There were many different trees in Paradise, but two special ones grew in the middle of it: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From one of them, namely from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the Lord forbade Adam to eat the fruit. Regarding the other tree - the tree of life - there was no prohibition. About the tree of life, St. Philaret writes: “It was among the trees of paradise that a person is between animals, that the sun is between planets. The fruits of the trees of paradise served for nourishment, the fruit of the tree of life for health. Those could make up for the lack in the body caused by movement, and this one, bringing its forces into the same balance always, retained in it the ability to live forever.
As for the understanding of what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was, and the relation of the latter to the problem of the fall, there is a real confusion even in modern "school theology". Some believe that before the fall, people did not distinguish between the concepts of good and evil, and in accordance with this, they argue that there was even some objective necessity for the fall: supposedly, people had to expand their ethical horizons. Others say that the essence of sin is that Adam and Eve began to live a carnal (sexual) life. But we read in the Bible that God commanded the first man to be fruitful, multiply, and populate the earth.
So what is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? What is the essence of the tragedy that we call the Fall?
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolized, or rather - really represented - the right and priority of God to decide instead of man and for man - what is good and evil.
In other words, before the fall, man was in the light of the Divine vision of these differences - good and evil. Evil already existed in the world in the person of a fallen angel, and not only one: the devil carried with him a huge number of once bright spirits. (Some Holy Fathers claimed that the Lord created man for this purpose, in order to make up for the number of fallen celestials). There is no doubt that Adam, who gave names to the primordial animals, knew what good and evil were. St. John Chrysostom speaks about this as follows:
“Many lovers of disputes dare to say that Adam, after eating from the tree, received the ability to distinguish between good and evil. To think so would be extremely crazy. So that no one could speak like that, for this we, foreseeing this, recently talked so much about the wisdom given by God to man, proving it by naming what he gave to all beasts, and birds, and dumb animals, and by the fact that beyond this high wisdom he also received the gift of prophecy. How could the one who gave names and uttered such a wonderful prophecy about a wife not know what is good and what is bad? If we allow this (which will not happen!), then we will blaspheme the Creator. How did He give a commandment to someone who did not know that crime is evil? It is not so, on the contrary, he clearly knew it. Therefore, from the very beginning, God created this animal (man) as autocratic, otherwise he should not have been punished for the violation of the commandment, rewarded for its observance.
So what is the fall into sin? First of all, in the fact that a person arrogates to himself the right that does not belong to him to decide what good and evil is, that is, he usurps the Divine right, takes the path of the devil: he tries to make himself equal with God.
And the modern world, striving for complete secularization, repeats the act of the fall again and again at each diabolical turn of departure from the Church.
Perhaps someone will object: if the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a danger of such a temptation for a person, then why did the Lord God not remove it from Paradise, did not place it out of reach for people?
But the Lord created man in His image, endowing him with a special gift - free will. Man from the very beginning is a free being, he had to make his own choice.
“And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eye and desirable, because it gives knowledge; and she took the fruit of it, and ate; and gave also to her husband, and he ate.”(Gen. 3:6). Saint John Chrysostom says: “The woman, having been seduced by the serpent, thought to herself: if the tree tastes good, and can so delight the eye, and there is some inexpressible beauty in it, and eating from it will bring us the highest honor, then why should we not eat from it? » From this thought of the saint, we see that Eve does not realize that, eating from this tree, she challenges the Creator, renounces the Lord. She trusts the snake more than God. What happens to Eve?
The first lust is the lust of the womb: “And the woman saw that the tree was good for food…” Man passionately desires to possess everything, to have everything around him or in himself. But once and for all we must remember that the only owner in the universe is the Lord God. Everything we have, we have from His hands. Nothing on earth belongs to us, we only use the benefits that do not belong to us.
There are three different legal concepts: owner, owner, manager. The last two are smaller than the first. A person can only have these rights: he can only be the owner and manager of property by the grace or permission of God - the Creator and Owner of the entire created world.
A person, even in his physical constitution, cannot possess everything. Some people accumulate such treasures for themselves, such riches, that one might think that they are going to live not one, not two, but several dozen lives. Somewhere I read that Rockefeller's wife, when she was dying, asked to bring her favorite dress and clung to it with her hands so much that after her death she had to cut it into pieces with scissors. A woman who had a huge fortune takes with her from this life only a small piece of matter! Verily, a man comes into this world naked, naked and leaves. Here is the fundamental truth – everything belongs to God!
The second lust is the lust of the eyes. “It is pleasing to the eye…” - the tree is said further. This is a very dangerous lust! A person's gaze constantly wanders in one direction or the other. The devil knows about it.
Now in Moscow, and in other Russian cities, we see a huge number of advertisements designed specifically for this feature of a person, for this lust of him. Walking down the street, a person sees naked bodies on advertisements, reads various calls, for example, such as: “Come to the stadium with us. There we will pray, glorify God, and you will leave from there completely healthy!” And next to it are photos of happy, healthy young people. Nearby is the following call: “Today you can be saved only with us!”…
The highest destiny of man is his deification. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself said in the Sermon on the Mount: "... be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect"(Matthew 5:48).
And man is indeed called to ascend to the fullness of the likeness of God: after all, he was created in the image and likeness of his Creator. But the devil always invites us to speed up this natural process. If you like, the devil is the first dissident revolutionary who offers, with the help of some sharp gestures, “decisive choice”, jumps, to achieve exactly the goal that a person strives for by nature. A person strives all his life to become like the Lord, and the devil offers him an immediate result. Just think about what modern sectarians tell us in their heretical sermons. (Although it is better, of course, if possible, not to listen to them at all: we must not listen to heresy.) For example, they constantly say this: if you want to be saved, you can do it immediately. Salvation is being given in their "church" right now, today! If you have any spiritual problems, then they immediately undertake to solve them. "No problems" - no problems - this is the motto of most sectarians, the main principle of Protestant religious life.
In reality, a person, communicating with heretics, loses his salvation. He loses his health, both physical and spiritual. But the worst thing is that he loses grace!
Today, the evil one is trying with all his might to lure us into various parties, lodges and sects. Heretics, pagans directly say: if you come to our sect, you will save not only yourself, but also your family, your entire family. So in a conversation with Eve, the evil one offered “salvation”, as it were, to the entire family of the first person, using the plural: “you”, “like gods”, etc.
Very often, when people fall into certain delusions, it seems to them that this is the path of "enlightenment", that this or that religious practice brings them closer to God, makes them god-like. It seems to such people that some exercises, meditations, reading various books can enrich their inner world, save their family. They do not even suspect what a terrifying abyss is hidden behind the words: "religious revival", "awakening of consciousness", "opening of the chakras", "awakening of the kundalini" and many others with which modern pagans seduce us.
The third lust, the next temptation, the lust that Eve obeys, is lust: "And the woman saw that the tree ... is lustful, because it gives knowledge."
