Nika Kravchuk

Parental Saturdays 2017: remember to commemorate the dead

Did you know that our dead relatives and friends need prayers even more than living ones? You can pray for them both in home prayer and in church prayer. The church even established special days of remembrance. In this article, we will tell you what days parental Saturdays fall on in 2017 and how to remember the dead correctly. Hurry up to find out, because the first parental Saturday is already February 18th.

Why pray for the dead?

Christianity is called the religion of life. And this is no coincidence. Orthodox Christians, Catholics, and many Protestants believe that after physical death they continue to exist, because man is eternal.

Therefore, the Church prays for both health and repose. It is believed that after a bodily death, the fate of a person is determined - where he will await the second coming of Christ and the Last Judgment. Some will go to heaven, others to hell.

But this is not yet the final decision. Every sinner has a chance that before the Last Judgment his posthumous fate will change. All this is thanks to the prayers of the living: relatives, loved ones, friends.

That is why believers do not forget their relatives, even if they are in another world. They pray for the departed both at home and in the temple.

Parental Saturdays - days of special church commemoration

The morning rule contains a prayer to the Lord with a request to put our parents, relatives, benefactors and all Orthodox Christians to rest.
In churches, separate services are performed - memorial services, during which they pray only for repose. There are even certain days - parental Saturdays, on which the Church calls on all believers to pray for those who are temporarily not with us.

True, in an Orthodox church, you can submit notes only for those baptized in Orthodoxy who died a natural death. The Church does not commemorate unbaptized, infidels, suicides, since even in their earthly life they were not members of the Church of Christ and did not strive to be with God.

Memorial services are performed every Saturday in Orthodox churches (and more often in monasteries), but only eight days a year have a special status - these are memorial Saturdays.

On what days of 2017 does the Russian Orthodox Church commemorate the dead?

Parental Saturdays 2017 fall on the following days:

1. Ecumenical Parent Saturday (meat-eating) - February 18, 2017.
2. Saturday of the second week of Great Lent - March 11.
3. Saturday of the third week - March 18.
4. Saturday of the fourth week - March 25.
5. Commemoration of the departed soldiers - May 9.
6. Radonitsa - April 25.
7. Trinity universal parental Saturday - June 3.
8. Dmitrievskaya parental Saturday - November 4.

Why are memorial Saturdays called parental Saturdays?

In the calendar above, the two parental Saturdays of 2017 are referred to as "ecumenical". This means that these days Orthodox Churches all over the world commemorate the dead.

Why are memorial Saturdays called parental Saturdays? Do they only pray for their parents these days? No, the Church commemorates all the departed Orthodox Christians, but first of all - our relatives. It is the duty of every Christian to pray for the parents who gave us life. And if our fathers and mothers have departed for eternity, then we are all the more obliged to remember them, thereby expressing our love and care.

In addition, parents should be understood not only as fathers and mothers, but also other relatives - grandfathers, grandmothers, great-grandfathers, and so on.

In this sense, parental Saturdays are an opportunity, first of all, to pray for your kind, for people with whom we are bloodily related. And only then - for friends, benefactors and all Orthodox in general.

How to prepare for the commemoration?

The first parental Saturday 2017 falls on February 18, nine days before the start of Lent. It is also called meat-eating - on this day and next Sunday, you can still eat meat. Maslenitsa starts on Monday 20 February 2017.

Commemoration of the departed begins on Friday. In Orthodox churches, they serve not just the All-night Vigil, but the Memorial Vigil - parastas ... On Saturday morning, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated, followed by a panikhida.

The memorial service is usually served with notes with the names of the deceased, as well as food and colivo.

Why is it so? It is believed that the best help for the deceased is prayer and alms. Our personal petitions and memorial notes are prayer, and the food brought, which, after consecration, is distributed to those in need and those serving in the temple is alms.

There is no specific list of what to bring to the memorial service, and no specific “norm”. Who can do as much as possible - this is the main rule. Bread, sugar, flour, canned food, sweets, vegetables, fruits - the list goes on. The only prohibition is meat that cannot be brought into the temple.

Also in churches on memorial Saturdays they cook colivo - a ritual dish in the form of wheat or rice with honey. Interestingly, the grain symbolizes the earthly and eternal life of man. In order for a grain to germinate and give a crop, it must first be planted in the ground. For a person to be born for eternal life, he must first die and be committed to the earth. Honey symbolizes the sweetness of the Kingdom of Heaven.

