What is the date of the myrrh-bearing wife? Feast of the Myrrh-Bearing Women: history, traditions and scenario of the Orthodox holiday

From this article you will learn:

The popular Orthodox Day of the Myrrh-Bearing Women has become an alternative to the secular International Day of March 8, which as such is not recognized by the church.

More and more families began to congratulate their beloved wives, mothers, sisters and daughters on this bright Orthodox holiday. And if you haven’t heard anything about him yet, this information will be very useful for you: after all, very soon, on April 30, on the fifteenth day after Easter, the Day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women, beloved and revered in Orthodoxy, will be celebrated.

Day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women: history of the holiday

Who are the myrrh-bearing women, and why are they so revered by the Russian Orthodox Church? The history of this holiday relates directly to the events that took place at the Holy Sepulcher at the time of his Resurrection. And the events there unfolded very touchingly and touchingly.

On Sunday the women came to the Tomb in which Jesus Christ, crucified on Friday, rested. They came then to anoint his body with incense, in particular with myrrh. Hence the name: myrrh-bearers, that is, they brought with them myrrh for the Son of God. Among these women was the famous Mary Magdalene.

Walking to the burial place, the women discussed who would help them roll away the huge stone that was blocking the path to the cave where the body of Jesus Christ rested. Suddenly an earthquake occurred, and, as if their doubts and worries were heard, the stone itself rolled away from the entrance to the cave. Mary Magdalene was the first to go there and discovered that the body of Christ was not in the tomb.

An angel appeared to the women and told them that Christ had risen and was waiting for them in Galilee. But Magdalena thought that the body had been stolen for desecration, and began to cry bitterly. To console her, the resurrected Christ himself appeared to her in the form of an ordinary gardener. Thus, the myrrh-bearing women announced to the whole world about the Holy Resurrection of Christ.

Since then, the Day of the Myrrh-Bearing Women has been a temporary holiday, celebrated on the 15th day, on the third Sunday after Easter.
Here are the closest dates of this touching holiday in its history:
in 2012 - April 29;
in 2013 - May 19;
in 2014 - May 11;
in 2015 - April 26;;
in 2016 - May 16;

The Myrrh-Bearing Women are sacredly revered by the Orthodox; there is a special icon with their image, and there are churches named in their honor.

Traditions and customs of the Day of the Myrrh-Bearing Women

The Day of the Myrrh-Bearing Women was especially revered in Rus'. In those days when no one had even heard of the holiday of March 8, it was on this day that it was customary to congratulate all women in memory of the fact that it was they who announced the news of the Resurrection of Christ to the whole world. In addition, there were all kinds of rituals and traditions.

Visit to the temple

Every woman on this day tried to go to Sunday service in church, and, if possible, to confess and receive communion. After the service, all the women gathered for a common prayer service, and paid the priest for this demand exclusively in eggs.

Eggs - a festive dish for the Day of the Myrrh-Bearing Women

Even the day before, women went around all the yards and collected eggs. The ritual food on this day was ordinary scrambled eggs. Moreover, they prepared a common dish on a fire outside the village.

Ritual festivities

All the women gathered outside the village, somewhere in the open. They made a fire, fried eggs, sang songs, and danced in circles. Men were not allowed to attend this celebration.

This is how our ancestors celebrated the Day of Myrrh-Bearing Women. Much water has passed under the bridge, but traditions are gradually returning.

Feast of the Myrrh-Bearing Women today

What is the Feast of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women today? Not everyone is yet accustomed to this Orthodox Women's Day, especially since it is transitory. And yet, women believers strive to attend the service this Sunday. Father usually talks about this holiday in his sermon and ends the sermon with congratulations to all the women in the church.

Women are not allowed to work on this day, as they are held in high esteem on this day. It must be said that Orthodox women are not spoiled by attention and admiration. The role of women in Orthodoxy is modest and invisible. And the more festive and brighter this day is for them.