False knowledge is a serious problem, the problem of many so-called intelligent people. Intelligence is some kind of slippery, I would even say nasty word, the meaning of which few people understand. Once, one “intellectual” explained it to me this way: to be intelligent means to be a professional in something, and to know a little about everything else. Modern man wants to know everything! He wants to read both the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita. And much, much more... I often have to visit our parishioners, who invite me to bless their home or perform some kind of prayer service at home, to commune the sick. And I am involuntarily amazed at the abundance and diversity of books that are in Orthodox homes: next to the Bible are the Koran, Bhagavad Gita, Agni Yoga, Jewish books ... The presence of such a set would be understandable in the apartment of an Orthodox missionary who must study all this in order to help people move away from certain delusions. But when a simple layman, who does not have a special blessing for that, reads everything in a row, this is very dangerous. Working with people who found themselves in various sects, I discovered a certain pattern. For example, if a person read the books of Blavatsky, the Roerichs, then he later became involved in the sect "Aum Shinrikyo" or "Hare Krishna". If a person abused the works of such "theologians" as Fr. Pavel Florensky or Fr. Sergiy Bulgakov, then he ended up in the "Bogorodichny Center". If he was overly fond of the books of the philosophers Vladimir Solovyov, Trubetskoy, Volkonsky, then he could be among the Uniates or Russian Catholics. To paraphrase a well-known proverb, you can say this: "Tell me what you read, and I will tell you which sect you might be in." There is nothing surprising! False knowledge, harmful knowledge leads a person away from the Church and causes irreparable harm to his soul.
Once I asked a friend - why does he need all these books? He replied that, as an intelligent person, he should know everything. When we then began to talk with him, I suddenly felt that these books were not at all dead weight in his house: although he considered himself Orthodox, he had serious delusions!
Indeed, a person cannot know everything, cannot possess all knowledge. If you confess that the Orthodox faith is the only true faith, that the Orthodox Church is the same Church about which the Lord said: "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it"(Matthew 16:18), this means that Orthodox books should be in the first place in your house. Remember what the Acts of the Apostles says about how people who used to practice magic, and then converted to the Christian faith, did: they collected all their witchcraft books and burned them. Then there were even those who calculated how much money could be obtained for these books if they were not burned, but sold. But they could neither sell them nor give them to others. They burned them. “Many of those who believed came, confessing and revealing their deeds. And of those who practiced sorcery, quite a few gathered their books, burned them in front of everyone and added up their prices, and they turned out to be fifty thousand drachmas. With such power did the word of the Lord grow and become strong.”(Acts 19:18-20).
This is how we should deal with heretical literature: either hand it over to those Orthodox clergy who study heresies, or burn it so that this infection does not stick to any of our relatives and friends, could not exert its destructive influence on other people and destroy human lives. souls.
In the Ribbon we find questions that a priest must ask in confession. Among them there is one, very important, question: “My hands, child, were you not a heretic or an apostate, did you not stay with them in their temples, visiting, listening to teachings or reading their books?” If a person is somehow guilty of this, then this is a sin that he needs to confess. The Apostolic Rules, the Rules of the Ecumenical and Local Councils forbid Orthodox Christians from attending synagogues, heretical meetings, listening to the teachings of heretics, reading their books... And if we consider ourselves Orthodox, then we must firmly and resolutely move away from false knowledge: heretical and pagan.
When our foremother Eve was deceived, she ate herself and "gave also to her husband, and he ate." We have already said that if heresy, sin, or anything else that comes from the devil touches us, then through us it touches both our loved ones and our families. Eve sinned herself, believing the snake more than God, and plunges her husband into this sin.
The devil is never content with your soul alone, but uses it to influence the people around you as well. If you sin, then do not think that this is your own business. Just as the salvation of one person matters to many, so the sin of one person affects many people. The Monk Seraphim of Sarov said: "Acquire the spirit of peace and thousands will be saved around you." The good, blessed spiritual state of one Christian extends to many people. It is the same with sin: having appeared in the heart of one person, it infects more and more people around.
Sometimes people cannot understand: why the enterprise where they work is in such a distressed situation, even if there were no visible reasons for this; why do relationships in a team always remain strained and "explosive"?.. Most likely, there is only one explanation: people's lives are poisoned by unrepentant sins - their sins and the sins of those around them. So it was in the days of Israel, and so it is now. When the sons of Israel began to commit fornication with foreign women, all the people were subjected to calamities, the punishment of God. This happened until Phinehas, a pious warrior, pierced the fornicators with a spear right during their fornication. And then the wrath of the Lord ceased (Numbers 25:7-11). The Holy Scripture says: "... God is jealous, punishing children for the guilt of their fathers up to the third and fourth kind"(Ex. 20:5). That's how far the corrupting, foul-smelling effect of the sin of even one person extends! And when people are perplexed why their children are born sick, crippled, half-dead, they should be reminded of this. This means that they themselves or in their family had an unrepentant, unconfessed sin.
Recently I happened to visit a boarding school for underdeveloped children, children with atrophied limbs, who crawled towards us for Christmas gifts. And when I asked whose children they were, they answered me: the son of an alcoholic, the son of a drug addict, and so on ...
Sin is none of your business. And when the Church calls: “Do not sin, try to improve,” she means the following: if you yourself change, then everything around you will change. If you cannot resolve some family conflicts, go to church, go to confession, tell the priest about your problems! This will be the best help you can give to your loved ones, to your family.
Eve plucked the forbidden fruit and ate, and the infection of sin was transmitted to her husband. She gave it to him and he ate it too. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons.(Gen. 3:7).
Saint John Chrysostom exclaims on this occasion:
“Look, from what glory and into what humiliation they fell! Those who hitherto lived like earthly angels invent clothes for themselves from leaves. Such is evil - sin. He not only deprives us of heavenly favor, but also plunges us into great shame and humiliation, steals from us those blessings that we possess, takes away all boldness.
Indescribable shame and great horror took possession of the hearts of our first parents, Adam and Eve; they realized that something irreparable had happened - something that they could no longer fix on their own. So even in the most fallen, in the most sinful state in which a person can find himself, the voice of conscience, the voice of God that lives in each of us, does not stop completely, but continues to sound.
In the Butyrka prison and in some other places of detention, I had to meet people who had committed especially serious crimes. And when I asked, for example, a thief: "Is stealing a sin?", - he answered: "Yes." I asked a murderer: “Is murder a sin?”, a fornicator: “Debauchery is a sin?” - and everyone answered me: “Yes”. It turns out that every person knows what sin is, because the Law of God is written in the heart of every person. The Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans says: “... When the pagans, who do not have the law, by nature do what is lawful, then, not having the law, they are their own law: they show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as evidenced by their conscience and their thoughts, now accusing, then justifying one another"(Rom. 2:14-15).
The German philosopher Kant said: “Most of all, two things strike me and make me believe in God - the starry sky above my head and the moral law in me.”
… And so, the eyes of the ancestors were opened: they realized that they were naked. What can they do now? How can they get rid of this nakedness that terrified them, of their sinfulness?!
Once the disciples, talking with the Lord Jesus, asked Him: “Who can be saved?” And they heard back: “... it is impossible for men, but not for God: for all things are possible with God”(Mark 10:27).
That is, when in our life we restore the priorities and rights of God, decide instead of a person and for a person what good and evil are, that is, we obey the Will of the Creator who created us, then He can begin the work of our salvation.
Reading: “Now do not be hard-hearted, like your fathers, submit to the Lord and come to His sanctuary, which He has sanctified forever; and serve the Lord your God, and he will turn away from you the flame of his wrath. When you turn to the Lord, then your brothers and your children [will] be in favor with those who captivate them and will return to this land, for the Lord your God is good and merciful and will not turn away his face from you if you turn to Him.(2 Chronicles 30:8-9).
Oddly enough, such a simple fruit - an apple - has a lot of meanings in the mythology and culture of different countries. For some nations, it means spring rebirth and joyful love, while for others it means discord and forbidden fruit. The dual nature of love between a woman and a man is also symbolized by this stone fruit.
An example is the apple of the ancient Roman goddess Ceres, which plunges people into a passionate frenzy. He is opposed by another symbol - a romantic and tender "apple tree in bloom."
Pictures of the birth of Christ show the baby Jesus taking an apple; Thus, he symbolically took upon himself the sins of the world. Therefore, the red apple that traditionally decorates the Christmas tree can be interpreted as an opportunity to return to paradise thanks to the birth of the Savior.
