Parental Saturdays in 2022
These days it is important and necessary to pray for the dead, go to church, give alms and do good deeds. Read in our material when there will be Parental Saturdays in 2022

The work of our soul is prayer, struggle with sins and passions, doing good deeds. But after all, not every person met death by preparing for it. In church, we pray together that the Lord would give us a shameless, peaceful end and a good answer at the Last Judgment. And death, sometimes, kidnaps people suddenly. Moreover, it is not given to us to know for sure what the afterlife fate of our loved ones is. And they can no longer pray for themselves. They cannot do good deeds. That’s why we do it for them. Prayer for the departed is our almsgiving, our disinterested and gracious gift to them, an expression of our love.

Days of commemoration of the dead according to the Orthodox calendar

The time of the special commemoration of the departed during Great Lent changes every year, since the date of Easter is movable, it is not fixed for a specific day of the calendar.

Namedate
Meatfare Parents SaturdayFebruary 26
Trinity parent Saturday11 June
Radonitsa3 May
Commemoration day for all those who died during the Great Patriotic War9 May
Commemoration day of Orthodox soldiers, for faith, the king and the Fatherland on the battlefield killedon September 11
Dmitrov parental Saturday5 November

Universal Parent Saturdays

Two parent Saturdays are called Ecumenical. Why? Because on these Saturdays we commemorate not only our ancestors and just people dear to us, but also all “from Adam to this day who have died in piety and the right faith – forefather, father and brothers of ours, from all kinds of kings, princes, monastics, laity, youths and elders.” And also about all those who drowned, died in battle, from an earthquake, from the hands of a murderer, from lightning, covered with earth – that is, about those who died suddenly, suddenly and, perhaps, were not even buried.

Meatless Universal Parental Saturday

This is the parental Saturday, the penultimate Saturday before Lent. In 2022, it falls on February 26th. Sunday after it is dedicated to the prayerful remembrance of the Last Judgment, at which we will all find out what our fate is in the other world. Therefore, on Saturday the day before, we especially fervently pray for all those whom our prayer can help in their afterlife.

Trinity parent Saturday

In 2022, it falls on June 11 – this is the Saturday on the eve of the feast of the Holy Trinity and Pentecost. Great holiday, the day of the establishment of our Church by Jesus Christ. Of course, on this holiday we want to give our love and prayer to all our loved ones, in particular to those who are no longer with us.

This is one of the oldest parent Saturdays. It is associated with Semik – Trinity, Thursday in the seventh week after Easter. On this day, it was customary to bury all those who died an unfortunate death. For such dead, wretched houses or sheds were built outside the city, in which one common grave was arranged. Who fell into this grave? First, the dead, about whom no one knew anything. Secondly, victims of accidents: burned out by lightning, drowned. There is a patriarchal order about them, which says that in common graves one should bury those “who get drunk with wine, or slaughter themselves, or kill themselves from a swing, or drown while swimming, or poison themselves, or do some other bad thing to themselves. “. The mass grave was intended for those who were not supposed to be buried in the church cemetery.

Those killed on robbery or on theft were not allowed to be buried in these common graves either – they were buried in the forest.

The commemoration and burial of all the dead of the wretched barn was carried out at the donations of the pious townspeople and pilgrims. The burial was carried out solemnly, all believers came to pray for the unfortunate.

There are documents of the VIII century, according to which it becomes clear that all these unfortunate people were mourned and begged not as some kind of renegades, but as brothers and sisters in Christ. Together with them, the deceased representatives of the clergy were commemorated for the repose – abbots, priests, archpriests.

On this day, for all the unknown dead, those praying gave alms to the poor and needy. There was a memorial service.

Radonitsa

In 2022, Radonitsa falls on May 3rd. On this day, a memorial service is served, which also includes Easter hymns.

Parental Saturdays in honor of the fallen soldiers

“There is no greater love than if a man lays down his life for his friends” Jn. 15:13. – over this phrase, many of our contemporaries argue and understand it differently. Someone sees in it the idea of ​​sacrificial love, for example. But it is obvious that our warriors, drooping in the liberation warriors, are precisely those who laid down their lives for their friends. For their sake, three more private parental days have been established. Since these days are associated with historical events – battles, or Victory Day, then, accordingly, they have a fixed calendar date.

Commemoration day for all those who died during the Great Patriotic War

Always falls on May 9th. After the liturgy on this day, a funeral litiya is served.

