About three ancient holidays of the end of summer: Honey Spas, Apple Spas and Linen Spas. Apple Spas: an Orthodox holiday with pagan roots

Apple Savior is a well-known harvest festival (nowadays it is better known as a church holiday) and the second in a row saved (the first is honey). It is timed to the harvest of apples and vegetables, and, according to folk signs, means that autumn is already very close. When does the apple holiday start?


The Apple Feast of the Savior is an ancient pagan holiday, but today this holiday is more connected with the church holiday of the Transfiguration of the Lord. According to the agrarian calendar, the picking of apples begins in mid-August, and what date is the apple holiday celebrated? According to the old style, the Slavs celebrated this holiday on August 6, currently the second one is celebrated on August 19.

Apple spas - the history of the holiday


The history of the holiday apple spas goes deep into the past. Even the pagan Slavs sacrificed the first harvests of apples and all kinds of vegetables to the gods, and also performed a special ritual to bless the harvest and give thanks to mother earth. Before the start of the Apple Savior, in ancient times, no one ate apples, since it was believed, according to one version, that apples were not yet beneficial, despite the fact that they were ripe, and according to another, that children who left the temporary world would not get gifts, if one of the parents eats an apple ahead of time.

Rites for Apple Spas


Since our ancestors considered August 19 the day when the line between the other world and our world is blurred, it is not surprising that a large number of all kinds of rituals are performed on this day. The most common rites for apple spas are rites to attract financial well-being, love, a rite of rejuvenation, a rite of purification of the house, and others.

For example, a rite for cleansing a house or a rite for cleansing from negative energy in a house is advised to be carried out in this way. On the holiday of the Apple Savior, you need to take an ordinary apple, cut it into two halves, removing the core from one half. Then you should light a natural wax candle and go around the house (apartment) with it, stopping at each corner, in the window and doorways, making circular movements with the candle three times (always clockwise). The wax that has drained from the candle must be carefully poured into the half in which there is no core, then cover with the other half and firmly fasten the apple with a thread. To finally complete the rite of purification, you should take the apple to the street and bury it away from your home.

The most important traditions of the Apple Savior are the obligatory treats of each other with apples and the preparation of all kinds of apple dishes. Another tradition is the obligatory accompaniment of the sunset with songs.

Signs for apple savior

Signs for apple spas are mainly related to natural forecasts. For example, dry apple saved - there will be a dry autumn, if it is rainy, then autumn will be rainy, a clear apple saved predicts a fierce winter.

Necessarily present in the folk calendar of the Slavs. It is celebrated with great pleasure by both Orthodox and Catholics. Falls on 6 (August 19). The last month of summer is a harbinger of the onset of golden autumn, after which Mother Winter is not far away. August is also the time of active harvesting of the first fruits of the harvest, in the name of which the villagers have been working tirelessly since early spring. So Apple Saved, as a holiday, is closely connected with the first replenishment of the bins. By the way, before the Apple Savior, the Slavs did not eat these fragrant fruits, drunk with the juice of the earth. But it was allowed to pluck them and light them, however, like other fruits grown by the end of the summer.

By name Apple saved many faces

Many call him simply Spas. Others - with the prefix - Great. Third - Second saved. Or - Transformation. Transfiguration. Feast of First Fruits. There is also a Gorokhov day. Osenins. Great rescue. Belarusians have a name almost consonant with ours - Yablochni saved. Great rescue. Syaradni saved. Saved others. The Serbs call him almost, as in one of the cases we, Transfiguration. Bulgarians - Pribrizine, Sotir, Stratir. But with all the different readings, the essence of the Apple Savior is the same - we sincerely wish it, because it replenished and replenishes the empty barns and storages of vegetables and fruits with the fruits of the new harvest, which, if we were lucky with the weather and other conditions for ripening, were enough for the long months of autumn and winter. On this day, by the way, not only apples were illuminated in churches and temples, but also honey, ears of corn and seeds for a new future harvest. And in fact, in Russia, other Slavic countries celebrate three savior. True, at different times, but all in August: Honey saved - on the 14th, Apple, as we already called the date - 6 (19), and nut saved - on August 29.