The apple was the forbidden fruit of the Golden Age. The attractive sweetness of the apple is associated with sinful temptation, because the word is like "evil, sinful, evil." Thus, in works of art from the Baroque era, death is like a skeleton with an apple in its hand: the price of the first sin is death.
In folklore, an apple means hope for a very successful marriage and strong family ties. Many winged "apple" expressions have entered the cultural fund of the Russian language.
The apple is the forbidden fruit
There is a famous saying that forbidden fruit is always sweet. According to the Bible, the apple gave people knowledge, the ability to distinguish between good and evil. But it also led the first people on earth to fall into sin.
Eve not only dared to pick and taste this fruit, but also to pass it on to Adam. The consequence was terrible - exile to earth from paradise. Nevertheless, the apple also represents heavenly bliss. Many researchers believe that the name of the legendary island of Avalon, translated from the Welsh (Welsh, Cymric) language, means "apple".
In ordinary life, an apple, because of its almost perfectly round shape, is perceived as a cosmic symbol, so kings and kings are often accompanied by a rod in their hand, symbolically representing the whole world "the state of an apple." In the ancient world, three rounds are depicted on coins, identifying known parts of the Emperor Augustus of the world - Asia, Africa, Europe and the "state apple" crowned with the figure of the goddess of victory.
Even the unattractive wild apple has found use in heraldry. Like a wild apple, a hard and sour canned wine is very well sour from both cruelty, evil is punished and the virtuous remains. Right here you can see the connection with the biblical legend, which says that the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden, eaten by Adam and Eve, was an apple.
Apple is a symbol of eternal youth
The apple is often mentioned in legends and myths of various peoples as a symbol of unfading youth and beauty.
Many Russian folk tales also tell about the ability of such fruits to return and preserve youth.
The ancient Greek hero Hercules obtained these magical fruits from the nymph sisters of the Hesperides, which promised their owner eternal youth. In addition, the Scandinavian god Loki also did not want to grow old. And to prevent this process, he simply stole rejuvenating apples.
Usually Eve is depicted in this way - with an apple in her hand, offering Adam. Although the Bible does not name the fruit that Eve seduced in the Garden of Eden, the apple was the first fruit chosen by interpreters of Scripture. So the apple as a symbol has acquired both positive and negative meanings in relation to the concept of "knowledge". In art, the apple symbolizes the fall into sin, as shown in the mouth of a monkey or a snake. Jesus Christ, the image of the Savior is often held in the hand of an apple or pointing at it - a symbol of salvation.
According to tradition, the apple is the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Perhaps this is taken from the classical image of the golden apple of immortality, guarded by the Hesperides - a nymph in the garden of Hera. Hence comes the symbol of the fall of man and the allusion to the future mission of Christ as Redeemer. The alchemists noticed that the core of the cross section of the apple was pentagonal, giving them a clue about finding the fifth element. Thus, they used this fruit as a symbol of knowledge.
"Apple" symbolism in the culture of the Slavs
Among the ancient Slavs, the apple symbolized not only health, a happy marriage, fertility and prosperity, but also the secret of life and death. It was believed that this particular fruit helps to keep the image of the departed in the memory of the living. In this regard, the ancient Slavs always brought an apple to the grave of their ancestors.
After special prayers in the synagogues, the Jewish festive table is mandatory for apples and halvah with honey, as a symbol of the upcoming "sweet" year. What role does the apple play in Bulgarian folk beliefs? From pre-biblical times, the apple has a very deep symbolic meaning. It has to do with love, fertility, life, sexuality, and sin.
The apple is the sacred tree of Apollo, the apple of discord is the cause of the three goddesses Aphrodite, Athens and Hera to quarrel about what is best. In Christianity, the apple is the "fruit of sin", a symbol of original sin. For the ancient Celts, the fetus is closely associated with the future, with magical and secret knowledge, with the cult of Epona, the goddess of the mare, depicting a sitting and holding an apple in her hand.
The stone fruit did not bypass wedding celebrations either. They used not only the fruit itself, but also the branches of the apple tree. To accept an apple as a gift meant for the girl consent to the marriage. Apple tree branches often decorated the wedding festive table.
Apples in our life, myths and symbols
The apple tree is one of the oldest fruit trees. The homeland of the plant is Asia Minor, from where it was transported thousands of years ago to Palestine, and then to Egypt, Greece and Rome. Egyptian pharaohs from orchards donated a basket of apples daily to the temples, and apple trees also bloomed in ancient Roman orchards.
And today we will talk about apples, about the myths and symbols associated with them.
1.Apple - a symbol of the tree of life.
Apple tree(like a tree) serves as one of the symbols of settled life, peace, prosperity.
And in apple many saw an extraordinary fruit - fruit of the tree of life.
tree of life in the myths of many peoples it is the world tree, the axis of the world... It is here, under the world tree, that the gods decide human destinies.
Madonna under the apple tree
Whatever this tree was, its fruit among European peoples most often turned out to be Apple, translated from the Romance languages " heavenly fruit».
In the Middle Ages, each Celtic clan in Ireland had its own sacred apple tree, under which pagan holidays were held.
The ancient Germans believed that apple trees enjoyed the patronage of the gods - even lightning did not touch them - and surrounded houses with apple orchards!
In China, the apple tree is a symbol of peace, and the apple blossom is a poetic emblem of beauty.
Jews during the New Year's meal eat an apple dipped in honey for well-being in the new year.
In the mythology of the Balts, the apple is a symbol of the sun, one of the incarnations of the goddess Saule.
Round form associated with ideas about Universe space; " blush» apple - c beauty and health, sweetness and aroma - with pleasure.
In the interpretation of dreams, the apple is identified primarily with love and family. If you see this in your sleeping apple, it is considered a good sign, especially in a purely sexual aspect. If you eat it, you will enjoy health and happiness. Eat a red and sweet apple, a bold love adventure, and if it is sour and unripe, quarrels and misunderstandings in the family or with your beloved. If they give you apples, you'll get busy. You dream of ripe apples on a tree, you will have a close-knit and large family.
If you see a blossoming apple in a dream, you have pure, innocent, platonic love. If we pay attention to Bulgarian traditions and folklore, we find that the apple is present as a symbol of fertility, love, marriage and children. In folk concepts, it was intuitively understood that the surest sign of love between two young people was the exchange of an apple, as in Thrace, a sign that a young boy loved a girl, put his apples into the dance.
2. Apple is a super fruit
What kind of apple is it
Full of ripe juice
So fresh and so fragrant
So ruddy golden
Like honey poured!
You can see the seeds through...
Apples from our garden
The fruit itself was used in lust to please. If a boy or girl bites into an enchanted apple, they can go crazy for about 40 days. Even without magic, an apple was a sure sign that someone was serious about marriage. In traditional folk culture, the apple is a symbol of marriage. For this reason, it is present at all important moments in the preparation and development of the wedding - decorating the wedding tree, wedding banner and wedding ring. Breeders eat the apple to have children.
It can also replace the bride's bloody shirts after the wedding night: when the bride is honest, instead of a shirt, she shows an apple, and the wedding girls collect coins. As a symbol of fertility, the apple also plays a different role. The groom must eat an apple in order to have children. The idea behind this custom is that the apple has an erotic power that will make a young child conceive a child.
The apple is not only a favorite fruit, it is extremely healing. Even Hippocrates prescribed apples against intestinal diseases, ailments of the heart and kidneys.
Apples have: antiallergic, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antitumor properties.