Commemoration day of Orthodox soldiers, for faith, the king and the Fatherland on the battlefield killed

11 September. The dead in the -Turkish war of 1768-1774 are commemorated.

Dmitrievskaya parental Saturday

It was established by Prince Dmitry Donskoy in 1380, and in 2022 it falls on November 5th.

Popular questions and answers

Why pray for the dead?

Jesus Christ tells people who come to Him to learn about the fate of people in the afterlife and about the resurrection from the dead: “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for with Him all are alive.” (Luke 20:38)

With God, everyone is alive – we Christians believe in it. A person dies, but his soul remains, it lives invisibly to us. Why should we, the living, pray for the dead? Because only in this earthly life we ​​are given the opportunity to beg our soul for its fate: to be in the Kingdom of Heaven, in eternal joy with our Heavenly Father. Our relatives, who have completed their earthly journey, can no longer do this. Our earthly temporary life is given to us in order to purify our soul from passions and sins, to prepare it for paradise. As the remarkable Soviet poet Nikolai Zabolotsky wrote:

Do not let your soul be lazy!

So that the stupa does not piss water,

The soul must work

And day and night, and day and night!

Drive her from house to house,

Drag from stage to stage,

In the wasteland, on the brown

Through the snowdrift, through bump!

Do not let her sleep in bed.

With the light of the morning star,

Keep lazy person in a black body

And do not take the reins off her!

If you give her an indulgence,

Exempt from work,

She’s the last shirt

With you, without pity, it will.

And you grab her by the shoulders,

Teach and torment until dark,

To live with you humanly

She studied again.

She is a slave and a queen,

She is a worker and a daughter,

She must work

And day and night, and day and night!

How to pray for the dead?

There are many ways to honor your loved ones. In addition to the rite of the funeral service and memorial service, it is possible and necessary to read the Psalter for the departed. The remembrance of the departed is also included in the morning prayers that believers read every day. The dead are also commemorated at the Liturgy: particles of prosphora are removed and immersed in the Blood of the Lord with a special memorial prayer. The names of the deceased are traditionally entered into a note of repose, it is handed over to the priest, and according to these notes, for each deceased, he withdraws a piece of prosphora on the Proskomedia.

If the dead can be commemorated all year round, then why were parental Saturdays established?

During Great Lent, a special Liturgy is served in churches — the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts of St. Gregory the Dialogist. Particles for such services are prepared in advance, and therefore the Proskomidia is not performed, particles are not taken out for the dead. Therefore, a special time is allocated for the commemoration of the dead – Saturday.

What can not be done on Trinity parental Saturday?

On Trinity parental Saturday, you can’t commemorate unbaptized and suicides

The Church does not pray for people who are not baptized and for suicides. The historical feature of the Trinity Ecumenical Parental Saturday is that on this day the Church especially prays for those whose fate to us, due to circumstances, is incomprehensible or unknown to the end. We pray to the Lord to remember the souls of people who died from an unknown death. Their names, You, Lord, know and know. About suicides and the unbaptized, you can give alms and feed the birds.

You can’t leave food on the graves: crumble Easter cake and eggs, for example

If you believe in the resurrected Jesus, then you should not “feed” the dead by leaving food for them on the graves. Moreover, it is not necessary to leave alcoholic drinks and other attributes on their graves. The flesh of your loved ones has already completed its journey, it does not need anything. Now you need to transfer all your care to their souls, that is, pray fervently for them, so that the Lord forgives them their sins, voluntary or involuntary, committed during life.

What can you do on parental Saturday?

It is important and necessary on these holy days to pray for our dead and for the Orthodox dead in general. Visit a temple if possible. Give charity, do a good deed. In the villages near Moscow, there is a tradition – on the Trinity parental Saturday to put in order not only the graves of relatives, but also abandoned graves, for which there is no one to take care of. It is good to pay tribute to the simple human memory of your ancestors: tell your grandchildren about your grandfather or grandmother, show photos. Remember with a kind word.

On parental days, you can pray for both sinners and righteous people

If the soul of the deceased is burdened with sins, he needs our help. And when we pray for the righteous, we receive great joy from God. After all, not all saints are glorified by the Church. Remarkable ancestors lived among us, who may be holy before God. Sometimes this is revealed precisely in memorial prayers.

Is it possible to clean the house on parental Saturday, as well as wash and heat the bath?

All these simple everyday actions have no ritual significance and are allowed if they do not crowd out prayer and going to church.

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