Popular beliefs associated with Apple Savior

Human life is not eternal. All of us, sooner or later, will go to the Skyward Heights. Or rather, our bodies after death will be buried in the earth, and our souls will fly away from it. It happens, to the great grief of fathers and mothers, that the ruthless Old Woman with a scythe takes with her very small children. On this account, there is a belief that in the next world (if the living parents did not eat fragrant and tasty fruits before the Apple Savior), gifts are given to their deceased children in Heaven, including heavenly apples. But children whose fathers and mothers violated the ban are not given heavenly apples. That is why many parents, whose children have died untimely, consider it a great sin for themselves to eat apples before the Second Savior. On the morning of this holy day, women whose children had died were to take several fruits to the temple of God, illuminate them and take them to the graves of the buried children. If the graveyard with dead children is far from the places where the parents live, or worse, the location of the grave is not known at all (during the Great Patriotic War, the Nazis, not only at home, razed entire cemeteries to the ground, and at that time even a song sounded: " If I die, I die - they will bury me, and no one will know where my grave is! Or leave apples in the church. Many, after lighting apples, now go to churchyards to the graves of relatives, and delight their souls with ruddy or green-pink apples.
There was and still is another custom in the village. Unmarried beautiful girls, impatiently wanting to get married, saved at Apple, broke their fast with apples and, zealously thinking about their betrothed, they said: "What is guessed is planned. What is planned will come true. What will come true will not pass!"
On the day of the Apple Savior, it was customary, which is still being done now, to bake pies with apples, pancakes stuffed with finely chopped fruits, or it was possible with mushrooms and berries - it was not forbidden.

On the same Apple Savior, it was customary (this custom still exists) to see off the sunset in the field. With songs, round dances. And everyone went up the hill. Watching the sunset in awe. As soon as it, crimson, touched the horizon, all conversations stopped in an instant, and those gathered to see the sunset sang together and loudly: "Sun, sun, wait: gentlemen boyars from Veliky Novgorod have come to feast on Spasov Day!". Among the southern and western Slavs, Apple Spas was considered the day from which the harvest of sunny berries - grapes - starts, and after lighting they can already be enjoyed.

Sayings and signs of the holiday Apple Savior

Russians, like most Slavs, are observant. In close friendship with nature, signs were also noticed. In particular, one of them - what the Second saved, such will succeed in January. Or - what is the day on the Second Savior - so will the Veil. Dry Apple Spas - it will definitely be the same in autumn. Wet saved - you won’t dry out for a long time from the rains. Clearly on a favorite holiday - to be a harsh winter. Or they used to say: "Apple has come - the summer has gone from us." But they took care of the new crop. They treated the poor so that more fruit would be born. If the heat set in on the day of the Second Savior, January promised to be a little snowy. If the rain plentifully watered the earth - to a snowy winter-winter.
And there were signs and just amazing in their essence. For example, if a fly sits on your hand, then you are lucky: success awaits. Therefore, it was impossible to drive away even an overly annoying clatter fly: luck would fly away with it!

From the history of Apple Savior

The first mention of the Apple Savior dates back, for example, in Palestine to the fourth century BC, when Empress Elena built the Temple of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. But in the East, the earliest mention of it refers to the fifth century of the same new era. In France and Spain, Apple Spas was first celebrated in the seventh century. Among Christians, Apple Spas is celebrated with the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord - the manifestation of the Divine Majesty of Jesus Christ before his disciples Peter, John and James. During their joint prayer, the face of the Savior suddenly shone with the light of Heaven, and the clothes became whiter than snow. The prophets Moses and Elijah appeared. They talked to Jesus about his exodus, which was destined to be in Jerusalem. Jesus forbade the disciples to talk about what happened during their joint prayer until he was resurrected as foretold. The Savior was born in Bethlehem of Judea in September 12 BC. And he was crucified on March 23, the thirty-first year. So in Russia, the holiday of the Apple Savior has ancient roots. But truly became popular!

