How do Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas Eve? Christmas Eve and Christmas Traditions: How to Celebrate Christmas and What to Cook for Christmas (8 Recipes).

The name Christmas Eve comes from the word "sochivo" (wheat grains soaked in juice from seeds). It was customary to treat Sochivom on Christmas Eve after the appearance of the first star. The tradition of fasting "until the first star" is associated with the legend of the appearance of the Star of Bethlehem, announcing the birth of Christ. On Christmas Eve, at the end of the liturgy and at the evening service, a candle is brought to the center of the church, and the priests sing the troparion to the Nativity of Christ in front of it.

How is the church service on Christmas Eve?

The Christmas vigil (evening church service) lasts approximately three hours. Then they serve the liturgy, and after the service comes the celebration of Christmas. People greet each other with the words "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays." If Christmas Eve falls on Saturday or Sunday, then the festive vigil is served on Friday. On Christmas Eve itself, the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is served, and on Christmas Day, in this case, the liturgy of Basil the Great is served.

How do you fast on Christmas Eve?

According to the church charter, the Typicon, fasting is prescribed until the end of Vespers. Those who take communion at the night liturgy, according to church tradition, must refrain from eating for at least six hours before communion. On Christmas Eve it is customary to abstain from food until the appearance of the first star. The custom of fasting "until the first star" is associated with the legend of the appearance of the Star of Bethlehem, announcing the birth of Christ. According to the Gospel of Matthew, the star informed the magi about the birth of the king of the Jews. The star marked the Nativity of Jesus, it is customary to call it the "Star of Christmas" and Bethlehem - in the place of His birth.

Christmas Eve Traditions

According to Russian traditions, on Christmas Eve the whole family fasted, and only with the first star did everyone sit down at the table, on which, among other Lenten dishes, there must be kutya, as well as compote (uzvar) or jelly; in wealthy families, the table was also decorated with curly marmalade. In some regions, there is a tradition of baking animal figurines for the holiday. In the evening, closer to midnight, caroling began with songs and carols.

What is a vertep?

Nativity scene (original meaning - a cave, a hidden place) is a representation of the scene of the Nativity of Christ by means of various arts (sculpture, theater, etc.). In the Russian Empire, especially in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, the "nativity theater" was widespread - a folk puppet theater representing Christmas scenes, sometimes also with the participation of human actors. The main decoration of any (large or small, with sculptures or actors) den is a manger with baby Jesus, and the main characters are the righteous Joseph with a long beard, the Holy Virgin Mary and King Herod. In addition, wise men, angels, shepherds with sheep and various animals (for example, an ox and a donkey, which, according to legend, warmed Jesus with their breath), may be present in the den.

Christmas traditions

• How to decorate a house for Christmas

It is desirable that the apartments have Christmas symbols: the Star of Bethlehem, an angel and a nativity scene. In the form of a star, you can make Christmas tree decorations, and angels are easier than ever to cut out of paper and paste over with sparkles and decorate with ribbons. It's more difficult with a crib. In the old days, families made caves from different materials, in which they placed figures of the Holy Family and animals, and at the entrance - shepherds and wise men. Today you can use a simplified version. The basket is covered with spruce branches, and the icon of the Nativity is placed inside it.

• Spend Christmas with loved ones

Exactly at midnight from January 6 to 7, solemn services will begin in all Orthodox churches. And it is customary to spend the whole day of January 7 with loved ones, to present gifts to them. Mercy is considered a Christmas tradition. You can visit a sick person, treat a neighbor of respectable age or children from a large family.

• Give Meaningful Christmas Gifts

Thinking about what to give for Christmas ... Remember, Christmas is a holiday that reminds you of the most important thing in a person's life: God, faith, love. Gifts that are presented to loved ones are usually chosen with a spiritual meaning. It can be, for example, a book that will help a person find answers to important life questions. However, any gift can be supplemented by investing in it a good teaching from a spiritual book. In addition, smartly decorated sweets will be a good gift for Christmas. And the kids are toys.

• Christmas table

Christmas dishes are unusual and difficult to prepare. When deciding what to cook for Christmas, take note of the dishes that our ancestors prepared. Here are some traditional food and drink recipes to prepare for Christmas. After preparing these dishes, you will receive a Russian-style Christmas menu.

What to cook for Christmas

In Rus', salads were practically not prepared, pickles were served for a snack in winter: mushrooms with onions, sauerkraut, pickled apples ... And, of course, various pies - with fish, meat, mushrooms.

