Pokrov - how they changed the essence of the holiday

On October 14, Orthodox Christians (or Orthodox, as they call themselves) celebrate the great feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. October 14 is consecrated by the Russian Orthodox Church with the solemn celebration of the miraculous appearance of the Mother of God in Blachernae Church. It is believed that this holiday came to Rus' no later than 1148 precisely from Byzantium. It was introduced by Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, and Pokrov was one of the most beloved and revered holidays in pre-revolutionary Russia.

According to church tradition, on the day when the anxiety of the inhabitants of Constantinople was especially strong, Christians gathered in the temple in Blachernae to pray to the Mother of God in front of her veil - the maphorium. At that time, the servant of the Byzantine nobleman Andrei was in the temple, for the sake of Christ,   the holy fool (i.e., crazy), native Slav. It was Andrew who saw the Mother of God during prayer, illuminated by heavenly light and surrounded by a host of angels and saints. And the anxiety was strong among the inhabitants of Constantinople, because at that time our ancestors, the Rus, decided to protect their compatriots and repay the Byzantines who had enslaved several Rus. Even Patriarch Photius of Constantinople recognized this motivation. Moreover, the message of Photius contains clear evidence that, by order of the Byzantine emperor Michael, the slaves were put to death.

During the siege, the Mother of God stretched out Her cover (meaning the omophorion - the Greek affiliation of the liturgical vestments of the bishop in the form of a long wide ribbon with images of crosses, which, bending around the neck, descends with one end to the chest, the other - to the back and covers the sakkos - the clothes of the bishop) over the Christian city , over the city that served and worshiped the incarnate God, Her Son, and the storm blew the Russian boats. The Greeks for a long time forgot about this holiday, but the Russians never forgot it. They were not hurt by the fact that they were the subject of the wrath of the Mother of God; they were amazed at that love, before that protection that the Mother of God extended over those who loved Her Only Begotten Son.

Blachernae Church, where the Virgin appeared to the madman, was the place of storage of the robe of the Mother of God, Her head cover (maforium) and parts of the belt, transferred from Palestine in the 5th century. The fact is that the omophorion that the Mother of God calls the cover is red, and among the Slavs the cover (since it is essentially snow) is white, so there was confusion and various options, such as the one that the cover is the robe of the Mother of God - her head cover, and he certainly (well, how else?) was white! That's what we decided on! And now you can fool people’s heads that the Protection of the Virgin is a “Russian Slavic Orthodox holiday” here, the Virgin and folk signs about a white snow cover - everything supposedly goes together!

But in general, this holiday was celebrated long before it was established in Rus' by Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky.

The first of October - the celebration of the Intercession - coincided among the Slavs with the day of thanksgiving to mother earth for the harvest. In Rus', in addition, from time immemorial pagan times, the veneration of the Virgin-Dawn was widespread, which spreads her imperishable pink veil across the sky, chasing away all evil. In ancient conspiracies it was said: “Zorya-Zornitsa, red maiden, night owl! Cover my mournful teeth with your veil; my teeth will survive behind your cover”, “Cover you, girl, with your veil from the strength of enemies, from squeakers and arrows; your veil is strong, like a combustible alatyr stone. The Dawn Maiden, according to popular beliefs, could stop the blood with her shroud, calm ailments, save from all sorts of troubles. Thus, in the popular imagination, the Virgin Dawn and the Virgin Mary merged into one image, and the Protection of the Mother of God was indistinguishable from the dawn Shroud - both protected the person.

The Byzantine legend in Rus' was enriched with folk colors, and the Pokrov became one of the solemn and beloved peasant holidays. Celebrated at the time when field work ends and weddings begin, Pokrov was also a kind of harvest festival. Snow often fell on Pokrov, and hence the girlish proverb developed: “Father Pokrov, cover the mother earth with cheese and me, the young one.”

In folk tradition, on this day, the meeting of Autumn with Winter was celebrated, and this holiday has very deep roots. The very name of folk beliefs was associated with the first frost, which  "covered"  the earth, indicating the proximity of winter cold, although the exact name of the holiday has not been preserved. The Day of the Intercession coincided with the end of field work and serious preparations for winter.

Around these days, they began to drown in the huts: spinners and weavers began to work.

On this day, Brownie goes to bed and in connection with this, the ritual "Baking corners" was associated. The brownie was asked to keep the house warm in winter, they baked special "blintsy" pancakes of small size, and the first pancake was divided into 4 parts and carried to the corners of the hut as an offering so that the spirit of the house was full and calm. On this day, the girls asked Lada for marriage (during Christianity, they began to ask the Virgin.) And it was from that day that regular girl gatherings began.

And this Christian fairy tale was invented in order to replace the Vedic holidays that our people have been celebrating for millennia with fictional Christian ones, in order to eradicate the thousand-year-old Vedic traditions from their consciousness and replace them with others. In order for the substitution to occur imperceptibly, Christians partially preserved the external attributes of the holiday, while replacing its essence, thereby lulling the genetic memory of our people. And what kind of brains should people have had if they believed a madman. After all, no one has seen the Mother of God ...

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