Be sure to cook scrambled eggs on this day and treat all your girlfriends to it.

This holiday, the Day of Myrrh-Bearing Women, is celebrated on April 30. It’s up to you to decide how you spend it: sleep until lunch or still look into the temple, light a candle in memory of those holy women who many years ago came to anoint the body of the Lord with myrrh...

Orthodox Women's Day,

In the third week (in the church calendar Sunday is called a week) after Easter, our Church glorifies the feat of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women: Mary Magdalene, Mary of Cleopas, Salome, Joanna, Martha and Mary, Susanna and others.

The myrrh-bearing women, about whom we know so little: one of them was saved by Christ from eternal destruction, from demonic possession; others followed Him: the mother of James and John and others, listening, accepting His teaching, becoming new people, learning Christ’s only commandment about love, but about the kind of love that they did not know in their past, righteous or sinful, life. And they, too, were not afraid to stand at a distance - while Christ was dying on the cross and there was no one from His disciples except John. They were not afraid to come to anoint the body of Jesus, rejected by people, betrayed by His own, condemned by strangers, a criminal.

These are the same women who witnessed the death of the Savior on the cross, who saw how the sun darkened, the earth shook, stones crumbled, and many righteous people rose from the dead when Jesus Christ was crucified and died on the cross. These are the same women in whose houses the Divine Teacher visited because of their love for Him, who followed Him to Golgotha and did not leave the cross, despite the malice of the scribes and elders of the Jews, and the atrocities of the soldiers. These are the same women who, loving Christ with pure, holy love, decided to go in the dark to the Holy Sepulcher, by the grace of God overcoming the horror that made the apostles run away in fear, hide behind closed doors, and forget about their discipleship duty.

Weak, fearful women, by the miracle of faith, grow before our eyes into evangelist wives, giving us an image of courageous and selfless service to God. It was to these women that the Lord first appeared, and then to Peter and the other disciples. Before anyone else, before any man in the world, they learned about the Resurrection. And having learned, they became the first and powerful preachers, began to serve Him in a new, higher - apostolic calling, and carried the news of the Resurrection of Christ. Well, aren’t SUCH women worthy of our memory, admiration and imitation?

Why do all the evangelists pay so much attention to the coming of the myrrh-bearers to the Holy Sepulcher, and two of them add a story about how Mary Magdalene was chosen to be the first to see the Risen One? After all, Christ did not choose these women and did not call them to follow Him, like the apostles and 70 disciples? They themselves followed Him as their Savior and Son of God, despite His visible poverty, simplicity and the obvious hostility of the high priests towards Him.

It’s hard to imagine what these women must have experienced, standing at the Cross of the Savior and seeing all the shame, horror and, finally, the death of their beloved Teacher! When the Son of God gave up the ghost, they hurried home to prepare spices and ointment, while Mary Magdalene and Mary of Joseph watched where Jesus' body was laid in the tomb. They left only after complete darkness had fallen, so that before dawn they would come to the tomb again.

“And behold, more disciples - apostles! - remained at a loss, Peter himself bitterly mourned his renunciation, but the women were already hurrying to the Teacher’s tomb. Isn’t fidelity the highest Christian virtue? When the word “Christians” was not yet used, they were called “faithful.” Liturgy of the Faithful. One of the famous ascetic fathers told his monks that in the last times there will be saints, and their glory will surpass the glory of all those who came before, because then there will be no miracles and signs, but they will remain faithful. How many feats of fidelity have been accomplished by good Christian women over the centuries of the history of the Church!” – writes historian Vladimir Makhnach.

Sin came into the world with woman. She was the first to be tempted and tempted her husband to fall away from the will of God. But the Savior was born from the Virgin. He had a Mother. To the remark of the iconoclast Tsar Theophilos: “A lot of evil has come into the world from women,” nun Cassia, the future creator of the canon of Great Saturday “By the Wave of the Sea,” answered weightily: “Through a woman, the highest good came.”