These external attributes - both the products for the memorial service and the amount of food - are important, but they should not distract a person from the main thing - prayer. The latter should not be left solely to the priests. Our prayer from a sincere loving heart is equally important.

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Parental Saturdays in 2018 are special days in the church calendar, on which Orthodox Christians commemorate deceased relatives. Remembrance of the dead by the church is a special ritual. On these days, a memorial service is held, at which the names of people who have left this world are mentioned. On the eve of the prayer service, believers carry notes with the names of their deceased relatives to the church. On memorial Saturdays, it is customary to remember not only deceased relatives, but also acquaintances.

These Saturdays are called parental then, that often parents leave this world before their children.

On Great Lent, no services are held during the week. Therefore, Saturdays are set aside for the commemoration of the dead. On this day, believers go to church, and after visiting it, they go to the cemetery.

Prayers are read in churches to cleanse all Orthodox Christians from sins. People who come to church pray not only for their loved ones, but also for other people who have ended their existence on earth. Reading the universal prayer on Parental Saturday helps to forgive all sins and get souls into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many people who are missing, as well as people who have died under different circumstances, find peace of mind and can ascend to Heaven.

Video: parental Saturdays - days of special commemoration of the departed

Parental Saturdays 2018

Parental Saturdays in 2018 are traditionally held. These days, the Divine Liturgy is held in churches and the commemoration of the departed takes place. People who have visited the temple bring notes with the names of deceased relatives, and give them to the priest so that he mentions loved ones during the service.

In addition to the usual parental Saturdays, there are also Ecumenical (Meat and Trinity).

Memorial dates in 2018 according to the Orthodox calendar:

There are sayings associated with parental Saturdays:

Video: Orthodox calendar for 2018: fast days and parental Saturdays

In 2017, parental day or Radonitsa is celebrated on April 25. This is an Orthodox church holiday when the dead are commemorated. Therefore, many people want to know what is the parent day in 2017.

Radonitsa is one of the most important memorial days, when most people try to visit the cemeteries where the graves of their relatives and friends are located. As strange as it may sound, this day is not only of blessed memory, but also of joy of joy for the departed, who entered a new, eternal life.

In order not to miss this event, it is important to remember that Radonitsa always comes on the 9th day after Easter, which was April 16 this year (we wrote earlier). That is, it is not difficult to calculate what date the parent's day will be in 2017 - April 25 on Tuesday.

In general, there are eight parenting days in a year, and seven of them fall on Saturday, which is called the parental Saturday. But Radonitsa is considered the most important day of them and it falls on different dates (depending on the day of the celebration of Easter, exactly nine days after the Resurrection of Christ), and therefore on different days of the calendar. Therefore, many people ask us what date is Radonitsa in 2018 will be celebrated by Orthodox people.

By the way, it is interesting that there are various signs on Parent's Day. For example, if it is windy on the street on this day, it means that the ancestors are angry that no one has visited them. If it rains, then this is a good sign. Also, you cannot work on this day - this applies to farming and household chores.

Memorial days in 2018

The church calendar helps believers to keep track of Orthodox holidays, so many know what day the parent's day in 2017 is April 25. But other days of special commemoration, alas, are not known to many. Therefore, we present you with a complete list of memorial days for this year.

1. February 18 - Saturday - Ecumenical Parent Saturday (meat-eating)
2. March 11 - Saturday - Second memorial parental Saturday
3. March 18 - Saturday - Parent's third memorial day
4. March 25 - Saturday - Fourth memorial Saturday
5. April 25 - Tuesday - Radonitsa
6. May 9 - Saturday - Day of Remembrance of the Fallen Warriors
7. June 3 - Saturday - Trinity Saturday
8. November 4 - Saturday - Dmitrievskaya Saturday

For many citizens of our country, memorial days are very important, especially for Orthodox Christians. Therefore, despite the fact that the majority treat this event with trepidation, not everyone knows what date is the parental day in 2017 in Russia. Let us remind once again that Radonitsa this year falls on April 25, according to the calendar - it will be Tuesday.

Honoring the memory of the departed is a constant process that takes place in the soul of every person. But there are special days in the year when all people who have lost loved ones merge in a single prayer for the dead. Such events are called "Orthodox parental Saturday" and depend on religious holidays, as well as related fasts. Remembrance of the departed gives them eternal life in the hearts of living people, who, in turn, through the memorial prayer hope for the resurrection of the soul.