Pie Rybnik for Christmas

1 pack of yeast dough
500 g fish fillet
2 tbsp butter
Salt pepper

How to make a fish pie for Christmas:
1. Defrost and roll out the dough (you can also use homemade yeast dough, then it will take about half a kilo).
2. Cut the layer in half. Put the whole fish on one half.
3. Salt, pepper, cover with a second layer, pinch the edges and bake in the oven.
4. Fish Christmas Pie is delicious both hot and cold.

Sochen with millet porridge for Christmas

2 cups of flour
1 glass of milk
Salt
2 tbsp butter
Filling:
1 glass of millet
2 glasses of water
2 glasses of milk
2 tbsp butter
Sugar, salt

How to cook Sochen for Christmas:
1. Mix the ingredients for the dough, knead it.
2. Divide the dough into balls and roll out each thin cake. To make the cake even, you can cut the edges with a knife.
3. Fry the cakes in a dry frying pan.
4. Cook millet porridge. First you need to boil in water, and then add milk. Put butter, salt and sugar into the porridge. You can darken the porridge a little in the oven.
5. Melt the butter, grease the finished cakes with it, put the filling on them and fold in half.

Christmas goose with sauerkraut

1 small goose
800 g cabbage
4 bulbs
0.5 st. l. cumin
salt
oil

How to cook a goose for Christmas:
1. Wash the goose, rub it inside and out with salt and cumin.
2. Stew sauerkraut with oil and onions in a saucepan, covered.
3. Stuff the goose with this cabbage and fry on a baking sheet, pouring a little broth on it and pouring it over the goose. Then goose fat will be melted - you will water it. For more recipes for cooking goose in the oven, see the link.

Roast elk or wild boar

1.5 kg of elk or wild boar meat
150 g pork fat
2 cups sour cream
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1.5 cups of vinegar
1 liter of water
2 large onions
3 bay leaves
8-10 peppercorns, salt to taste

How to cook elk and wild boar roast for Christmas:
1. Bring water to a boil with seasonings, remove from heat and add vinegar.
2. Wash the meat, remove the veins, cut into large cubes and put in the marinade. Leave for 2-3 days.
3. Remove the meat from the marinade, dry it, stuff it with bacon, salt and sprinkle with flour.
4. Heat up the oil, fry the meat in it until crusty. Transfer to a bowl or serving bowls.
5. Pour a glass of water into the pan, let it boil and pour over the meat. Add sour cream and a spoonful of flour there.
6. Add chopped onion to the meat, close the lid and simmer over low heat or in the oven until tender.

Pork belly stuffed with cabbage and apples

In the old days, porridge was served with pork legs, but we suggest making brisket with cabbage and apples for buckwheat porridge. It will turn out very juicy.

800 g pork
400 g cabbage
5 apples
1 st. l. butter
1 bulb
Salt and pepper

How to cook pork belly for Christmas:
1. Chop fresh cabbage, salt, squeeze. Add sour, finely chopped apples, oil to the cabbage, mix.
2. Wash the pork belly, chop the bones in several places, cut a large hole between the bones and meat with a knife.
3. Put the prepared minced meat there, sew it up, place it on a frying pan or baking sheet, sprinkle with finely chopped onions, add 3 tablespoons of water and fry in an oven heated to 200 C until cooked.

Kozyuli (curly gingerbread)

1 kg rye flour
1 glass of honey
2 cups sugar
2 glasses of water
100 g butter
Cinnamon and cloves on the tip of a spoon

How to cook goats for Christmas:
1. Mix honey, sugar and water. Boil them until dark brown and thick syrup.
2. Cool slightly, add butter, spices and flour. Mix and refrigerate for a couple of hours.
3. You can roll the dough into bundles and make figures out of them, or you can roll out the dough thickly and cut out the figures according to a stencil or molds.
4. Bake in a hot oven for 10-12 minutes.

Soufflé, custard in Russian

500 g of any berries
½ glass of water
2 cups sugar
5 proteins

How to make soufflé for Christmas:
1. Make a puree from the berries, add water and boil.
2. Add sugar (about the same amount as mashed potatoes).
3. Beat the whites in a steep foam. Add to puree.
4. Put the puree in baking dishes, put in a not very hot oven for 30 minutes.
5. Serve as desired, you can decorate with whole berries and mint leaves.

Sbiten

To prepare sbitnya you will need:

5 liters of water
250 g honey
700 g jam
1 tsp spices (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom)

How to cook sbiten for Christmas:

1. Boil water, add honey, jam to it and cook for 10 minutes. Mix.
2. Add spices and cook for another 10 minutes.
3. Serve sbiten hot.

Divination for Christmas and Christmas time

Christmas is one of the brightest and most solemn holidays in Christianity. It is believed that it should be celebrated with family, relatives and friends. In addition to the feast, fortune telling is usually done on this holiday. This is a very interesting activity in which even children can take part.