biblical forbidden fruit

Of course, every good Orthodox knows well about him. Once the progenitors of the human race Adam and Eve lived happily in Paradise. But a ban was given to them - not to eat the fruits of apples on a tree growing here. The devil appeared to Eve in the form of a tempting serpent. Eve persuaded Adam to taste the forbidden fruit. He resisted the temptation for a long time, but could not resist. Tasted and matured. For which he was expelled from Paradise by the Creator. Together with Eve. So apples after illumination are not only tasty and fragrant fruits, but also an instructive reminder of original sin, because of which humanity still continues to be punished because of the weakness of its forefathers. There is a belief that a modern woman who has tasted an apple before the Apple Savior and its illumination takes upon herself the sin of Eve, which is dangerous and unpredictable. So it’s better to be patient until the Apple Savior, illuminate the fruits, and eat them for your health as much as you want! By the way, women can also find out their future by an apple. By peel. It will start to cut it off. And, if you get one continuous tape, the girl will soon be married. The tape was interrupted from awkwardness - to sit still in the girls! And there are other predictions. Take apples and write the names of the betrothed on them. Take them out to the balcony or garden. In the morning to see what happened to the fruits at night? Birds pecked - it’s better not to mess with a man: he is not capable of a long relationship. If an apple fell from the balcony to the ground - advice to end the relationship: the future will bring only pain and suffering - both to you and your partner. And if the apple has completely disappeared, it’s not your destiny to be married to your betrothed.
Many even now, especially in the villages, follow such folk signs as: "Apple has come - take mittens in reserve!"; "On the Apple Saved and the beggar will eat an apple!; "Before the Second Save, they do not eat any fruit except cucumbers!"

One hundred dishes of apples

In general, apples are a very useful product, especially for health. It is not in vain that the British confidently say: "I ate one apple a day, and no doctor is needed!" And if a couple, then don’t get sick at all! It is also claimed to be beneficial for cancer prevention. Like a clove of garlic every day for dinner. It is recommended that each person consume at least 50 kilograms of apples per year. Of these, forty percent as natural juice. Pour into a glass from your home juicer. Apples contain healthy vitamins - C, E. PP. B-2, etc. What can you cook them for - pies, compotes, kissels, salads with the addition of other vegetables and fruits - and a good hundred dishes, or even more.

Charlotte under the curtain

Even underage people can bake it: the recipe is simple. Here is one from a talented housewife from Barnaul, Svetlana Astafieva. We take a glass of flour. We sift. Add the same amount of sugar. Plus four eggs. A little soda as a baking powder. We select four or five ripe apples. (Svetlana has them from her own country garden). You can add a little vanillin, orange peel, lemon to the dough. Cut the apple into slices, but such that they do not dissolve in the dough during baking. Charlotte can be baked in a pan. The larger it is, the more guests will be treated to yummy. Bake at a temperature of 180 degrees. 40-50 minutes and Charlotte is ready! It can be decorated with a Chinese rose blooming on your window. Or from a bouquet. Lepota! And how fragrant charlotte is fragrant! How you have an appetite for her! Well, and enjoy your dessert at Apple Spas!

Transfiguration (Second Savior, Apple Savior) is the church name for the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ. The holiday was established by the Orthodox Church in honor of the miraculous transfiguration of Jesus Christ on Mount Tabor during prayer with the disciples.

The essence of the Transfiguration is revealed in symbols. The mountain is a secluded place for the creation of prayer, which leads to union with God.

According to the ancient tradition, the people called the Transfiguration of the Lord the Second Savior or the Apple Savior. Because apples and vegetables ripened by this day. The people say the following about the apple Savior:

Second Spas - pick ripe apples.

The Savior has come - it's an hour for everything: the fruits are ripening.

The Spas came - he saved the apple.

Apples will not be born - and the Savior will not be.

Ripened fruits, including apples, were taken to the church for consecration. The custom of offering and lighting fruits in the church has ancient roots. Even pagan priests blessed apple harvests in ancient temples.

At the end of the festive liturgy, the priest also blesses the fruits of the new harvest, reading a prayer over them. After consecration and blessing, it was allowed to eat the fruits. Indeed, before the Second Savior, the people did not eat any fruits, except for cucumbers. Therefore, they said: “The Second Savior breaks his fast with an apple” or “The Savior came - he brought a sore throat (meaning from green apples)”.

Eating fruits before the Apple Savior was considered a sin. Especially those peasants whose children died in infancy. According to the beliefs of the Slavs, it was believed that on the island of Iriy, golden apples grow on silver trees. The fruits are distributed only to those dead children whose parents do not eat apples until the Apple Savior.

The apples illuminated in the church were called "Spasov's". When they broke the fast, the youth made plans for their fate. It was believed that the conceived desire, when you bite off the first piece from the "Spasov" apple, will certainly come true.

