On the first of September, two high school girls came to school in dark dresses. The teacher asked: why such mourning on a holiday? They answered: Don’t you remember what happened today?
I’m sure many will react to this act differently. The most pragmatic will say: funeral processions dedicated to the tragedy in Beslan usually take place on the third or fourth of September. Not on the day the hostages were taken, but on the day they died. Why ruin the holiday? Others will suspect the girls of wanting to show off, to draw attention to themselves. I find this ritual gesture remarkable. The tragedy in Beslan happened 10 years ago. The girls then went to kindergarten. One can imagine how this event shocked them, if they carried the memory of it through the years. And memory very often can be manifested only ritually. There is simply no other way.
I noticed that many people treat rituals and dates with indifference or irony. Some: «The state needs it, but it’s enough for us that the day is a day off.» Others: “I am a sincere person, my memory works offline. I also remember the dead, and I rejoice on Victory Day. But mass events are not for me.”
To tell the truth, I am also a small hunter for mass celebrations and tearful dates. But memory must be able to make it work, otherwise it will be bad for us. Forgetfulness is the first sign of savagery, with all its bitter and terrible consequences. The individual labor of memory is necessary, but no, it is not sufficient. There are things to remember together. In the last and the century before last, this was pathetically called the people’s memory.
- What helped me get through the ordeal
People’s memory is not a metaphor at all. Where did the memory of the First World War disappear in Russia? She’s erased. We know little more about the Civil War. There are songs, there are heroes and some idea of what happened. The First World War is a blank spot. Now, a hundred years later, they came to their senses. It turned out that there is not a single monument to the heroes of that war, not a single cemetery. Is it possible to recover memory? Don’t know. It seems to me that it can only be transferred.
But we, schoolchildren, were less years away from the First World War than today’s schoolchildren were from the Great Patriotic War. For them, the direct connection, transmitted from one generation to another, is practically lost. From what event will they push off, presenting the history of their family, without which the history of their own life does not exist?
Of course, they will object to me: there are books, films, textbooks, a school. Yes, but they will not replace either family traditions or visiting family graves. Even the best textbooks and films, but you still have to look for them. The girls who came to school in dark dresses had some kind of their own, heartfelt memory. That’s what I’m talking about.
- How winning the war changed our minds
Everyone agrees that June 12, Independence Day, has not yet taken root in Russia. «Young» holiday? No, he’s over twenty years old. And twenty-year-old guys have a poor idea of its meaning. Why was the Declaration of Independence of Russia adopted? What happened before? When did the first president appear in Russia, elected for the first time by popular vote? Etc. So guys, what are we celebrating?
On the contrary, there are quite artificial holidays. For example, Valentine’s Day, the holiday of all lovers. Not only is the history of its origin in the West uncertain, but it is transplanted from Catholic to Orthodox soil. But the day of the execution of the saint is declared a holiday. Plus, no one has a clue about the abolition by Pope Gelasius the First in 494 of the lupercalia, the ancient Roman pagan fertility festival, which was replaced by Valentine’s Day, or about the ban by the Roman emperor Claudius the Second on men to marry, since single men fight better, nor, respectively, about the story of Valentine himself. It turns out a formal holiday of lovers. What could be more absurd? Just as poorly, young people represent the meaning and history of red dates: March 23, February 4, November 4. The first two, of course, are noted, but out of duty habit and gender duty. Not only meaning, but also a little joy. And November XNUMX still leaves the majority of the population perplexed.
Only that holiday or that mournful date will take root, which was formed from the need for common memory, that is, from living knowledge and direct feeling. Then the ritual will not be dead, but alive. The feeling of belonging is not born from a decree, after all. This does not contradict the fact that not only plants, but everything related to the concepts of spirituality, needs to be cultivated. I would welcome these high school students.