The two weeks of winter holidays coincide with Christmas, which begins on January 6 and ends on January 19, when the Orthodox world celebrates Epiphany. The ancestors were sure that Christmas time is the best time to find out the future. On any of these days, fortune-telling is considered the most faithful, prophetic.

Here are examples of the most interesting fortune-telling for children that diversify Christmas evenings. In addition, many fortune-telling is also useful for children - they develop imagination, as well as the ability to count and read.

• Christmas divination with rice grains

Fill a bowl with rice. Ask yourself a question or make a wish and dip your palm into the dish. Count how many grains of rice will stick to the palm of your hand. An even number is a negative answer, an odd number is a positive one.

• Christmas divination with tangerines

For this fortune-telling, you will need as many tangerines as people want to know the future. Each child makes a wish or asks a question that can only be answered with yes or no. After that, everyone peels their fruit and counts the number of slices. If there is an even number of them, then the desire will come true, an odd number indicates that the wish will come true after some time.

• Christmas divination according to the Holy Book

For this fortune-telling, you need to take a book and, without opening it, think out loud the page number and the line above or below. Then you should open the page and read the text on the hidden line - it is the Christmas prophecy. If the line bears little resemblance to a mystical prediction, parents will have to figure out what it really means. After all, the baby should not be upset.

• Christmas divination with a walnut shell

Prepare a wide bowl and pour water into it. On the edges of the bowl, attach the words written on pieces of paper: “luck”, “happiness”, “wealth”, “unexpected acquaintance”, “journey”, “life changes”, “pleasant surprise”, “win”. Walnut shells, according to the number of participants, are launched into the voyage. To distinguish between shells, you can put multi-colored cake candles in them. After all the shells are on the water, the participants carefully begin to blow on them, trying not to knock them over. Overturned shells are eliminated from divination. Which inscription the boat will stick to - that will happen to the child in the coming year.

• Christmas divination for the future on ice

You need to pour water into a bowl or saucer and put it in the frost on Christmas night. When morning comes, carefully study the ice with your child: if it rears up, the coming year will be good, if it froze evenly, the year will be calm, if it went in waves, there will be both happiness and little trouble.

• Fortune telling with wax on a brownie

This divination is suitable for the little ones. First you need to show the children the pictures that depict the brownie, tell about his character. Tell us about the traditions: the brownie was coaxed by putting food out for him at night, and when moving to another dwelling, they lured him into an old shoe to take him with him, because this creature has long been considered the protector of the house.

For divination, you need to take a small saucer, pour milk or water into it and place it near the threshold. Then, a candle should be melted in a metal bowl, while saying: “Brownie, dear master, come quickly, drink milk, talk about fate.” Melted wax must be poured into cold milk, and then determine which figure turned out. Each figurine can be assigned some hidden meaning: stars - for interesting events and holidays, a cross - for sadness, a flower - for joy, an animal - for the appearance of a new friend, lines - for travel. Wax grapes mean good luck and happiness in the coming year, a mushroom prophesies health and longevity, a dragon - the fulfillment of desires and the achievement of all goals. The silhouette of the month predicts profit, the bell - good news, the leaf warns of envious people and ill-wishers.

Remember that during Christmas and Christmas fortune-telling, together with children, in all predictions you need to look for only a positive meaning.

On this day before Christmas, the eve or eve of the holiday, Orthodox Christians prepare for the great day.

Christmas Eve ends the 40-day Christmas (Filippov) fast. On this day, the main preparations for Christmas are made.

Other names of the holiday: Holy Evening, Sochevnik, Eve of the Nativity of Christ, Kolyada, Christmas Eve.

The eve of the holiday is colloquially called Christmas Eve, or Sochevnik. This name comes from a special dish made from wheat, nuts and honey - sochiva.

The tradition of eating this dish on the eve of Christmas was born in memory of Daniel and the three youths, who, according to the Gospel, "ate from the seeds of the earth, so as not to be defiled by a pagan meal."

History of Christmas Eve

In the Orthodox Church, the celebration of the eve of the Nativity of Christ was established in the 4th century. In the V-VIII centuries, sacred hymns were written, which are used for Christmas services. At that time, the Royal Hours were performed in the temples. It was customary to proclaim many years to the tsar, his house, and all Orthodox Christians.

The name of the holiday comes from the word "sochivo", or "juicy". Both of these dishes were prepared on Christmas Eve. Sochivo was soaked grains of wheat or barley, to which the juice of poppy seeds, sunflower, hemp, mustard, and nuts was added. Sochni - bread cakes in which holes were made for the eyes and used for divination. Through the mask looked at the street. It was believed that if a good person passes, then the year will be successful, and if a bad one, vice versa.

What is the Christmas Eve before Christmas?