The girls, thinking about the suitors, said: “What is guessed is contrived! What is imagined will come true! What will come true will not pass!”

Early sowing of winter rye began from the Second Spas. The peasants said: "Rye sown with a north wind will give birth stronger and larger." The ceremony of sowing the fields was timed to coincide with the feast of the Transfiguration. It consisted in the following: the priest came to the field with icons, sprinkled the plowed land with holy water. One of the elders threw grain on the consecrated places of arable land.

On the eve of the Second Savior, a spell of compressed fields took place, the so-called "spell of the stubble." The rite was performed so that evil spirits would not settle in the stubble and would not harm the livestock on grazing.

At dawn, the peasants went out into the fields, holding clay pots with hemp oil in their hands. The peasants poured it on the ground and turned alternately to the east, west, south and north, saying:

“Mother Cheese-Earth! Take away every unclean reptile from a love spell, turnover and dashing deeds; Mother of Cheese-Earth! Swallow up the impure force into the seething abyss, into the combustible pitch;

Mother of Cheese-Earth! Satisfy all the midday winds with bad weather, calm the loose sands with a blizzard;

Mother of Cheese-Earth! Stop the midnight winds with clouds, contain the frosts with blizzards!

After each turn and plot, the earth was watered with hemp oil. At the last word, the pots rushed to the ground and broke. There was a belief that this spell only works on the Apple Savior and during the year.

Fairs and festivities were timed to the Apple Spas. The girls walked in pairs and sang songs. Young people, in particular girls, gathered in several separate groups called "circles". "Circles" were divided into rich and poor. Wealthy girls were separated from commoners. And the grooms, in turn, chose "circles" in accordance with their position. Wealthy "circles" sang romances, and "poor" - simple songs.

"Circles" usually ended with various games, most often "burners". Men were allowed to take part in them.

The day of the Second Savior ended with the rite of "seeing off the sunset." It was customary to watch the sunset, which was accompanied by farewell songs and dances.

The first meeting of autumn, the so-called first “Osenins”, belonged to the Second Savior. There were the following signs:

From the Savior of the Transfiguration, the weather is changing.

After the Second Savior, the rain is grainy.

What is the Second Savior, such is January.

The cranes are starting to fly.

By the Spas, the hares are going through, and before that they are skinny, and they are children.

On what day is the Middle Savior, on such is the Protection.

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Apple Savior is a holiday of the Orthodox Christian tradition, most likely merges with the more ancient folk holiday of harvesting apples. block saved and the date of this holiday each year fall on the same date. Apple saved in 2015 falls on August 19th. Apple Spas 2015 is the second, average holiday of three August Spas: Honey Savior, Apple Savior, Nut Savior. Apple Savior follows Honey Savior - and therefore often the time from Honey Savior to Apple Savior is called Apple-Honey Savior.

At the Apple Spas, the girls asked for apple trees to endow them with their freshness and beauty. To do this, they led a round dance, and the leaves of the apple tree were woven into wreaths. Hair for density and beauty was combed at sunset with a special comb made of apple wood. In the evening, the whole village people went out into the field and saw off the summer.

According to popular beliefs, Apple Savior means the onset of autumn - the nights after August 19 become much colder. It used to be that before the Apple Savior, it was necessary to refrain from eating apples. And on the Apple Savior itself, they ate apples all day long, prepared many different dishes with apples, blessed all possible apples and harvested apples for the long winter.

Apple Spas has its own signs - it is believed that on this day all apples receive magical properties. And if you eat an apple on this holiday and make a wish, it will soon come true.

From Yablochnogo Savior, they began to eat and harvest apples of the new crop. Until this day, apples do not have the energies of the earth that they can possess. It used to be possible to eat them, but people knew that such apples were still weak, they had little energy.

If you pick apples before the Apple Savior and put them in storage, then their strength will decrease every day, and not be filled. And only an apple plucked from a tree during the Apple Savior holiday or after the holiday has real power.

Apple Spas in Russia was traditionally celebrated widely and nationwide. It was customary to treat as many people as possible with apples: relatives, relatives, friends, and it was also considered a special charitable deed to treat disadvantaged people on this day - the poor, the poor, orphans, the elderly. First, it was necessary to distribute as many apples as possible to all those in need, and then only try the apples and dishes from them yourself.