Do not contain fat, cholesterol, sodium - excellent for the figure and blood vessels;
vitamin composition: vitamins a, b9, b2, b1, pp, c,
In 100 g of an apple, 11.8 g of carbohydrates - gives energy about 80 calories;
Source of iron(perfectly absorbed from apples, due to the content of vitamin g - “appetite vitamin”).
Source of potassium, manganese, zinc, copper and other useful substances;
Enriched with pectin(reduces the likelihood of colon cancer, the formation of gallstones).
Reduces the need for insulin in diabetes; strengthens blood vessels.
Apples are useful for gout: they reduce the formation of uric acid;
Apples help purify the blood, and clean the teeth;
More phytoncides are contained closer to the skin - which means that it is better not to peel apples from it.
Apple juice is used to make apple wine, and by fermentation and champagne cider. Brandy obtained from the distillation of cider is called Calvados.
Source: "Bulgarian customs and rituals" - Lilia Stareva; "An apple as a symbol of fertility and love in folk culture" - Bilyana Popova. The legendary Reich Achilles, a descendant of Dia himself, was immortal in addition to his heel. His mother, the goddess Thetis, ensured his immortality by clutching small Achilles in the sacred water of the river Styx - but he had to keep it behind him. But because the gods decided that this valiant Reich would perish at Troy, they sent the arrow of the Trojan prince Parid on his deadly heel - since then, the weak points of every plan or person have been considered the Achilles' heel.
3. Apple is a symbol of temptation, the Forbidden fruit
European tradition (but not the original text of the Bible) considers the apple fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The apple was a forbidden fruit, but Eve dared, tried it herself, and passed on the "knowledge" to Adam. The result was the expulsion from paradise and the whole long journey of mankind.
Adam and Eva Dürer 
But the Bible text does not specifically mention what kind of fruit led Eve into temptation.
The word "pomum" (lat. "fruit") has undergone a change, it began to denote not any fruit, but an apple. Fig, pomegranate, peach and quince were depicted in art, in addition to the apple, but our apple was unknown in the Ancient East.
The tradition of depicting an apple as a symbol of the fall appeared in the Renaissance. It is believed that in Greek mythology, and in the Song of Songs, it is not about apples, but about pomegranates.
The daughter of Ariadne, the daughter of King Mina, helped the River Teza in Crete not to perish in the labyrinth when he went to kill the legendary monster Minotaur. Her thread helped to reliably find the path of the Greek hero from the tangle of daylight corridors. This parable is used in situations where we are following a certain leash or path that will lead us to a goal.
The highly skilled weaver Arachnis insisted on competing with the weaving of Pallas Athena. Their work was comparable, but Arachova scorned the gods and therefore her victory was not satisfied. She wanted to hang herself, but Athena did not allow her and condemned her and all subsequent generations to an eternal hanging and weaving figure, turning the weaver into a spider. The Greek expression for a spider - arachno - has survived to this day, arachnophobia, on the contrary, is frightened by spiders.
4.Apple - a symbol of love, beauty and perfection
Since ancient times, an apple among the peoples of Europe was considered a symbol of perfection(ball - the most perfect geometric form) and a divine gift - like a fruit that grew in paradise, like the food of the gods.
During the wedding of Zeus with the Hero, Gaia gave her an apple - a symbol of fertility. In Athens, newlyweds shared and ate an apple on entering the bridal chamber; handing over the apple was considered a sign of love.
In legends, fairy tales, not only the benefits of fruits are emphasized, but their external charm and mysterious essence, which gives people health, beauty, and eternal youth.
Hereki, by the way, cleared the kingdom of King Augiash, the son of God Helios, in one day sowing great herds. An unimaginable work, led by his wisdom, brought the streams of neighboring rivers into barns and washed away the dung. Today this concept means a very dirty environment.
Danaus, king of Libya, had 50 daughters, the beautiful Danaowen, with whom 50 sons of the king of Egypt fell in love. The daughters always protected the Egyptian and ended up using rage. They bowed to their husbands, but at night they killed them with the daggers that their father had given them. Only one of the girls saved her husband and founded a famous family together. Dananovsky still kills his kills because they are tempted to carry water in leaky containers until they are full. We currently reject Danish gifts, they are unpleasant, dangerous or haunting things.
5.Apple - a symbol of eternal youth and immortality
Apples in many myths are associated with paradise or the Garden of Eden.
In Celtic mythology, the island of the blessed Avalon takes its name from the Welsh afal, apple. On Avalon, lost among the distant "western islands", there lived beautiful women who treated sailors who accidentally fell to them with wonderful apples of immortality. 
According to Irish belief, the apple - a magical fruit - provides immortality. If it is cut in two, we will see a five-pointed star - pentagram, symbolizing the five states from birth to death, and then a new birth.
There was a legend that there is an apple tree, on the silver branches of which apples grow, which have the property of immortality, giving youth. And the heroes of legends and fairy tales are trying to get these apples.
Apples of the Hesperides
At the edge of the world, along the banks of the Ocean River, the ancient Greeks placed a garden with golden apples, which give eternal youth, Hera instructed them to guard dragon Ladon and sisters to the Hesperides. 
Hercules managed to steal these apples - this was his twelfth feat.
The arrows of love are also called Amor, after the Roman name of this god. Eros was the god of love, the son of the Goddess Aphrodite, who shot people with his golden arrows. Whom he chose, he hit where he hit, he fell in love. Now we understand Erotic love arrows as a symbol of "inherent" love.
Hades, Dee's brother, was the god of the underworld, the dead and the soul, and he also ruled over the dark forces. The entrance to the underworld was guarded by Kerberos, passing the River Styx by the dead Ferriman. In the realm of the shadows of Hades, sinners suffered and served their punishments after their death, and there were also three divine judges. In rare cases, a person could return to earth, but not for long. For modern people, the empire of Hadji partially merges with the Christian hell.
A Magic apple tree in Scandinavian Asgard guarded by three wise Norns (deities who determine fate at birth).
Only goddess of spring Idunn allowed them to collect wonderful apples.
From her inexhaustible casket (basket) the beautiful Idunn handed out golden apples - and the gods of Asgard kept eternal youth (Penrose's painting).
This is the golden apple of the goddess Eris, who reprimanded the three Olympian goddesses through it at the wedding of King Peleus in the Pelion mountains. The apple was marked "the most beautiful" and Atana, Artemis and Aphrodite wanted to take possession of it. Among them were passionate disagreements, chosen by the Trojan Prince Parid. Currently, a bone of contention is any thing that is the cause of a dispute.
Oedipus was the founder, brought up in Corinth, but he learned in the Delphic martyr that he would kill his father and marry his mother. To minimize the chance of meeting his parents, he became an outcast. On the way to Tebu, he protected the old man and thus unknowingly killed King Laya. Thebes suffered from the Sindh monster, a lion with wings and a woman's head. He married a widow to Lai and had four children with her. He then learned that Lajos and his wife were his true parents. His mother-wife committed suicide, Odipius himself blinded himself and was expelled from Thebes.
6. Apple in myths and fairy tales
Fairy tales
Rejuvenating apples the king from a Russian fairy tale saw in a dream and sent three sons after them. Luck smiled on the youngest - Ivan Tsarevich. He saddled a falcon, flew "to a certain kingdom, the thirtieth state" of Helen the Beautiful, and picked apples in the garden. 
In another tale, a young man was brought to an apple tree on which three apples hung: one shriveled - an apple of wisdom, another, bulk - an apple of wealth, and a third, green and unripe - an apple of happiness. The young man chose yellow and wrinkled, because he guessed that if you are a wise person, then you can arrange your wealth and happiness.