Where did the name of this holiday come from? It turns out that from the word "sochivo" - this is a dish that was prepared specially on this day to treat all households. To do this, the hostess soaked scalded grains of cereals (wheat, barley, lentils, rice) in seed juice (poppy, almond or nut). The dish turned out lean. Oil was not put into it. Only the addition of a spoonful of honey was allowed to make the meal more nutritious. Sometimes it was replaced with kutya.

People used Sochivo on this day in imitation of the biblical prophet Daniel.

This parable refers to the Old Testament times. The pagan Julian the Apostate, wanting to show off the believing fasting people, ordered all the food in the market to be sprinkled with the blood of animals sacrificed to idols. Then the prophet Daniel ordered his youth-novices to eat soaked grains and dried fruits. So the believers were able to avoid taking a defiled pagan meal.

Traditions and rituals for Christmas Eve

The main traditions on January 6: 12 Lenten dishes are prepared, the main of which is kutya; go to visit with treats; guess; use a charm ("didukh").

On Christmas Eve, Orthodox Christians attend church services: an all-night vigil and liturgy.

From the very morning, the hostesses carry out a thorough cleaning, throw away the rubbish, after which they start preparing a festive dinner. Traditionally, 12 Lenten dishes are served at the table.

In some houses, it is customary to pay special attention to the decoration of the Christmas table. The hostesses cover it with a new tablecloth, under which they put a bundle of hay - a symbol of a manger. Banknotes and garlic cloves are placed at the corners of the table, which symbolize the health and well-being of family members. An ax is placed under the table, on which those seated put their feet in order to have good health and spirit. Arrangements of candles and spruce branches are placed in the center.

The meal begins with a prayer in which they glorify Christ, ask for well-being and happiness for all those present. First of all, they taste kutya, after which they proceed to the rest of the dishes.

On Christmas Eve in the villages, young people gather in large groups, paint their faces, put on fancy costumes, go from house to house and sing carols. An important attribute of such an action is the Star of Bethlehem, which is made of colored paper and ribbons, and an icon is placed in the center. In ritual songs, it is customary to glorify Jesus Christ, the family of the owner of the house. Caroling guests are presented with sweets, pastries and money.

On Christmas Eve, you should ask for forgiveness from the people you offended, forgive all your enemies.

Signs and sayings for Christmas Eve

If on Christmas Eve the sky is abundantly strewn with stars, then this year a rich harvest should be expected.

On the eve of the Nativity of Christ, it is customary to light candles in the house or kindle a fireplace in order to attract prosperity and good luck to the house.

You can’t wear old dark-colored clothes for a festive dinner, otherwise the year will pass in tears and difficulties.

An even number of people should be present at the ceremonial table. If it is odd, then the housewives put one extra set of appliances.

On Christmas Eve, you need to go outside and look at the sky. If you see a shooting star and make a wish, it will surely come true.

If a snowstorm broke out before Christmas Eve, the bees will swarm well.

On a holiday, a wax candle was placed on a table with a white tablecloth and lit with the words: “Burn, candle, righteous sun, shine on the souls in paradise and on us, the living, warm the mother earth, our cattle, our fields.” If the light burns merrily, it means that the year will be prosperous and fruitful, if it blinks and trembles, you will have to tighten your belts.

On a holiday, frost on trees - to good bread.

What to eat on Christmas Eve

January 6 is the strictest day of the 40-day Advent fast. Believers are only allowed to drink water. A meal can be taken after the first star rises in the sky, after which it is allowed to eat sochivo - wheat grains boiled in honey or boiled rice with raisins. In folk tradition, it is customary to serve other fasting dishes for dinner.

What Not to Do on Christmas Eve

It is forbidden to work on Christmas Eve evening.

On this holiday, you can not quarrel and sort things out.

It is not allowed to eat before the appearance of the first star in the sky.

On this day, you can not be greedy.

Festive dinner

According to folk custom, the housewives put 12 Lenten dishes on the table, which personify the 12 apostles. The main dish is kutya (sochivo). It is boiled from whole grains of rice or wheat, with the addition of poppy seeds, honey, walnuts, dried apricots, prunes, raisins. Also on the table are baked fish, vegetable salads and stews, mushroom soup, lean borscht, donuts, pies, dumplings, cabbage rolls with mushrooms, pickles. For dessert, they eat rolls with poppy seeds and nuts, honey cakes, gingerbread, berry and fruit jelly, apples baked with honey and nuts.

The traditional Christmas drink is dried fruits and honey. The combination of kutya and uzvar on the tables is a symbol of eternal life, the birth and death of Jesus. On Christmas Eve, no alcohol is consumed at dinner.

How to make juicy?