The path of the myrrh-bearers was neither mysterious nor complicated, but quite simple and understandable to each of us. These women, so different in life, served and helped their beloved Teacher in everything, took care of His needs, made His way of the cross easier, and sympathized with all His trials and torments. We remember how Mary, sitting at the feet of the Savior, listened with all her being to His teaching about eternal life. And another Mary - Magdalene, anointing the Teacher’s feet with precious myrrh and wiping them with her long, wonderful hair, and how she cried on the way to Calvary, and then ran at dawn of the day of resurrection to the tomb of the tortured Jesus. And all of them, frightened by the disappearance of Christ from the tomb, sobbing in inexpressible despair and amazed by the appearance of the Crucified One on the way, when they hurried to inform the apostles about what had happened.

Hieromartyr Seraphim (Chichagov) drew the attention of Soviet women: “They are all the more dear to us and close to our hearts because they were the same simple people as we are, with all human weaknesses and shortcomings, but out of boundless love for Christ they were completely reborn and changed morally, they achieved righteousness and justified on themselves every word of the teaching of the Son of God. With this rebirth, the holy myrrh-bearing women irrefutably proved to all the followers of Christ that the same saving rebirth is not only possible for them, but also obligatory, provided they are sincere, and that it is accomplished by the grace-filled power of the Gospel reproof, admonition, strengthening, inspiration or encouragement to spiritual deeds , and ascetics acquire the Kingdom of God, which is truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

They achieved sincerity through their love for Christ and through perfect repentance they were delivered and healed from passions. And they will forever serve the entire Christian world as an example of strong and living love, Christian women’s care for people, and a model of repentance!

For many centuries we have had an Orthodox folk women's holiday, kind, bright, associated with the most important event in human history, the Resurrection of Christ - the week of the holy myrrh-bearing women. Authentic International Women's Day. It is very important to revive it, because the calendar is the most precious asset of our culture. “Through the calendar, cult influences culture, determines our life, the life of our country. From the order of worship, from liturgical texts - to folk customs, to raising children, to the moral health of society. And we, undoubtedly, should preserve everything that remains of our calendar, and gradually restore what is lost, stolen, distorted... Our state, of course, is secular, but the country is Orthodox. And the state exists to serve society, the nation,” writes historian Vladimir Makhnach.

In the meantime, let's congratulate all good Orthodox women on the Day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women. And celebrate. And rejoice. This year, the 3rd week of Easter (that is, the third Sunday) falls on April 30.

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It so happened that many Christian Orthodox holidays were superimposed on more ancient pagan ones. This was done so that the people would better and faster get used to the new religion and adapt to the changing requirements and living conditions. An example of such celebrations is the story of the myrrh-bearing women.

Celebration date

The Feast of the Myrrh-Bearing Women is a special event in Christianity. It does not have a specific date - it depends on what date Easter falls on in a particular year. The celebration is celebrated on the third post-Easter Sunday, on the 15th day after Easter Day. If Easter is early, then the feast of the Myrrh-Bearing Women falls at the end of March or the first half of April. At a later date, the Church celebrates it at the end of April or May. Not only Sunday itself is considered a holiday, but also the entire week after it. Among believers these days, it is customary to congratulate mothers, sisters, grandmothers, aunts, daughters, and spouses. After all, the holiday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women is considered in Christianity to be a celebration of women.

Two Marys

The names of those in whom the Orthodox Church honors the female half of humanity have reached us. These are two Marys - one is the well-known Magdalene, a former sinner who repented of her debauchery and accepted the commandments of Christ as the main and necessary for life. The second is Kleopova. According to various sources, she was either the sister of the mother of Christ, or the wife of the brother of St. Joseph the Betrothed, the husband of the mother of Jesus. Third biblical texts speak of her as the parent of the relatives of the Son of God - Jacob, Josiah, Simon, Judah. The Feast of the Myrrh-Bearing Women is also celebrated in memory of John, a faithful disciple of Christ. She walked with other listeners of Him through Galilee and secretly buried her head when Herod killed him.

