Many people know that parental Saturdays exist, but do we fully understand the meaning of what happens on this day and what we should do on this day?
Parents' Saturday is associated with the memory of their own kind, of their distant ancestors, and not only of the parents who have gone to another world.
After all, we received from a kind everything that we are rich in: intelligence, appearance, character, abilities, faith, love. Part of the blood of those who once loved, worked, fought, took care of their descendants and continued their family flows in our veins. And only thanks to them we were born.
Now parental Saturdays are associated with Orthodox holidays, and this is not bad. No matter how people feel about religion, the main thing is that they remember their ancestors these days.
Parental Saturday 2018
The next parental Saturday in 2018 will be November 3 - it is called "Dmitrievskaya", in honor of the martyr Dmitry Solunsky.
In general, Orthodox dates are so intertwined with Slavic ones that it is impossible to separate one from the other. Rather, Slavic holidays became the basis for the Orthodox - so that people did not turn away from religion and from their Russian Gods, Orthodox priests were allowed to celebrate pagan dates, and then they were simply called church dates.
However, for those who honor ancestors, this is not important. The meaning is important - that on this day you need to remember with gratitude those “who gave birth to you” and who gave you the strength to live. And in what place you do it - in church or at home, it does not matter for the souls of the ancestors. If we remember them, our prayer, our thought will reach them, and their souls will respond with gratitude.
For modern people, an inconvenience is the fact that parental Saturdays are constantly "walking" on the calendar, that is, they do not have constant numbers. There is only one day of remembrance of the dead, which does not change - May 9, Victory Day.
Therefore, you have to constantly check with the church calendar and see when the next date is.
What to do on parental Saturday?
Parents' Saturday November 3, as they write on Orthodox sites, is the time of seeing off autumn and meeting winter. Our ancestors were firmly tied to the land, to planting and harvesting, and they could not miss these works. And therefore, the change of seasons was very important for them.
On this day, it is good to remember our ancestors, to thank them for everything they have done for us, to put refreshments on the table and remember them with food, only without alcohol. Heavy vapors of alcohol weigh down the souls of ancestors, do not allow them to rise up, and they really need this.
On this day, you cannot scold your ancestors. Although, according to the Russian proverb “about a dead man, it's either good, or nothing,” ancestors should never be scolded, but especially on this day. There is a belief that on this day their souls descend to us, the living, and hear everything that we say about them. And if they hear bad words, they leave and never return.
This means that we lose touch with them and thereby lose the support of our large clan. Remaining rootless is scary for any person, it means a difficult fate. It may even happen that the clan is interrupted: there will be no continuation for it, because there is no support, energizing of the members of the clan, ancestors.
Therefore, it is so important to remember and thank all members of your kind, even if you do not know them and have never seen them.
Better yet, draw your family tree to constantly remember that you are not by yourself, but you are the heir / heir to your relatives. Those who lived before you and, in fact, for you. For this we thank our family, which gave us life and strength.
