Religious holidaysPaganism

Each religion has its own festivals. Christians celebrate Christmas and Easter, Muslims celebrate Ramadan, Jews – Passover. All these feasts are well-known in the world, in fact. That’s why, today I want to tell you about holidays of the primal Russian religion – paganism.

We will start with Kolyada. Kolyada is

a pre-Christian Slavic feast,

which is celebrated on December 21. Kolyada is associated with the

winter solstice and new year.

Later it was replaced with

Christmas and Svyatka. There are two versions

how Kolyada got its name. First is that it has

come from the Latin «calendae», which

means «invoke». Other version is that it is called

after the Slavic god Kolyada.

The special attributes of the holiday are gifts and a dressing, using animal skins, masks and horns. On Kolyada people come together to go out and sing traditional songs.

They come to their neighbors to congratulate them and wish all the best.

The other feast we’d like to tell you about is

Maslenitsa, which is famous all over the world as a national

Russian holiday. Maslenitsa is a

mischievous and funny farewell to winter and sp

ring meeting, which means the

recovery of nature and warmth of the sun.

Since olden times, sun is associated with a new life. At first, in honor of

the sun unleavened cakes were

baked, which then had become pancakes.

Maslenitsa lasts a week and each day has the special name:1. Monday is Greeting. On this day people start to bake pancakes.2. Tuesday is Games.

3. Wednesday is Kickshaws, when a son-in-law visits his mother-in-law.4. Thursday, Wide fling, is the most hilarious day in the Maslenitsa week, full of funny games and contests.

5. Friday, Mother-in-law’s Evenings, is the day for son-in-law to invite the mother.6. Saturday is Sister-in-law’s gatherings, when a daughter-in-law hosts the sister and gives her a

present.

7. The last day of the festive week is Forgiving Sunday, when all people make apologize. The celebrations end with the burning of the Maslenitsa jackstraw.

Ivan Kupala’s Day is celebrated in many countries on 22 of June, the day of summer solstice. The name comes from the pagan god Kupala. This festival is famous because of the special rites and rituals, which are observed during the celebration.

The religious practice includes traditional bathing, jumping over the

fire and various divinations. As a result, this feast is connected with

different superstitions, which are very popular with folks.

There are a lot of different feasts, which are celebrated in our country and which are considered to be our national holidays, as they represent our culture. And today I tried to

tell about the most famous and beloved of them.