Mother of the Apostles and Sisters of Lazarus

Salome also deserved the high honor of church memory. She is the mother of the disciples and apostles of Jesus, James and John. Christ appeared to her first after Magdalene at his resurrection. Various Gospels also mention the sisters Martha and Mary, originally from Bethany - the Savior honored them with his presence and sermons. But they believed in Him after their brother Lazarus was resurrected by Christ. And, of course, Susanna, about whom the Evangelist Luke speaks, she served the Son of God “from her possessions.” Thanks to these personalities, pious and righteous Christian women have been receiving congratulations on the feast of the Myrrh-Bearing Women for a long time to this day.

About the event

Many who do not know the history of the holiday may wonder: why are the wives called myrrh-bearers? How to understand this expression? We find the answers in the Bible, in the New Testament. These are residents of the places where Jesus walked and preached. They welcomed Christ into their homes with joy and hospitality, accepted Him as their personal savior, served Him and followed Him. When Jesus was crucified, these women witnessed His suffering on Calvary. And the morning after the execution, when the bodies of the crucified were removed from the crosses and buried, they came to the tomb of Jesus to anoint His body with myrrh, as required by Jewish customs. Hence the name of the celebration. Congratulations on the feast of the myrrh-bearing women are also associated with the joyful news of the resurrection of Christ, which these women brought to other people. After all, it was to them that Jesus appeared after death on the cross. They were the first to learn the truth about the salvation and immortality of the soul from a meek angel, who pointed them to an open, empty crypt.

Spiritual and moral connections

Myrrh-bearing women were especially revered in Rus'. This is due to the element of piety in Russian culture and spirituality. Morality and morality, strict norms and requirements of Orthodoxy have become part of the flesh and blood of the people, especially their female part. Simple peasant women, high-ranking noblewomen, representatives of the merchant and bourgeois class tried to lead a righteous and honest life, in the fear of God. Good deeds, donations to the needy, distribution of alms to the poor and merciful deeds for the suffering - all this was done by them with a special elation and desire to please the Lord. What is also characteristic of Russian Orthodoxy is an extremely chaste attitude towards the sacrament of marriage. Fidelity to a given word, an oath before the altar (that is, to those covenants that Christ bequeathed) in the old days was a distinctive feature of a Russian woman. These ideals still live among the people today. The myrrh-bearing women were distinguished by meekness, humility, patience, and forgiveness. That's why they became role models. And the Russian land gave Christianity many saints and righteous women, blessed ones and martyrs, who did good for the glory of Christ. Mother Matrona, Ksenia of Petersburg, Fevronia of Murom, Abbess Catherine and many others are revered by the people as intercessors, helpers, comforters, healers, true followers of the work of Christ.

Orthodox International Women's Day

It is not for nothing that the Myrrh-Bearing Women is considered international. It is joyfully celebrated in many countries around the world. And this is not surprising. After all, a woman gives birth to a new life, brings ideas of goodness and love into the world, is the keeper of the hearth, and a support for her husband and children. Essentially, who are the myrrh-bearing women? Ordinary mothers, sisters, spouses, only living according to the commandments of God. The most striking and significant personification of the sacrificial feminine principle, love and forgiveness is, undoubtedly, the Mother of God. But other holy righteous women also deserved universal respect and glorification. That is why the fair half of humanity has two special events. This is March 8th and the Feast of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women.

Ancient Slavic roots

As already mentioned, many Christian significant dates were combined in religious practice and popular consciousness with earlier rites and rituals of paganism. Priests do not always agree with this statement, but ethnographic research proves the validity of such guesses. This applies to Christmas time, Ivano-Kupala night gatherings and many other magical days. This happened with the Feast of the Myrrh-Bearing Women. Among the Slavs, it coincided with the end of youth festivities on Radunitsa. Often, it was on the third post-Easter Sunday that in many areas of what is now Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, the rite of initiation, or cumulus, was performed.