All kinds of apple dishes were prepared at Apple Savior - it was believed that whoever could cook a large number of dishes with apples would have a rich harvest year. They baked a pie with apples, cooked apple jam, invented all kinds of desserts based on apples - marshmallows, sweets. They brewed apple drinks - cider, compotes, liqueurs.

Apple Savior also popularly has the names Second Savior, Middle Savior, Pea Day, First Autumn, First Fruit Festival, Second Meeting of Autumn. On Apple Savior, not only fresh apples of the new harvest were consecrated, but all the fruits of the new harvest.
According to the weather at Apple Spas, they judged the next January - the same January as Apple Spas. If the weather was dry on Apple Spas, then the autumn is the same, if it rains, then the autumn is wet.

However, the Spasov tradition arose in the times of pagan Russia.

Who was called the ancient Slavs Spas and how he was honored

If you delve into theological Christian literature, you will not find a saint named Spas.

The beginning of August was called the Savior in Russia before the advent of Christianity..

Like the inhabitants of all adjacent agricultural countries, Rusich at that time carried out solemn rituals aimed at saving them from hunger, troubles and misfortunes. Celebrations were dedicated to the God of the harvest, the God of the Sun - Dazhdbog.

Why was he called the Savior? Yes, because the pagan Slavs, according to the Kraledvor manuscript, put the word before the name of their gods Saved, i.e. redeemer. In the Book of Veles there is even a mention of a period in the calendar with the name "Save". Most likely, this period refers to the first decades of August.

From the end of the VI - the beginning of the III millennium BC. in Egypt, Asia Minor, ancient Greece and Rome, there was a tradition to consecrate ripe vegetables, honey, fruits, nuts, mushrooms, berries and cereals, generously donated in summer. Similar rituals were performed around the same period by representatives of the Trypillian culture, our distant ancestors.

Since then, a belief has appeared that these days, as well as other holidays of the Svarog circle, the spirits of dead ancestors came to their descendants. Our ancestors believed that the ancestors of the clan, protecting the clan, contributed to the ripening of a rich harvest. Therefore, these days it was supposed to bring generous sacrifices to the gods of Rod and Rozhanitsa in the form of ripe fruits, honey drinks, bread and burning candles made from new wax.

Even the prayer has survived to this day: “Our Most Holy Fertile Earth, fields, orchards, orchards - the peace of the Sun to you! Righteous Sun, the moon is clear. Dawn light, the most pure Sky, be merciful to people and cattle!

Honey Spas - Makovey

Already in those days, Spasic was carried out in three stages. Wet Spas (Makovey) devoted to Makosha, the Goddess of fertility and the patroness of the beautiful weak half of humanity. By this day, the first bee honey was selected, wax was melted, herbs were harvested, including poppy, wreaths were made from flowers and ears. All this was solemnly consecrated and sacrificed during rituals held near the water.

It was customary these days to treat themselves to bagels and flat cakes stuffed with poppy seeds, kutya cooked on honey with non-husked grain and poppy seeds, and they washed it all down with an intoxicating honey drink, mead.

Unlike Christian traditions that forbade swimming with, it was believed that Makosha makes all the water healing these days, both in the well and in the river. Therefore, these days it was not forbidden to swim, but on the contrary, it was encouraged.

The second stage was Spas on the Mountain (Apple Spas). The Gods of the Savior lived, according to ancient Slavic beliefs, high in the heavens, so the ancient temples were most often arranged on hills, in mountains or at the head of rivers. It was believed that our great gods loved these places. In such places, it was customary to conduct magical rituals, sacrifices, funeral feasts, military brotherhoods.

It was assumed that in order to attract prosperity and well-being to the family, it was necessary during such a brotherhood to make sacrifices of ripe pears and honey apples to fire, water, godfathers, neighbors, wise men. During the meal, they commemorated the deceased relatives, believing that "those souls who were remembered also ate with us." Here, it turns out, what deep roots our funeral traditions have.

Khlebny Spas

Was the third Savior. The hostess had to bake the first loaf by this time and accompany the owner to the field for sowing winter crops.

But it is possible that as various fruits ripened, there were other Savior, during which rites of consecration of mushrooms, berries, nuts were held. It is not for nothing that the sayings that can still be heard when trying the fruits of a new crop are still preserved: “A new novelty in the mouth so that neither the back nor the stomach hurts!”