Rite is one of the most important components of the cultural life of the people

To begin with, let's look at what is common to invest in this concept. Rite is a certain sequence of actions that are established by custom or ritual. As a rule, each rite embodies some kind of everyday traditions or religious beliefs of the people. At the same time there are no restrictions on social groups, in such actions the whole population can participate without exception.

Rite is something that from ancient times important moments of human life were accompanied. For example, those related to the appearance of a baby (baptism, naming by name), a wedding ceremony (matchmaking, traditional bride price-taking, engagement), the beginning of activity in a new sphere (initiation into pioneers, students or workers, oath in the army and so on ), Transition to a new age stage (initiation), as well as death (burial, funeral commemoration, funeral service).

There are also festive rites and traditions. And we will tell about the most interesting of them now.

Pokrov day (October 14)

On this day the young girls woke up at dawn and immediately fled to the church to put on a candle. It was believed that the one who will light the candle before everyone else, the very first will marry. In the XII century, an Arab traveler described an equally interesting custom: if a guy threw a veil over the girl's head, placed a candle in front of the icon of the Intercession of the Virgin and uttered a special prayer, she unquestioningly became his wife.

Christmas and New Year Divination

Since time immemorial, the period of winter festivities was considered by our ancestors to be the best for fortune-telling and attempts to look into the future. For example, if a girl injured or pricked a finger to the blood on New Year's Eve, she could safely expect to marry in the coming year. Also by the New Year was often frozen in a spoonful of water. If the ice turned out to be convex, bubbles were present in it, it spoke of longevity and strong health of the fortune-teller. But the hole in the ice presaged an untimely death. A whole series of fortune-telling on narrowed or narrowed allowed to find out where to look for your happiness, whether it was long to wait for it. Many people also wondered about the weather or the harvest, wanting to know if they would starve in the coming year.

Christmas

There was one interesting Christmas rite. It is customary to make figurines of sheep and cows from wheat dough. Keep these figures to the very Baptism. And after the water consecration in Epiphany, the mistress of the house needed to soften these figures in the holy water, after which feed the livestock to improve the milk yield and the offspring.

Maslenitsa

Everyone knows the cheerful Maslenician Russian rites with the baking of tasty pancakes and the ritual burning of a stuffed winter, it was believed to help the spring to come into its own.

Easter

One of the most important holidays in Christianity was always accompanied by the coloring of eggs in different colors, baking special bread - Easter cake. Girls tried to wash themselves with water from a red egg, in order to maintain a healthy blush and beautiful complexion.

In fact, there are thousands of rituals and traditions, and it is practically impossible to list them in one article. Each rite is a centuries-old story that is transmitted from generation to generation and allows us to approach our ancestors.