Indian festivities

The action was associated with ancient divination and then new Christian symbols. For the ceremony, a “Trinity tree” was chosen - a young birch tree in a forest clearing or a large maple branch, which was brought into the hut. The tree was decorated with ribbons and wreaths of wild flowers. Bundles with colored eggs and/or crosses were hung in the wreaths. Women and girls gathered around the birch tree and “celebrated”: they kissed each other crosswise and exchanged crosses and dyes through wreaths. Rings and monistas, earrings and beads, scarves and ribbons were given as gifts. This was the essence of the holiday: for the women of the village or village to become more friendly. In addition, round dances were performed around the birch tree, songs were sung and refreshments were always offered. Unmarried girls wondered about their “heart friend,” and married girls wondered about their future lives. The main dish was scrambled eggs, which were called "woman's eggs". In general, when the feast of the Myrrh-Bearing Woman came, they also said about it: “womanish.”

Other names of the holiday and its connection with Christianity

This day has many names among the people. The main definition in them pointed specifically to the feminine principle. They called it: “Woman’s Yayishna”, “Woman’s Bratchina”, “Woman’s Week”, “Kumitny” or “Curling” Sunday (from the “curling” of birch trees - intertwining its branches in the form of an arch and braiding braids). What’s interesting: practically no Russian province had a single regulation for holding celebrations. In Pskov or Smolensk, Kostroma and Nizhny Novgorod, as well as in others, “Indian Sunday”, or the holiday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women, was celebrated in their own way. The scenario is different everywhere. The only thing that united them was that the day before the women went from house to house, collecting bread, pastries, eggs, and other products for a common feast. On the holiday, unmarried girls and their older relatives first went to church to celebrate mass. Afterwards they ordered a general prayer service for the entire female part of the village. They paid for it not with money, but with eggs, which was also part of the ritual of Myrrh-Bearing Week. And already in the evening the festivities themselves began: with dances and songs and other attributes of the holiday. And then the feast followed. In the regions where flax was grown, for a rich harvest, scrambled eggs were often eaten under a special spell.

Funeral motives

Among the days of Myrrh-Bearing Week, time was always set aside for remembering the dead. For these purposes, a common magpie was served in each parish - secular, according to the deceased members of the church. On Myrrh-Bearing Sunday, cemeteries were visited in many localities and paints were left on the graves. In this tradition, echoes of pagan cults, in particular the cult of ancestors, are also clearly heard. The deification of nature, the change of seasons, as well as the onset of the agricultural season also played a role in the emergence of the holiday.

“Myrrh-bearing” days today

Orthodox is celebrated today in all Christian parishes in Russia and beyond. In Sunday schools at churches, teachers and children prepare a concert for mothers, grandmothers, and sisters. In songs, poems, and staged scenes based on scenes from the Holy Scriptures, they glorify not only biblical heroines and saints, but simply all women - continuers of the human race, the embodiment of peace, goodness, and love. If there are workshops at Sunday schools, then mentors and students prepare small gifts for guests. These are, as a rule, frames and shelves for icons, wooden eggs painted or with burnt patterns, bags for prosphora and other beautiful and useful items, as well as thematic drawings and appliqués. Organized with soul, such holidays leave a deep imprint on the heart and have enormous educational and moral significance.

Temple Celebrations

Solemn services are held in all Orthodox churches and cathedrals on these days. Pilgrims come from everywhere to places of faith to feel their community with the entire Church of Christ. Lay people attend services no less zealously than Orthodox believers. Within the walls of the houses of God, in the pious examples of clergy, in the wisdom of the Holy Scriptures, they seek and find support that helps them survive in our difficult times and gives hope for the future. After the Divine Liturgies, the pastors address the parishioners with a special Word - a heartfelt sermon in which they congratulate all women on a bright, joyful holiday.