Our great-grandmothers knew what to cook for Christmas Eve. These ancient recipes for preparing Christmas dishes are not forgotten. And today, any housewife, if desired, will be able to cook juicy.

Here is the recipe for this dish:

1 faceted glass of wheat grains.

100 g poppy.

100 g of walnut kernels.

1 or 2 tablespoons of liquid honey.

a little sugar.

Place wheat grains in a wooden mortar and grind with a pestle until the shell of the grains comes off. In this case, you need to add a little warm boiled water to the mass. Then the husk is removed by washing the grains. Wheat is poured with water, put on fire and boiled until tender. It turns out crumbly porridge. In a wooden mortar, poppy seeds are ground in the same way until poppy milk appears. Add it to the porridge, put honey, sugar there and mix thoroughly. At the end, crushed walnut kernels are put into the mass. Sochivo is ready.

Festive worship in the church

On the eve of the Nativity and Theophany, a service is performed, consisting of the Great (Royal) Hours with the reading of the Gospel, a brief follow-up of the "Illustrative", during which the clergy on the pulpit read entrance prayers and put on vestments, and great vespers with the reading of proverbs in conjunction with the Liturgy of Basil the Great, On Epiphany Christmas Eve, at the end of the Liturgy, after the prayer beyond the ambo, the Great Blessing of the Water is performed.

If Christmas Eve (both Christmas Eve and Epiphany) falls on Saturday or Sunday, then the service of the Royal Hours with the Pictorial and Great Vespers is transferred to Friday, and in this case the liturgy is not attached to them (that is, on Friday the liturgy is not performed in principle), on Christmas Eve itself, in this case, the liturgy of John Chrysostom is served (water blessing on Epiphany Christmas Eve is still performed), and on the holiday itself (Christmas or Epiphany), in this case, the liturgy of Basil the Great is performed

According to the site "Yaropolch"

The evening before Christmas is called Christmas Eve. How to celebrate Christmas Eve? Let's see what church traditions say about this. Unlike the New Year, Christmas is considered an exclusively family holiday, so it is customary to spend it with your loved ones, though without closing the door for guests.

Traditions to celebrate Christmas Eve

Actually the name of this evening comes from the name of a special dish - sochivo, which is usually consumed before Christmas. It is prepared on Christmas Eve from soaked or boiled grains of barley or wheat. Sochivo can be seasoned with honey and nuts added to it.

By the way, sochivo is not only such a dish, but also any lean food or juice of various oilseeds - for example, sunflower or poppy or walnut.

It is customary to eat Sochivo not only on Christmas Eve, but also at commemorations or christenings, only in these cases the compositions of this dish differ. Its second name is kutya. Sochivo before Christmas should be lenten. But on the second day, juicy can be prepared already by seasoning it with milk or butter.

How to Celebrate Christmas Eve If You've Been Fasting. On the evening before Christmas, church traditions prescribe strict fasting until the Christmas evening services begin. Traditions also prescribe not to sit down at the table until the first evening star rises in the sky. True, this happens quite early - around 6 pm.

Celebrating Christmas

Prepare for the Christmas meal. The table must be covered with a layer of straw and covered with a new white tablecloth. Only fasting dishes are put on the table, in the amount of 12 pieces, and one extra appliance is put up - after all, under the guise of a guest, the Lord himself may appear in you.

Therefore, special attention is being paid to not closing the door to anyone this evening, even to the last beggar. All those gathered must be dressed in a festive way, and a Christmas candle must be lit on the table.

Thinking about how to celebrate Christmas Eve, think over the festive menu and table decoration. The table can also be decorated with a composition of fir branches and balls, and, of course, you need to dress up the Christmas tree.

Down under the Christmas tree, it is customary to put gifts for each of the family members. When they sit down at the table, it was customary to read a special Christmas prayer and congratulate everyone on the holiday. This duty rests with the owner of the house.

The meal itself begins with kutia, then appetizers are served. The Christmas meal also includes borscht or fish or mushroom soup. Sweet dishes are served for dessert. These can be lean pies with poppy seeds, gingerbread with honey and compote or jelly. Alcohol is not served at the table on Christmas Eve. No meat dishes are served either. The hostess should not leave the table, so hot food is also not served.

What you need to know about Christmas Eve

Speaking about how to celebrate Christmas Eve, one cannot fail to mention such an important moment of this evening as the distribution of prepared gifts. This is usually done right after a meal. If you have children, then one of the adults can dress up as Santa Claus and bring gifts immersed in a large bag. Gifts are usually unwrapped and viewed right at the table. The whole evening should be filled with love and joy.

What do you need to know?