In Russian folk tales, an apple predicts fate, shows the world
“An apple rolls on a saucer, poured on a silver one, and on a saucer all the cities are visible one after another, ships on the seas and shelves in the fields ...” (“The Tale of a Silver Saucer and a Liquid Apple”).
In many fairy tales, the apple tree saves from trouble.
In the fairy tale Swan geese”, a girl who tasted the fruit of a wild apple tree was saved along with her brother by covering them with branches of a tree.
In myths
A young hunter lived in Greece - Atalanta.
Many wooed Atalanta, but the proud girl did not want to get married. She set a condition for suitors - to overtake her in running. However, she always managed to overtake the applicant. Only cunning Hippomenes managed to get Atalanta's hand: starting to run, he threw three golden apples under the beauty's feet one after another, and, picking them up, Atalanta fell behind.
7. Apple - a symbol of discord
At the heart of the expression apple of discord”is an ancient Greek myth: the goddess of discord Eris, offended that she was not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, stole one of the apples of the Hesperides. And with the inscription the fairest” threw at the wedding feast. A dispute arose between the three goddesses: Hero, Athena and Aphrodite.
Zeus gave the apple to Hermes and told him to lead the goddesses around Troy, on the slope of Mount Ida. There should have been a dispute Paris, son of King Priam of Troy.
Judgment of Paris
Each of the goddesses began to convince Paris to give the apple to her. They promised Paris great rewards.
Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful Helen, the daughter of Zeus and Leda, as his wife, and Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite.
Since then, the apple has been an attribute of Venus (Aphrodite) and the three Graces (her maids). 
Aphrodite forced the wife of King Menelaus, the beautiful Helen, to fall in love with the young man ... And the Trojan War.
Eris got her way. The apple of discord sowed enmity between the inhabitants of Olympus. It led to the unleashing of the bloody Trojan War, in which both gods and people were involved.
The bond between son and mother is now called the Oedipus complex. God the Lord, half goat, half man, protector of flocks, shepherds and all nature, played magic whistles - not only the whole herd, but also the people behind it. Mr. belonged to Dionysus' merry party. But when he was in a bad mood, it was not good to disturb him - he could have a bad dream or a panic of fear and terror. Even today, panicky people behave like hypnotized people without their own will.
Pandora was an artificial girl created by Hephaestos on the orders of Dius himself, who was angry with Prometheus when he gave fire, knowledge and learned crafts. Pandora was given the best qualities and gifts of the gods, but was charged with sowing hatred and evil. She was beautiful as a picture, but she hurt where she could. In her house, all the evil was hidden in a large pot. Pandora opened the container and placed evil among the people. Evil and disease kept Zeus silent so that they would not be noticed upon arrival. People don't open Pandora's cabinets to avoid unpleasant surprises.
A small digression, not about apples.
Raspberries- red berry of Mount Ida. On this mountain, in the thickets of raspberries, the award by Paris apples Aphrodite, who here, along with Athena and Hera, stood naked before Paris, so that he would decide which of them was more beautiful.
That's why raspberries became symbol odious, piquant place or event. And now " raspberry" and " raspberries retain this meaning.
8. Bullseye- another catch phrase, meaning the perfect hit accuracy.
Shot at the bullseye William Tell- the legendary hero of Switzerland, who lived at the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries, a skilled archer. 
The Austrian governor Gessler behaved like a tyrant. When Wilhelm Tell did not obey orders, Gessler, as a punishment, forced him to shoot v Apple
on the head son of Tell. Tell coped with the task, but admitted that if he had hit his son, he would have killed Gesler with another arrow.
There is a drama by Schiller and Rossini's opera William Tell.
9.Apple - a symbol of knowledge
Adam and Eve committed the sin by eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge, and that fruit was an apple. People were expelled from the Garden of Eden. 
But, having lost their serene existence, they acquired knowledge and looked at the vast world with wide eyes, with understanding, because the forbidden apple grew on the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil.
Since then Apple - symbol of knowledge.
Medieval scientists - alchemists believed that the apple symbolized learning process and the fantastic fifth element. Indeed, in the core of a cut apple, medieval sages saw a five-pointed star, expressing the mystical quintessence. 
According to a well-known legend, the law of universal gravitation was discovered by Newton, who watched how apples.
At that time, he was trying to understand what forces keep the Moon in its orbit. The fall of apples in the orchard led him to the idea that the same gravitational force acts on the apple, only at a small distance.
Apple
AppleInc.(apple - English "apple") - a well-known American corporation, a manufacturer of computers, phones, software.
The sign of Apple Corporation - an apple bitten on the right side - is one of the most recognizable in the modern world. 
A Mac- personal computers manufactured by the company.
Why is it an apple?
Different Versions:
Such a bike: Steve Jobs loved apples of the Mackintosh variety (in Russia, the variety is known as Autumn Red-sided, Autumn Khoroshevka). And when the employees were looking for the name of the company for a long time, he threatened that if by the end of the working day no one "created" a decent name for the company, he would call the company his favorite apple. Looks like the employees failed...
Or:
The idol of Steve Jobs was the British mathematician Alan Turing, the scientist is sometimes called the "father of artificial intelligence and computer science." Turing killed himself by biting into an apple he had stuffed with cyanide.
10. Apple - a symbol of power
One of the signs of the monarch's power is a power, a "sovereign apple"
An apple, because of its round shape, is perceived as space symbol, therefore, kings and kings, along with the scepter, hold in their hands representing the whole world
"sovereign apple"(state).
Previously, the sovereign apple was crowned with the figure of Nike, the goddess of victory. In the Christian era, Nike took the place of the cross, even the astronomical symbol of the Earth is a circle with a cross on it.
……………….
Apple in art
Many artists have turned their "paradise" gardens into apple trees.
The famous Florentine Sandro Botticelli on canvas" Spring"The action takes place in a heavenly garden under the crowns of apple trees.
German painter Lucas Cranach the Elder, in the picture Golden age” also depicts an apple orchard.
In the painting by the English painter Burne-Jones "The Head of the Gorgon Medusa" under the apple tree are Perseus and Andromeda, and consider the reflection of the Gorgon in the well. 
"Apple" the image is reflected in literary fairy tales
In Pushkin's "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Bogatyrs", an apple made the beautiful princess fall asleep for a long time:
What kind of apple is it
Full of ripe juice
So fresh and so fragrant…”
Pushkin knew that the apple is a philosophical image, a symbol of temptation, life and death.
Basket filled with apples and roses- an attribute of the Christian martyr Dorothea. Dorothea in 303 was condemned to death by a Roman governor for refusing to renounce her faith in Christ. One of Dorothea's executioners, Theophilus, mocking faith, asked the saint to send him apples and roses from Christ's heavenly gardens.
Dorothea in a painting by Zurbaran 
After the execution of Dorothea, a cherub appeared before the astonished Theophilus with a basket filled with apples and roses. Struck by the miracle, Theophilus was baptized.
Heraldry
The apple is part of many coats of arms.
Rossosh(Voronezh region) 
The confluence of the Chernaya Kalitva and Dry Rossosh rivers is reflected by a blue forked cross. The golden apple shows a large number of apple orchards around the city.
Zyablikovo(Moscow area)
In the center of the white stripe is an image of a chaffinch on a branch. Below is a picture of a yellow apple. 
The finch symbolizes the name of the municipality, from a village that existed in the 17th century. The apple symbolizes the apple orchards that were here in the 17th-18th centuries.
believed that to ensure health, it is necessary to wash your face at Christmas and New Year with water in which an apple lay.
For the future health and beauty of the children, the pregnant woman had to hold on to the apple tree and look at its branches or fruits.