The Church treats with respect and veneration not only the feat of the biblical women. The holy fathers pay special attention in their Word to the famous and little-known, modest workers of the Faith. To everyone who works in the spiritual field, the Christian field, performing daily, sometimes unnoticed feats for the glory of God, words of gratitude are addressed, wishes for the grace of the Lord, health and peace - in souls, in families, between people. In their sermons, pastors emphasize that without women’s participation, without the support of women, their painstaking work for the good of the Church, Christianity would not have become so widespread. In Russia, for example, in the era of godlessness, it was women who remained the stronghold of faith and unbending courage. Therefore, although they are called the weaker sex, their mission in Orthodoxy is significant. Parishioners should always remember this and remain the personification of spiritual purity, chastity, and bearers of eternal Orthodox moral values. Women must fight for peace, and the example of the myrrh-bearing women inspires them on this thorny path.

What date is Orthodox Women's Day (Day of the Myrrh-Bearing Women) celebrated? You will learn about this if you read this article on the “Orthodoxy and World” portal.

In the third week (in the church calendar, Sunday is called a week) after Easter, our Church glorifies the feat of: Mary Magdalene, Mary of Cleopas, Salome, Joanna, Martha and Mary, Susanna and others.

Imagine what these women must have experienced, standing at the Cross of the Savior and seeing all the shame, horror and, finally, the death of their beloved Teacher?! When the Son of God gave up the ghost, they hurried home to prepare spices and ointment, while Mary Magdalene and Mary of Joseph watched where Jesus' body was laid in the tomb. They left only after complete darkness had fallen, so that before dawn they would come to the tomb again.

For many centuries we have had an Orthodox folk women's holiday, kind, bright, associated with the most important event in human history, the Resurrection of Christ - the week of the holy myrrh-bearing women. Authentic International Women's Day. It is very important to revive it, because the calendar is the most precious asset of our culture. “Through the calendar, the cult influences culture, determines our life, the life of our country,” writes Vladimir Makhnach. - From the order of worship, from liturgical texts - to folk customs, to raising children, to the moral health of society. And we, undoubtedly, should preserve everything that remains of our calendar, and gradually restore what is lost, stolen, distorted... Our state, of course, is secular, but the country is Orthodox. And the state exists to serve society, the nation.”

In the meantime, let's congratulate all good Orthodox women on the Day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women. And celebrate. And rejoice.

SUNDAY OF THE MYRRH-BEARING WOMEN. Sermon by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
2nd Sunday after Easter
May 15, 1974

It is not convictions or even deep conviction that can overcome the fear of death and shame, but only love can make a person faithful to the end, without limit, without looking back. Today we celebrate solemnly and reverently the memory of Saints Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea and the Myrrh-Bearing Women.

Joseph and Nicodemus were secret disciples of Christ. While Christ preached to the crowds of people and was the object of hatred and increasing vindictiveness of His opponents, they timidly went to Him at night, when no one could notice their arrival. But, when suddenly Christ was taken, when He was captured and brought to death, crucified and killed, these two people, who during His life were timid disciples who did not decide their fate, suddenly, out of devotion, out of gratitude, out of love for Him , in amazement before Him, they turned out to be stronger than His closest disciples. They forgot fear and opened up to everyone when others were hiding. Joseph of Arimathea came to ask for the body of Jesus, Nicodemus came, who only dared to visit Him at night, and together with Joseph they buried their Teacher, whom they never abandoned again.

And the myrrh-bearing women, about whom we know so little: one of them was saved by Christ from eternal destruction, from demonic possession; others followed Him: the mother of James and John and others, listening, accepting His teaching, becoming new people, learning Christ’s only commandment about love, but about the kind of love that they did not know in their past, righteous or sinful, life. And they, too, were not afraid to stand at a distance - while Christ was dying on the cross and there was no one from His disciples except John. They were not afraid to come to anoint the body of Jesus, rejected by people, betrayed by His own, a criminal condemned by strangers.

