from our future?

Truly: someday they will turn around and trample us all!

And those who set them here will also be trampled.

A few words in conclusion

Forty-nine years ago, in the old church vestibule of the Patriarchal Metochion, a spiritual warfare unfolded: good and evil again fought for the possession of the human soul. And it is very significant that among all this crowd of militant atheists a religious procession was taking place. He walked “with hard, detached faces, ready to die, even if tigers were lowered on them. And two of them are girls, the same age of the girls that crowded around with the guys, the same age, but how clean their faces are, how lordly they are.

One Orthodox pilgrim a few years ago, already in our 21st century, also took part in the Peredelkino procession. He shares his memories:

“I visited the Peredelkino church and, fortunately, did not find there a “trample at the dance floor”, did not find that spiritual ruin described by Solzhenitsyn, but recognized Russia, reviving through the prayers of those great people who defended the faith with their souls. There were many people in the church, there were also young people, without cigarettes, without depravity, with a pure heart - the children of those who, perhaps, boldly and bravely walked through the line of atheists on that now distant Easter night of the sixty-sixth year. Thus, after a generation, reconciliation came among the people with God, with the Church and with themselves. I was among those praying, happy that Christ conquered the evil of atheism with his Pascha.”