In Bulgarian beliefs, Archangel Michael took the soul to heaven only with an apple.
Kustodiev Apple orchard. 1918
Apple Spas- popular name for the holiday Transfiguration of the Lord, August 19.
Apple Spas is also called " the first autumn”, meeting autumn. It is believed that the nights after August 19 become colder.
Before the Savior, it is not allowed to eat apples, but on this day, apples are plucked and consecrated.
In the old days on Apple Savior, they baked pies with apples, cooked apple jam and treated each other to them. In the evening, everyone sang the sunset with songs.
The bulge on the front of the neck in men is called the Adam's apple.
Most apple blossoms are pink at first and gradually turn white as they open.
To grow 1 apple, you need the "energy" of 50 leaves.
The height of the trees can reach more than 12 meters.
Some apple trees live over 100 years.
China is the leader in apple cultivation.
Kazakh name of the former capital of Kazakhstan - Almaty- translated as " apple tree».
In Russia, the city is called Alma-Ata, which translates as "Father of Apples" (from "apple" - "Alma" and "father" - "ata").
Initially word " Apple" meant " any fruit”, which is reflected in a number of languages:
Orange- it. Apfelsine, Chinese apple»,
Tomato- it. pomo d'oro, " Golden Apple»,
Potato- fr. pommes de terre, earth apple.
How to put a whole apple in a bottle 
How to make an inscription or drawing 
Stick a cut-out pattern on a ripe apple
Apple in feng shui - a symbol health and harmony in the House. It is related to one of the meanings of the Chinese character peace, which can also be translated as Apple.
Apple- a feng shui symbol associated with life extension- that is, health. Therefore, an apple made of metal, crystal or stone is used as gifts.
Big apple
It is known that "Big apple"-nickname New York.
New York tour guides say that " Apple" became a symbol of New York, because the first tree planted by the first settlers was an apple tree.
According to another version, the expression arose among jazz musicians who had a saying: “ There are a lot of apples on the tree of success, but if you managed to conquer New York, you got a big apple». 
Another version:
A French immigrant, Evelyn (Eve) de Saint-Overmond, set up a salon - a place of parties, gambling and witty conversations. But in fact it was an elegantly furnished brothel.
Evelyn called the seductresses in the institution - "Eve's apples, which are impossible to resist." Regulars began to talk about love affairs as a "taste for Eve's apples."
And the “Big Apple” began to be called New York, in which there were many brothels.
apple day
In the US (February 20) and the UK (October 21 or the nearest weekend), unofficial holidays, “apple days”, are held.
In England, on this day, fun competitions are held to peel the longest strip of peel from an apple. 
Some apple games are also present at Halloween parties. One of the favorite English games where an apple is hung from a rope in a doorway and the players have to eat the apple without using their hands is not an easy task!
In Cornwall, on Halloween night, it was customary to put apples under the pillow so that the future husband or wife would dream. myths
cited
Liked: 5 users
Apple is a universal symbol
Such a simple and familiar, at first glance, apple is a rather controversial symbol in the history of culture.On the one hand, the fruit represents the fullness of life, the joy of love and spring rebirth.
At the same time, it is the apple that is called the forbidden fruit and a symbol of discord.
The duality of the nature of love between a man and a woman is also contained in apple symbolism. The gentle, romantic "apple tree in bloom" is contrasted apple, as a symbol of the goddess Ceres, exposing people to the frenzy of passion. The fruit in folklore is also a symbol of hope for a successful marriage for future spouses, and also personifies family ties.
An apple is the fruit of a lost paradise, a symbol of lost unearthly bliss. At the same time, earthly lords lean with their right hand on an orb in the form apples Therefore, the fruit is a symbol of worldly power.
Many stable "apple expressions" associated with symbolic meanings have entered the fund of the Russian language.
The apple is the forbidden fruit
The forbidden fruit, as you know, is always sweet, which cannot be said about all varieties of apples. Nevertheless, the first translators of the Bible blamed the fall of the first man on the apple, although the Book of Books itself does not contain a specific name for the fruit with which Eve seduced Adam. Why did the apple become a symbol of original sin? Probably the reason was the incredible popularity of this tasty and healthy fruit.At the same time, the apple represents heavenly bliss before the fall. It is no coincidence that the name of the mythical city of Avalon comes from the Welsh name for the fruit.
Apple of discord
If in China the fruit of an apple tree is a symbol of peacefulness, then in Ancient Hellas the fruit became an attribute of dispute and competition. At the famous trial of the handsome mortal Paris over the three goddesses - Hero, Athena and Aphrodite - the prize was Golden Apple with the inscription "Most Beautiful". Paris rejected power and military prowess, preferring the love that Aphrodite promised him. Because of the abduction of the Beautiful Helen, the Trojan War broke out. Hence, another popular expression - "the apple of discord."rejuvenating apple
Myths and fairy tales of the peoples of the world contain a large number of references to the power of apple fruits to give eternal youth and prolong life.Hero Hercules kidnapped golden apples of the Hesperides that promised the owner eternal youth.
Stolen rejuvenating apples and the Scandinavian god Loki.
Numerous Russian fairy tales tell about the ability of apples to return and protect youth.
"An apple from an apple tree ..." in Slavic culture
In addition to a positive symbol of health, fertility, prosperity, marital love and healthy offspring, spring rebirth, apples among the ancient Slavs were the personification of the mystery of life and death. According to Russian tradition, an apple was an obligatory offering to the grave of ancestors. It was believed that the fruit will help to keep in the memory of the living the image of the already departed. It also symbolized the infinity of the cycle of life. "The apple never falls far from the tree", - says a Russian proverb about the connection of generations.The fruits of the apple tree played a big role in wedding ceremonies and in the rituals associated with the birth of children. To accept an apple as a gift meant for the girl consent to marriage. The festive wedding table was decorated with apple tree branches. The apple is a symbol of the bride's chastity. One half of it was eaten by the bride and groom before the wedding night.
During the wedding, the bride had to throw an apple over the altar in order to have many children. A pregnant woman had to hold on to an apple tree branch so that the child would be born beautiful and healthy. Traditionally, apples bestowed on women in childbirth. With them they came to the christening, they caroled with them and invited to the wedding.
With the help of apples, the peasants called for abundance in the economy.
One of the most beloved holidays in Russia -.
The apple is a symbol of precision
"On the bull's-eye" is another catchphrase, meaning amazing hit accuracy. The legendary shooter William Tell, as well as other heroes and robbers, most often chose an apple as a target for archery competitions.You can talk about the symbolism of the apple endlessly. Few fruits can boast of so many references in world literature and myth-making. Let's not forget about the beneficial properties of this real gift of nature. Its healing power always hits "the bull's eye" protecting us from many ailments, giving us health and active longevity.
Isabella Likhareva
APPLE TREE (lat. Malum). There is no unambiguous interpretation of its name. Some researchers believe that in Latin "Malum" means both an apple and evil, trouble. Others believe that it comes from the ancient Greek "malon" and could equally mean both an apple and a sheep.
The Russian word "apple tree" comes from the Old Slavonic "ablon", and it comes from the Indo-European "albho", which means "white". Indeed, in the context of apple pulp is usually white. Popular names: sour, sour, wild, leshovka. A wild apple tree was called Leshovka, it was believed that only a goblin could eat its sour apple.
The symbolism of the apple is also ambiguous. In almost all nations, it is a symbol of fertility, health, love, beauty. And at the same time, according to Greek mythology - a symbol of discord, and in the Christian tradition - a symbol of temptation, original sin, forbidden fruit. In a Ukrainian legend, a fallen angel seduces Adam and Eve with an apple, saying that by eating it they will become gods.