Later, two disciples, when the news of the resurrection of Christ reached them, quickly hurried to the tomb; one was John, who stood at the cross, the one who became the Apostle and preacher of Divine love and whom Jesus loved; and Peter, who denied three times, about whom the myrrh-bearing women were told to “tell My disciples and Peter” - because others hid from fear, and Peter three times in front of everyone denied his Teacher and could no longer consider himself a disciple: And to him bring news of forgiveness...

And when this news reached him, how he rushed to the empty tomb to make sure that the Lord had risen and that everything was still possible, that it was not too late to repent, that it was not too late to return to Him, that it was not too late to become His faithful disciple again. And indeed, later, when he met Christ by the Sea of Tiberias, Christ did not ask about his betrayal, but only about whether he still loved Him...

Love turned out to be stronger than fear and death, stronger than threats, stronger than horror of any danger, and where reason and conviction did not save the disciples from fear, love overcame everything... So throughout the entire history of the world, both pagan and Christian, love wins. The Old Testament tells us that love, like death, is strong: it is the only thing that can fight death - and win.

And therefore, when we test our conscience in relation to Christ, in relation to our Church, in relation to those closest or most distant, to our homeland, we will ask ourselves the question not about our convictions, but about our love. And whoever has a heart so loving, so faithful and unshakable in love, as was in the timid Joseph, in the hidden disciple Nicodemus, in the quiet myrrh-bearing women, in the traitor Peter, in young John - whoever has such a heart will resist torture , against fear, against threats, he will remain faithful to his God, and his Church, and to his neighbors, and those far away, and to everyone.

Men philosophize more
And they doubt with Thomas.
And the Myrrh-Bearers are silent,
Sprinkling the feet of Christ with tears.
The men are frightened by the soldiers,
Hiding from rage,
And Wives are bold with fragrances
As soon as it’s light they hurry to the coffin.”

A.A. Solodovnikov

For any Orthodox Christian, Easter is perhaps the most important religious holiday of the year. The explanation for this is simple: on the indicated day - and each time it falls differently, but it certainly happens in the spring - the Son of God rose from the dead, whom the atheists crucified on the cross, handing over to humiliation and torture.

It is noteworthy that another Orthodox celebration is closely connected with Easter, dedicated not to the Creator, but to ordinary people, moreover, women who have shown themselves to be fearless and devoted to Jesus. In 2019, this date falls on May 12. Who the myrrh-bearing women were and why a separate holiday is dedicated to them, read in this article.

Historical reference

As we know from the Bible, the body of Jesus, who gave up the ghost as a result of the suffering he endured, was anointed with fragrant oils, and this was done by two pious men: Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. They performed this ritual immediately before the burial. When Christ was already lying in the tomb, several women decided to go to the cave that served as his tomb for the time being. The goal of the Christian women was similar to that pursued by the representatives of the stronger sex mentioned above: to anoint the Teacher’s body with fragrant oils. This was the ritual among the Jews, and it was carried out according to tradition on the first day after the Sabbath. The women did not change their customs and set off on Sunday. Now it should be clear why they were called myrrh-bearing women.

On the way, the Christian women discussed an important question at that time: “who will roll away the stone from the tomb.” But they did not need to choose a volunteer from among their ranks, since the Lord God himself took care of everything before the arrival of the myrrh-bearing women. An Angel descended to earth, as a result an earthquake occurred, and the entrance to the cave was completely free. When the pious women reached the final destination of their journey, they became witnesses to what happened. They also saw an Angel who told them that Christ had risen and was waiting for his disciples in Galilee.

This is what it says in the Gospel of Matthew. But according to the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene was the first to come to the Holy Sepulcher. The woman wept bitterly, because she believed that the Teacher’s body had been stolen by insidious atheist Jews. But then Jesus Christ himself appeared to the mourner and announced that he had risen and asked that all his disciples be informed about what had happened, adding: do not touch Me until I have ascended to the Father. Mary Magdalene, overjoyed, hastened to fulfill the command of the Teacher and met another Mary on the way. At this moment, both women saw Jesus, who repeated his request. However, having heard the good news, the apostles did not believe the Christian women. However, that's another story...