You should start preparing for it in advance, so that you do not have to do everything at the last moment. The atmosphere of the Christmas evening should be made not only festive, but also magical, since Christmas, Christmas, and not the New Year, is a symbol of the fulfillment of the brightest desires.

Of course, you should start with cleaning and decorating the apartment. One of the Christmas traditions is not just to clean and decorate the apartment, but also to bring something new to the interior. It can be new curtains or a new tablecloth that you will lay on the table or just one or more interior items.

Think about whether you would like to play out scenes from the biblical story about the birth of Christ with your family, especially children, this evening. You don't even need special costumes for this - you can drape in plain white sheets.

Festive table

And, of course, speaking about how to celebrate Christmas Eve, one should not forget about how to set and decorate the table. Since Christmas Eve - Christmas Eve is the last evening of the Advent Lent, then if you want to keep the traditions to the end, you should make sure that there are twelve Lenten dishes on the table, the main of which is sochivo - a special dish made from boiled or well-soaked wheat grains.

Actually, the name itself came from the name of this dish - Christmas Eve. Sochivo can be seasoned with honey and sprinkled with nuts. It is customary to lay straw under the tablecloth this evening, remembering that the great sacrament of birth took place in a manger for straw. In addition to food, it is imperative to put a lit Christmas candle on the table, which is also a symbol of Christmas.

But meat dishes and the whole roasted goose, traditional for Christmas, are served on the table only the next day, when Christmas has already come into its own.

And, of course, if you want to fully feel the spirit of this bright holiday, you can go after dinner to the church, where Christmas services begin shortly before midnight.

Until now, there is no stable tradition in Russia regarding how to spend Christmas Eve. Of course, we are not talking now about religious and church-going people - they just know this. But since they are a minority in our country, although about 70% call themselves Orthodox, in the vast majority Christmas is understood as another pleasant addition to the New Year holidays. Meanwhile, this is not true.

Helpful Hints

We should not forget that Christmas is more of a religious event than a secular one, and therefore noise and wild fun on Christmas Eve are unacceptable. Of course, we do not urge you to sing psalms, but you need to understand that it is more correct to spend this evening gathering at the festive table with your close family circle, and not to arrange something like Halloween.

If you have children, before celebrating Christmas Eve, be sure to tell them the history of this holiday, what it is connected with and how it is customary to celebrate it in other countries. You can buy in the store or make your own figures of Christmas characters, which are definitely not Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden.

Play out the story of the birth of Christ and light a Christmas star over the tree. Explain to the children what it means and where the custom of giving Christmas presents came from.

If possible, take a book with reproductions by various artists and carefully consider how the story of the birth of Christ is depicted on the canvases of the great masters. You can use the Internet for this purpose. Here you can also get all the necessary information, which until now was not known to you. Thus, you will not only introduce children to the biblical story, but will also be able to introduce them to the world of high art.

How to decorate a table

Decorating a festive Christmas table also has some rules that you need to know before celebrating Christmas Eve. Firstly, it is customary to put some straw under the tablecloth. Secondly, there should be 12 festive dishes on the table. Depending on whether you are fasting or not, they may or may not be fasting.

If you are fasting, then the so-called kutya becomes the main dish - a special porridge cooked from whole wheat and seasoned with honey. You can also add some nuts to the kutya. It is customary to sit down at the table only when the first star rises in the sky.

If fasting is not your habit, you can also put meat on the table. One of the symbols of this holiday is a goose, whole baked in the oven. (Those who adhere to the Advent fast usually serve the goose not on Christmas Eve, but on January 7th.) And, of course, give prepared gifts to your loved ones.

Christmas Eve: Customs

On January 6, Russia celebrates Christmas Eve - the eve of the Nativity of Christ. In church tradition, the eve of the Nativity of Christ, or Christmas Eve, is called the last day of Advent, the day preceding the feast of the Nativity of Christ.

According to church tradition, Christmas Eve is otherwise called the eve of this great holiday. And the word "Christmas Eve" comes from the name of a dish of boiled wheat, or rice, with honey - "sochi". It was customary to treat Sochivom on Christmas Eve after the appearance of the first star. The tradition of fasting "until the first star" is associated with the legend of the appearance of the Star of Bethlehem, announcing the birth of Christ.

On Christmas Eve, the church ascribed a strict fast until the evening service, and on this day it is the first meal that ends the Advent fast.

What dishes are prepared

It is customary to break the fast with sychiv or kutya. This is also done in remembrance of the ancient custom, when those preparing for baptism, intending to perform it on the Nativity of Christ, prepared for the sacrament by fasting, and after baptism they ate honey - a symbol of the sweetness of spiritual gifts. On Christmas Eve, the Orthodox would cook kutya, and the Catholics would cook bigilia. Christmas kutya was cooked lean. But on the second day of Christmas they prepared "babina porridge", or "grandmother's kutya". In ancient times, such porridge was usually brought among the gifts to the house where the newborn appeared. In contrast to the Christmas Lenten kutia, "babkin's porridge" was cooked "rich".