The round shape of an apple was interpreted by the ancients as eternity without beginning or end, integrity and unity of the world. An apple tree is a family, and an apple is a child, a child. Apple tree flowers - spring, the beginning of the year, the beginning of love. Its fruit is autumn, the end of the year, the end of life. Apple blossoms also symbolized maternal devotion. In Ukraine, a wreath of seven flowers was woven for a seven-year-old girl, and for the first time apple flowers were woven into it. The father touched the tree with a wreath, said: “Mother-apple tree, our nurse ...” and asked her for health and happiness for the child.
And in the mythological ideas of our ancestors, the apple was endowed with the ability to predict fate, save from trouble, be an elixir of youth. According to legend, rejuvenating apples had great power. They grew up in a distant country far away, in a kingdom far away, and were guarded by evil giants and dragons. It was worth fighting for these apples, because they could not only give health and eternal youth, but even restore life to the dead and gain power over the Universe.
To regain youth, the old man had to eat such an apple and drink living water. Well, if it is not possible to get a rejuvenating apple, then according to belief, the most ordinary, plucked in your garden, can turn into it, if certain conditions are met. On the growing moon for 12 days, an hour before bedtime, you need to eat a spoken apple. Be sure to slander three times: “Either in the rain, or in the sun, only in the heat, only in the cold, it was simple, it became rejuvenating. May it be so! May it be so! May it be so"
Many customs and traditions are associated with an apple tree, an apple, most of which relate to wedding rituals, marriage, and family. Among the Slavs, the apple acted as a love sign. They believed that in order to see the betrothed in a dream and experience love languor, a shy girl needs to lie down under an apple tree in the summer. Offering an apple was a declaration of love. And accepted by the girl during the matchmaking, it meant her consent to marriage. The branch of an apple-tree decorated the bride's wreath, was used in the manufacture of a wedding tree, in the decoration of the festive table. In the old days, Ukrainians stuck a branch of an apple tree into a loaf (palyanitsa), and Russians into a wedding chicken.
In some places, the newlyweds ate a ruddy apple broken in half immediately after the wedding. According to legend, this ensured their fertility and the beauty of future children. According to other beliefs, for the future health and beauty of children, a pregnant woman had to hold on to an apple tree and look at its branches in winter, or at apples in summer. It was believed that an apple that grew first on a young apple tree, or originated after a secondary flowering, and also hung on a tree for a long time, helps with infertility. But if you see in a dream the fall of two apples, then according to Ukrainian beliefs, twins will be born.
Children have always been perceived as a continuation of life, a continuation of the family. It was accepted on the New Year, which was understood as the beginning of a new life, when the fate of a person is laid, to give them apples to accumulate vitality.
In the popular mind, the apple tree and its fruits were endowed with magical powers. In order to achieve high growth of rye, in some regions of Russia it was customary before sowing, after picking an apple, toss it higher up. And in order for the scythe to grow well, on Maundy Thursday and at the Apple Spas early in the morning, the girls went under the apple trees to comb their hair with a comb made from an apple tree. They believed that in order to ensure health, it was necessary to wash oneself at Christmas and New Year with water in which an apple lay, that an apple tree planted next to a house would attract well-being to it.
According to popular beliefs, apples have a special power of fulfilling desires on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, celebrated on August 19, among the people it is called the Apple Savior. It was on this day in Russia that it was customary to pick and consecrate apples and other fruits of the new harvest. Why not earlier? The answer is given by the ancient legends about the birds of paradise Sirin and Alkonost, in which paganism and Christianity are bizarrely mixed.
These mythical birds with a woman's face and a crown on their heads fly from the Garden of Eden to the earth exactly to the apple tree and bring healing herbs in their sharp claws. The face of the Sirin bird is impenetrable, stern, and on the face of the Alkonost bird there is a smile. One reminds us that earthly life is fleeting, that wealth and power are worth nothing in it. The other is a bird that brings happiness, bestows love and faith. (Sirin and Alkonost. V. Vasnetsov).
The Sirin bird flies to the apple tree long before the Apple Savior and brushes dead dew from its wings. Therefore, according to popular belief, one who picks an apple ahead of time can pick exactly the one that this dew fell on. And then for his impatience, greed, a person is punished by death. The Alkonost bird flies exactly to Spas and brushes live dew from its wings. From this day on, all the fruits on apple trees become healing, amazing power appears in them.
The ban on eating apples before the Savior was especially strictly applied to parents whose children died this year, or in general to those who lost their children. This prohibition was observed and is still observed in many places. According to popular beliefs, if it is violated, God will not give the apple of paradise “in the next world” to dead children, and it will be hard for them.
People believed that apples become magical on Spas, that if you make a wish and then eat a consecrated apple, then the wish will come true. On this day, it was customary to give generously to the poor - it was believed that the more generous a person is, the kinder God will treat his deceased relatives, that whoever treats a beggar with harvest on Savior will spend the next year in abundance.
Apples were part of the ritual dishes in the form of "vzvara", "uzvara" (Ukrainian) - dried fruit compote. They were always served on the table during the wedding, and on Christmas Eve, and at the memorial meal. Among the Slavs, the apple is associated with the world of the dead and plays a significant role in funeral and memorial rituals. It was used both as food for the dead and as a means to commemorate the dead.
An apple was placed in a coffin or grave, since, according to legend, the deceased eats apples and gingerbread “in the next world”. The Eastern Slavs, as a rule, girded the child who died on the Apple Savior. This custom is associated with the naive idea that God will give apples to children on the Savior, and it is necessary that the child be able to put an apple in his bosom. Among many Slavic peoples, the custom of leaving apples on the grave on the days of commemoration, along with bread, eggs, and money, was widespread and still preserved. Apples were exchanged on memorial days at the cemetery - for the repose of the soul of the deceased.
Such a familiar apple, it turns out, played a very important role in the worldview of our ancestors. And in conclusion - about one more wonderful, modern apple tree.
There is an amazing tree in Ukraine in the city of Krolevets (Sumy region), certainly the only one in the world. This is a 220 year old apple bush that is a colony of 15 related related trees. It covers an area of more than a thousand square meters. Once this colony was one tree, but then the apple tree began to grow “incorrectly”: with age, the tree bent so much that its branches rested on the ground and began to take root. Thus, the apple tree, as it were, prolongs its life - one of the trunks dies, a new one is formed. The mother trunk is long gone, but the apple tree continues to live. The miracle tree blooms every year, but the fruits, sweet and tart in taste, are only on one half of the apple tree, while the other half is resting.
Of course, the miracle tree is surrounded by legends. According to one of them, the apple tree is cursed, according to the other, bending its branches to the ground, it yearns for the deceased Prince Meshchersky, who once planted it himself (the apple tree-colony grows on the territory of the former Meshchersky estate). According to the third, the prince planted an apple tree on the grave of his early deceased, dearly beloved wife, and his longing for her was transferred to the tree. There is no scientific explanation for the phenomenon of the apple-colony yet.
tagPlaceholder Tags: trees
Fruits are found in the myths and legends of most nations. Often it is a symbol of prosperity associated with, abundance and harvest. Sometimes, however, fruits represent earthly pleasures, gluttony (excessive eating and drinking), and temptations. Specific types of fruits have received their symbolic meanings in the myths and legends of different cultures.
There are many myths and legends associated with the apple.
Apples are endowed with a large number of symbolic meanings and mythical associations. In China, the fruits of apple trees represent the world, and apple blossoms are considered a symbol of feminine beauty. In the traditions of other peoples, they can mean wisdom, joy, fertility and youth.
