There are a number of enduring traditions associated with death and burial. Commemorations on 9 and 40 days are among them. This tradition is strictly observed even by people who have nothing to do with religion and do not go into the meaning of the custom.
Commemoration on the ninth day
According to legends, for the first three days the soul is next to the body and still cannot leave it. But on the fourth day, usually after the funeral, she goes on a short trip. From 4 to 9 days after death, the soul of a deceased person visits the homes of his relatives and friends, is near relatives and closest friends. That is why, after 9 days, people who knew the deceased best and valued him most of all, arrange a commemoration in order to say goodbye to the soul, which henceforth leaves them.
According to Christian dogmas, from 3 to 9 days after death, angels show the soul of the deceased the palaces of God, allow him to enter heaven and see the pleasures prepared for those who lived a righteous life. By the ninth day, a person either forgets all the sorrow and pain that he experienced while living in an earthly body, or realizes that he has lived his life incorrectly, and cannot enjoy the beauty of paradise and peace after death. Gathering for a commemoration at this time, the closest friends and relatives of the deceased remember him with kind words, pray for him, ask that his soul go to heaven, and the angels see this.
Why spend the forties
After 9 days, according to some ideas, the soul goes to travel and visits distant relatives, friends, acquaintances, those places that were important for a person during his lifetime. So she travels up to 40 days, trying to do everything, after which she leaves the world. At the forties, i.e. commemoration for the 40th day, everyone comes who wants to say goodbye to the deceased, including those who knew him not too long or not too close. At this time, the soul is seen off forever, they say goodbye to it, and this must be done piously and calmly so that the deceased can go to another, possibly happier world.
According to Christian beliefs, from the 9th to the 40th day, the soul of the deceased remembers and forgives all the sins committed. In addition, it is at this time that the angels lead her through hell to show what happens to the unrepentant. After all this, on the 40th day, the soul appears before the Lord, and then its further fate is determined - to be in heaven or in hell. That is why for Christians the fortieth commemoration is extremely important: on this day, everyone who knew the deceased remembers him, talk about what a good person he was, try to atone for his sins. According to the belief, seeing this and realizing how many people grieve for the deceased, the Lord will have mercy on the soul and will not judge her too harshly, after which he will allow her to enter paradise.