According to Russian customs, on Christmas Eve the whole family fasted, and only with the first star did everyone sit down at the table, on which, among other Lenten dishes, there must be kutia, as well as compote (uzvar) or jelly; in wealthy families, the table was also decorated with curly marmalade.

In some regions, there is a tradition of baking animal figurines for the holiday. In the evening, closer to midnight, caroling began with songs and carols.

The order of eating was regulated by strict rules: first snacks (herring, fish, salads) were served, then red (slightly warmed) borscht, mushroom or fish soup. For borscht, mushroom soup, ears or pies with mushrooms were served, and for Orthodox succhi - flour cakes fried in hemp oil.

At the end of the meal, sweet dishes were served on the table: roll with poppy seeds, gingerbread, honey cakes, cranberry jelly, dried fruit compote, apples, nuts.

The meal was non-alcoholic. All dishes were lean, fried and seasoned with vegetable oil, without a meat base, without milk and sour cream. Hot dishes were not served so that the hostess was constantly at the table.

Christmas Eve: signs of what not to do

Since ancient times, our ancestors very strictly adhered to folk signs for Christmas. After all, it was on this holiday that they could determine the course of events for the coming year.

Clear weather at Christmas - a good harvest will be in summer and autumn.

If the sky is starry, there will be an offspring of livestock, as well as a good harvest of mushrooms and berries.

A snowstorm on Christmas Day - you should expect a good harvest of wheat. In addition, a blizzard is a good sign for the beekeeper, because it portends a good swarming of bees.

But if the holiday turned out to be warm, expect a cold spring.

Thaw at Christmas - to a poor harvest of vegetables.

It snows in flakes or frost lies - to a good harvest of bread.

Our ancestors argued that it is a sin to work and do household chores on Christmas Day. After all, this is how you can catch up with evil spirits in the house.

Sewing was considered a particularly bad omen at Christmas. Our ancestors claimed that the one who sews on this big holiday invites blindness to someone from his family.

There is also a sign that many people trust to this day - how you spend Christmas, such a year will be.

It is very important that there is a rich table of 12 Lenten dishes on Holy Evening - then there will be prosperity in the house all year round.

You can’t quarrel with your relatives - then you will live the whole year in disagreement.

Traditionally, in the middle of winter there are two big holidays - New Year and Christmas. And if everything is more or less clear with the New Year, then far from everyone knows how to celebrate Christmas, because church traditions in our country were broken and this holiday was forgotten for a long time. There is one more nuance - not everyone understands why in other countries Christmas is celebrated on December 25, while in Russia it is celebrated on January 7.

How Christmas is celebrated - the history of the holiday

Indeed, the entire Christian community celebrates Christmas on December 25th. Historians believe that this is due to the fact that during the time of Ancient Rome, the pagan holiday of Saturnalia fell on this day and the Catholic Church, in order to distract people from paganism, turned this date into a Christian holiday.

In Russia, too, before the revolution, the celebration of Christmas fell on this date, but with the introduction of the Western European Gregorian calendar in 1918, the dates shifted.

It must be said that many believers continue to celebrate Christmas on December 25, which is certainly more logical, because otherwise the celebration of the New Year and, accordingly, a plentiful festive feast fall into the middle of a strict Advent fast.

We hope that this paradox will somehow be resolved in the future, but for now, the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church continues to celebrate Christmas according to the Julian calendar and this day falls on January 7th.

How to celebrate Christmas - rules and secrets

According to Orthodox traditions, 40 days before the Nativity of Christ, a strict Philippov fast begins. Christmas Eve - Christmas Eve - is also customarily celebrated with lenten dishes, the main of which is kutya or sochivo. It is made from wheat grains, which can be soaked in water (more stringent) or boiled and seasoned with honey.

You can’t start a meal until the first star appears in the sky - these are the rules for celebrating Christmas. On the table there should be only lean dishes - vegetables, mushrooms, cereal dishes, etc. One of the wonderful Russian traditions is not to close the doors for guests on Christmas Eve, although it is still not customary to visit guests on this evening.

After dinner, believers go to the church, where Christmas services begin. They begin with the Royal Hours, followed by an all-night service. At the end of the service, Christmas is considered to have come, and fasting is over.

After the family returns from church, they can start a festive meal with meat dishes. Russian tradition is to serve roast goose on the 7th. On this day, it is also customary to visit friends and give them gifts.

Choosing gifts

A separate topic is gifts. It is customary not to put them under the Christmas tree, but to place them in special stockings that are hung on the Christmas tree. Try it - the kids will love it.