Apples play an important role in several Greek myths. Hera, the queen of the gods, owned a magical apple tree that she received as a wedding gift from Gaia, mother earth. The Hesperides, daughters of Hesperus, took care of the garden in which a wonderful tree grew. Guarded by a terrible dragon. The garden itself was somewhere far to the west. The fruits on the apple trees were golden, honey-tasting and had magical powers. They could heal, restore themselves if they were eaten, and when thrown, they always hit the target and then returned to the thrower's hand.
In the eleventh of 12 labors, Hercules got some golden apples. After a long, arduous journey through North Africa, he enlisted the help of Atlas, who entered the garden, strangled the dragon, and obtained the fruit. Hercules took the apples to Greece, however Athena intervened and returned them to the Hesperides.
A golden apple stolen from Hera's garden sparked the Trojan War, one of the key events in Greek mythology. Eris, the goddess of discord, became angry because she was not invited to the wedding feast of the gods. Arriving uninvited, she threw an apple on the festive table with the inscription "To the most beautiful." Both Athena, and Hera, and Aphrodite were sure that the apple was intended for one of them. They asked Paris, the prince of Troy, to judge them and settle the dispute, and he gave the apple to Aphrodite. In revenge, Hera and Athena supported the Greeks in the war that resulted in the fall of Troy. People still use the phrase "bone of contention" to refer to something that provokes an argument.
In Scandinavian mythology, it is a symbol of eternal youth. Legend has it that the goddess Idun guarded the magical golden apples on which the eternal youth of the gods depended. But after the god of cunning and deception Loki stole Idun along with the fruits, the gods began to grow old. When Loki brought Idun back, the gods became young again. In Celtic mythology, apples are also referred to as the fruit of the gods and immortality.
Today, the apple is often associated with the temptation episode in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, lived in the Garden of Eden called Eden. God forbade them to eat the fruits of one tree that grew in the garden - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When they succumbed to temptation and tasted the fruit, God expelled them from the Garden of Eden for breaking his commandment. Many people imagine that this forbidden fruit was an apple, because it was he who was depicted for centuries in his paintings by European artists. However, the apple was unknown in the Middle East at the time the Bible was written. The biblical description of the tree in the Garden of Eden does not indicate what specific fruit it was, and some traditions hold that the forbidden fruit was a fig, pear, or pomegranate.
Breadfruit
Breadfruit has round fruits that can be baked and eaten instead of bread. It is an important food item in Polynesia. Myths about the origin of the breadfruit can be found on several islands in this region. In Hawaii, they say that this happened during the famine. A man named Ulu, who died of starvation, was buried near the stream. During the night, his family heard the rustling of flowers and falling leaves, and then the distinct sound of falling fruit. In the morning, people found a breadfruit growing next to a stream, and the fruits of this tree saved them from hunger.
Cherry
In ancient China, cherry blossoms were associated with immortality. Cherry can symbolize fertility, fun and celebration. In Japan, where cherry blossoms are a national symbol, cherries represent beauty, courtesy, and modesty. The ancient Chinese believed that it is a symbol of immortality. One Chinese legend tells of the goddess Xi Wang Mu, in whose garden the cherries of immortality ripen once every thousand years. Since the cherry tree is believed to ward off evil spirits, the Chinese put cherry branches on their doors on New Year's Eve and place carvings of the cherry tree in front of their homes.
Coconut
People in tropical regions eat milk and pulp and use its oil and shell for various purposes. According to a legend told in Tahiti, the first coconut tree grew from the head of an eel named Tuna. When the moon goddess Hina fell in love with an eel, her brother, Maui, killed him and told her to bury her head in the ground. However, Hina left her head near the stream and forgot about it. When she remembered Maui's instructions and returned to find the head, she found that a coconut tree had grown from it.
figs
Native to the Mediterranean, the fig tree appears in the description of the Garden of Eden. After eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve made themselves loincloths out of leaves that are commonly believed to be fig leaves. According to Islamic tradition, there were two forbidden trees in Eden - the fig tree and the tree. In the mythology of the ancient Greeks and Romans, the fig is sometimes associated with Dionysus (Bacchus among the Romans), the god of wine and drunkenness, and with Priapus, symbolizing sexual desire.
The fig tree has a sacred meaning for Buddhists. According to Buddhist legend, the founder of the religion, Siddhartha Gautama, or Buddha, attained enlightenment one day in 528 BC while sitting under a Bo tree, a kind of fig tree. Bo, or the Bodhi tree, is still considered a symbol of enlightenment to this day.
Pear
In the mythology of the ancient Greeks and Romans, pears were considered sacred and belonged to three goddesses: Hera (Juno among the Romans), Aphrodite (Venus among the Romans) and Pomona, the Italian goddess of gardens and harvests.
The ancient Chinese believed that the pear is a symbol of immortality (pear trees are real centenarians by the time of their existence.) In Chinese, the word "li" means both a pear and separation. Therefore, according to tradition, in order to avoid separation, lovers and friends should not eat the same pear together.
Plum
The blossoms of the plum tree in East Asia are more important than the fruit. Blooming in early spring even before foliage appears on the trees, the flowers are a symbol of female youth and youth. Sometimes the wedding bed is covered with plum petals. The plum blossom also has another meaning. Its five petals symbolize the five Chinese gods of happiness.
Cornucopia
The cornucopia, often curved with fruits and flowers falling out of it, is a common symbol of the wealth, abundance and bounty of the Earth. The symbol originated in Greek mythology. Legend has it that Zeus, the supreme god, was raised by his adoptive mother, Amalthea, who was a goat-nymph or goat-herding goddess. In any case, she fed goat's milk to the divine baby. One day one of the goat's horns broke. Amalthea filled the horn with fruits and flowers and gave it to Zeus, who kindly placed it in the sky, where the horn became a constellation.
Garnet
The pomegranate was considered a symbol of fertility. For thousands of years, the pomegranate, a juicy red fruit with many seeds, has been a source of food and herbal medicines in the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean. The abundance of seeds has made it a symbol of fertility, since many others can grow from one fruit. Among the Romans, the pomegranate symbolized marriage, and brides decorated themselves with wreaths of pomegranate branches.
Pomegranate seeds appear in the Greek myth of the goddess Demeter, the patroness of agriculture, and her daughter Persephone. One day, Persephone was picking flowers when Hades, the king of the underworld, kidnapped her and took her to the kingdom of darkness to make him his bride. Heartbroken, Demeter became barren and the land ceased to bear fruit. All mankind would have starved if Zeus had not ordered Hades to release Persephone. Hades let her go, but before that he convinced her to eat a few pomegranate seeds. Having once tasted food in the underworld, Persephone could no longer leave this place forever and become free. Therefore, she is forced to live in the underworld for at least a few months a year. At this time, her mother mourns, and the earth becomes barren, does not produce food, but when Persephone returns to her mother, flowers begin to grow again, trees bear fruit, and the earth gives a generous harvest.
Strawberry
Strawberries are of particular importance in Seneca County in the northeastern United States. Since this berry is the first fruit to ripen in the new year, it is associated with spring and the rebirth of everything. It is believed that strawberries grow on the way to Heaven. In addition, these berries can have a positive effect on health.
So, quite a lot of attention is paid to fruits in ancient mythology. This once again eloquently indicates that they play an important role in the life of all mankind.
Chief Power Engineer: duties and job description
How to Write and File an Overpayment Credit Claim Download the Credit Claim Form
Features of investigating a work injury on the way to work, home, and also during a lunch break Work injury during a lunch break
Reservation service (role, functions, characteristics) Requirements for a reservation manager
Products for pregnant women The best products for pregnant women