The mysterious world of Christmas traditions

Christmas is one of the brightest holidays celebrated all over the world. It is associated with many legends, beliefs, traditions, each country has its own characteristics. We will tell you about the brightest, in our opinion, traditions that are common in the expanses of our Motherland.

 

Christmas is first and foremost a home, a family home where all family members come together. Tradition. To decorate our house came to us from the depths of centuries. Previously, churches, parishes were decorated, each element of decor carried a certain deep meaning. Over time, believers, and then ordinary people, adopted these traditions in a simplified form.

One of the most ancient customs - to ennoble your house on the eve of Christmas, which has survived to our days, is a Christmas tree, decorated on the eve of the holiday, personifying life and fertility. If earlier a tree or twigs were decorated with sweets, then special toys and tinsel, recently many dress up with small photos of their relatives, relatives and friends. This modern trend, when we can not always be with our relatives on a holiday, is more and more widespread in large cities, such as: Moscow. St. Petersburg. Novosibirsk. ekaterinburg. Nizhny Novgorod. Samara.

 

Christmas is a time when church and folk customs are intertwined and perceived as a whole. One of the oldest folk fun is carols. Oddly enough, even in large cities, there is still a place for such entertainment, although the church considers it a manifestation of paganism. Children, young people go dressed up in houses with songs and dances, wishing the owners good and prosperity, and those in turn thank the carolers with sweets and small souvenirs.

 

What about Christmas without fortune telling? It is believed that Christmas Day, which begins on Christmas Eve, is the best time for divination. One of the most ancient and terrible of them is divination with a mirror. At midnight, the girl should go alone to the bath with a mirror and a candle. Before that, she must remove her cross and curtain all the icons in the bath. The girl puts a mirror in front of her, and in front of him a lit candle. Then she looks in the mirror until there is the face of her future narrowed. Often, such divinations did not end very well, since in the mirror could appear not only the image of the desired young man, but also the image of some demon or evil spirit, which was activated in these days, when the border between heaven and earth was opened.

 

Modern girls rarely dare to do such experiments. New times are new customs. For example, ancient divination, when a girl asked the name of the first man she met, and the same name will have her future spouse, today can be replaced by divination using television. You need to think about your future, desired wedding, turn on the TV and the first man you see there will be the prototype of your husband. It is believed that he will have about the same age, hair color, eye color.

Despite the many customs, generally accepted beliefs, every family, every house, for sure, has its own traditions, how to celebrate Christmas. I really want to believe that the main one is at least once a year to gather all the loved ones under one roof and say warm words to them so that they warm them up to the next family holiday.