Since it is customary to observe a particularly strict fast on Christmas Eve, as a rule, nothing is eaten on this day until the first evening star. Thank God, it gets dark early at this time, so the star appears already around 4-5 pm.

The traditional and main dish until Christmas time is sochivo. In order to cook it, you need to take a sufficient amount of wheat grains, pour it with water and put it in the oven. When the porridge is cooked, raisins, nuts and soaked dried apricots are put into it, and then honey is diluted with warm water, brought to a boil and poured into the porridge. All other dishes can be arbitrary, only an indispensable condition is that they are lean. Christmas pudding or Christmas goose are only served the next day.

After dinner, if you wish, you can go to church to celebrate Christmas.

How to celebrate Catholic Christmas

Russia is an amazing country where you can celebrate not only the New Year, but also Christmas twice. Therefore, it will be very useful for you to learn how to celebrate Catholic Christmas and then your holidays will begin right from the end of December. Indeed, Catholics begin to prepare for the celebration of Christmas already on December 20, and Christmas itself is celebrated on the 25th.

Well, if you are not a devout Catholic, then you do not have to go to church all five days, but you still need to make sure that you have Christmas gifts in advance. Moreover, during this period, Christmas and New Year sales begin.

How to celebrate Catholic Christmas?

The best way to do this is to go on a Christmas vacation to one of the countries of Western Europe or to the Baltics. Everything there is filled with the aroma of the upcoming holiday, and you can fully immerse yourself in the unique atmosphere of Catholic Christmas.

If you do not have the opportunity to do this, then you may well celebrate Catholic Christmas at home, while observing some rules.

It must be said that, like the Orthodox, Catholics also have a tradition of the Advent fast and it begins 4 weeks before Christmas. December 24 is Christmas Eve, which is the last evening of Lent.

By this time, you need to festively decorate your house and fill it with the attributes of the upcoming holiday. And, of course, you need to decorate the Christmas tree with candles and a Christmas star. The front door should be decorated with a Christmas wreath, hang coniferous twigs and dried berries, such as mountain ash, on the walls.

How to celebrate Christmas and what to cook for the festive table

The New Year holidays have died down, and after abundant festive libations, I want to unload the body a little and return to the usual light salads. But it was not there - on the threshold of one of the most beloved and beautiful holidays - Christmas, and therefore, it's time to sit down at the table again. How to set the table for Christmas and how to celebrate Christmas? Yes, there are certain traditions in this respect too.

Getting ready to celebrate

Of course, if you keep the Advent fast, then Christmas Eve dinner will be its happy ending, when you can finally eat a hearty meal. But not at once. Christmas Eve, when it is customary to begin the meeting of this great holiday, is still a continuation of the fast.

And if you follow Orthodox traditions and strictly observe all church restrictions, then the table at the beginning of the celebration should be exclusively lenten. But let's talk about everything in order.

First of all, before celebrating Christmas, you need to properly decorate the table. On Christmas Eve, there is a tradition to lay a layer of straw on the table under the tablecloth. This is due to the fact that, according to the Gospel, the great event of the birth of the Savior took place in the manger, where they put the fodder for the sheep. Straw is laid in memory of this. In the corners, in order to protect the table from evil spirits, it is customary to put a few cloves of garlic. And only after that the table is closed with an elegant festive tablecloth.

What to cook?

There must be at least 12 dishes on the table. In fact, there should be 13 of them, since this marks Christ with his apostle disciples. But since the number 13 is often considered unlucky, we can limit ourselves to 12 - according to the number of apostles. Before the first evening star, all dishes on the table must be lenten.

It can be lean borscht, vegetable dishes, salted mushrooms. Sauerkraut, etc. But the central decoration of the table is kutya - porridge cooked from wheat with the addition of fruits, nuts and honey. Everyone must certainly eat a certain amount of this porridge - then until next Christmas peace and prosperity will await you.

Before you celebrate Christmas, be sure to put another device on the table for someone who might accidentally come to visit you that evening. It is considered a very good omen if it turns out to be a young black-haired man.

But women should not visit guests on Christmas, so as not to bring misfortune to the house where they appear. Remember that Christmas Eve is the end of the fast, so meat dishes and the traditional Christmas roast goose can only be served on the table on the 7th, when the festive feast continues.

The story about how to celebrate Christmas and how to set the table for Christmas would be incomplete if we did not mention that a lit candle occupies a central place on the table, in memory of the Star of Bethlehem, which led the Magi to the born baby. And, of course, just as the Magi brought their gifts to Christ, so the whole family at the table must necessarily exchange gifts - even if they are small and symbolic, but such is the Christmas tradition.