Church tradition covers the events of that day differently: if you believe this information source, then it was the Mother of God who saw Christ risen from the dead first, and not Mary Magdalene. One way or another, those church ministers who established the celebration of the day of remembrance of the Myrrh-Bearing Women apparently adhered to the truth of the third scenario.

Both church tradition and the Gospel in any case preserved the names of pious women. This:

Equal to the Apostles Mary Magdalene;
Saint Joan - wife of Chuza, Herod's steward;
righteous Mary and Martha - sisters of Lazarus;
Mary - mother of James the Lesser and Josiah;
Susanna, Solomiya;
Saint Mary of Cleopas and others.

It is interesting that Mary Magdalene is mentioned in all church sources of information about the myrrh-bearing women. The Bible says that Jesus cast out seven demons from this woman during his earthly life.

Joanna, the wife of King Herod's steward named Chuza, followed Christ when he preached and served Him faithfully.

Martha and Mary were the righteous sisters of Lazarus. These two women believed in Christ before Jesus raised their brother, but after the persecution of the Jerusalem church and the expulsion of Lazarus from Jerusalem.

Maria Kleopova was the daughter of the righteous Joseph the Betrothed and was his child from his first marriage. She was in the prime of her early youth when the Virgin Mary became Joseph's wife.

It must be said that the entire third week after Easter is named after the righteous women who went to the Holy Sepulcher in order to anoint his body with oils. That’s what it’s called: The Week of Myrrh-Bearing Women.

Orthodox and folk traditions

The Day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women today is considered by many believers to be an analogue of International Women's Day - the well-known March 8th. On the Day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women in churches, as a rule, parishioners are given flowers, and at home Christians congratulate their relatives, acquaintances and female colleagues: of course, if they are Orthodox.

In addition, in some churches in Russia, on the Day or during the entire week of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women - it is different everywhere - priests serve a secular magpie for the deceased parishioners of the church. This practice does exist. Let's say, in the village of Sergachskaya Achka, in the Smolensk region. And in another settlement of the mentioned region - Aksenovo, Rybnovsky district - on Saturday, on the eve of the holiday, believers visit the graves of relatives and friends, leaving colored eggs on them.

The people also did not ignore this religious date. Since ancient times, the Slavs called the Day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women the Woman's Day. He also had other names: Kumitnoye, Lalynki, Shapshikha, Margoshenye, Margoski, Kumishnoye, Babya's scrambled eggs, Babya's bratchina. The week of the Myrrh-Bearing Women, accordingly, was called Indian Week.

On this, by all accounts, women's holiday, the Day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women, in certain areas in Rus' they performed the so-called rite of cumulus. The ritual food was scrambled eggs: “woman’s” or “maiden’s”. For example, in one of the districts of the Kostroma region - Chukhlomsky - the calling of women was played out with the performance of special calling songs. The latter contained in their text an invitation to go out onto the porch with a chicken egg in their hands, addressed to local representatives of the fair half of humanity. The ceremony was carried out at dawn or even before sunrise. And in the Roslavl district of the Smolensk province, women walked outside the outskirts in a friendly crowd, fried eggs on the fire and sang spring songs. By the way, while eating the dish, they said: “God grant that flax will be a bounty for us!”

On the Day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women, every Christian woman was supposed to visit church and attend mass. At the end of the service, the women ordered a common prayer service together. They paid for this demand not with money, but, as you probably already guessed, with eggs, and in some cases with flax. In the evening, adherents of ancient folk customs organized a woman's feast.

The Day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women is a rather bright holiday and very kind and heartfelt. Its presence shows a respectful attitude in a Christian environment towards a woman as such.

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