The holiday of the bright Resurrection of Christ, otherwise called the Lord's Easter, is the brightest and most joyful day for an Orthodox Christian. It is no coincidence that this great celebration occupies a central place in the church calendar. In the event of the resurrection of Christ, man's faith in eternal life is concentrated.
Orthodox Christians especially triumph and rejoice on the day of the Lord's Passover. Orthodox believers attend the night service, and then go home with a joyful greeting: "Christ is Risen." In addition, there is an opinion among the people that on Easter it is imperative to visit the cemeteries and visit the deceased loved ones. The Orthodox Church does not bless a person to visit the burial places of the dead on the very day of Easter.
Despite the fact that remembering the dead and caring for the burial places of the deceased is an important duty of a Christian, Easter cannot be considered a time to visit cemeteries. Easter is, first of all, the joy of the future life, the salvation of man, the triumph of life over death. The days of Holy Easter are not the time of commemoration of the deceased, and there are no such prayers during the whole Easter week. Therefore, from the point of view of the Church, visiting cemeteries on Easter does not correspond to the meaning of the celebrated event.
However, the Church does not leave the dead without prayer on these holy days. So, for the commemoration of the dead during the Easter period there is the day of Radonitsa, celebrated on the Tuesday of the second week after the resurrection of Christ (the ninth day after Easter). It is on Radonitsa that visits to burial places and the performance of prayer and cleaning of the territory there are blessed.
The origins of such a popular misconception about the need to go to cemeteries on Easter is the Soviet period of power in our state. When many churches were closed, and believers were forbidden to attend services, the cemetery was the place where they could quietly pray. That is why on Easter, on this holy day, grandparents went there so as not to be left without prayer on this great holiday.
Currently, this practice is no longer relevant, because no one forbids Orthodox people to come to churches. Therefore, now it is worth paying attention to the primordial Russian traditions reflected in the charter of the Orthodox Church.