Dear website visitors, you can find memorial days in 2018 in the new article: Parental Saturdays 2018

Dear website visitors, you can find memorial days in 2019 in a new article: Parental Saturdays 2019

Parental Saturday 2017, in the calendar does not always fall on the corresponding day of the week. Quite often, memorial days can be on any other day. The importance of such events is not only related to the veneration of loved ones. These days, the memory of those who gave their lives in complete loneliness is honored and there is no one to pray for the soul of such a person in the world of the living. Such universal commemoration gives an energy debt to all the deceased, regardless of family ties. Although the name at first glance looks like reverence for the closest and dearest people - parents, this is not entirely true. The wording of such a model is endowed with the meaning of remembering everyone who is related to the race, and not to a specific family, but to the human race.

Orthodox calendar 2017 (parental Saturdays)

Based on the greatest religious holidays, general memorial days do not have a fixed date, but nevertheless fall on almost every month of the first half of the year. The shift of the main commemoration may have a two-week period. Parental Saturdays in 2017 (Orthodox calendar) are distributed as follows:

Of course, every person has the right to honor the memory of his loved ones in any way convenient for him. But, as practice shows, we increasingly make mistakes that carry more harm than good, even in such a matter as remembering a dead soul.

If you adapt your behavior to a day such as parental Saturday (Orthodox calendar), you must comply with all the canons corresponding to a particular religious holiday. Although the rules have several points in common, the implementation of which will enrich such a day and make it more productive:

• It is worth visiting the temple, praying under the church dome, lighting a memorial candle and leaving the memorial food for everyone in need.
• With the close location of the cemetery, you can visit the graves of the dead, bring them a "present" in the form of bread, cookies or sweets. Under favorable weather conditions, it is not forbidden to clean up at the burial site: pull out weeds, remove dry grass, etc.
• You should not arrange a drunken spree from the memorial dinner. After all, drinking alcohol by Orthodox standards is a sin, and honoring memory and sinning at the same time is at least not logical.
• Also, at the cemetery, one should not talk in a raised voice and use foul language.

It would be good to remember that parental Saturday in 2017, as always, is not necessarily a day of mourning and crying, but a time to rethink your actions and life in general.

For the primary commemoration of our dear people personally, there are others parental Saturdays, including Dimitrievsk parental Saturday, which was originally intended to commemorate the soldiers who fell in the Battle of Kulikovo, but gradually became a common memorial day.

This memorial service falls on the Saturday preceding the memory of St. vmch. Demetrius of Thessaloniki - patron saint of the prince. Dmitry Donskoy, at whose suggestion, after the Battle of Kulikovo, an annual commemoration of the soldiers was established.

Dmitrovskaya Parental Saturday in November 2017 in Russia

For the Slavs, memorial days in the folk calendar do not coincide with the "Parental Saturdays" of the church calendar; among the people, not all "parental Saturdays" of the church calendar are celebrated. In customs, it was customary to remember the "parents" on the eve of b great holidays: before Shrove Tuesday, before Trinity, before the Intercession and before Dmitrov day. In Polesie, this list was supplemented by Mikhailovskaya Saturday and memorial Fridays. Among the Eastern Slavs, the main calendar memorial days in many places were considered: Radonitsa, Trinity Saturday, Dmitrievskaya Saturday.

Parent's Saturday what is it

Parents' Saturday - in the Orthodox tradition, the day of special remembrance of the departed Orthodox Christians, and above all their deceased parents. Canonical days of visiting the graves of ancestors and other relatives, where memorial services are performed. Days of special commemoration of the departed in the Orthodox Church are five parental Saturdays: Meatless universal parental Saturday (Saturday 2 weeks before Lent); Trinity universal parental Saturday (Saturday before the day of the Holy Trinity, on the 49th day after Easter); parental 2nd Saturday of Great Lent; parental 3rd Saturday of Great Lent; parental 4th Saturday of Great Lent.

Orthodox traditions of the Dmitrievsk parental Saturday

Those believing Christians who strictly adhere to church canons come to church services on Friday evening before parental Saturday. At this time, the great funeral service, or parastas, is performed. All troparia, stichera, chants and readings of parastas are dedicated to prayer for the dead. On the morning of the memorial Saturday itself, the funeral Divine Liturgy is performed in the churches, after which a general requiem service is held.

To remember your deceased relatives in the church, you need to prepare in advance notes with the names of the deceased. In the note, in large block letters, you must write the names of those who should be remembered. All names must be in the church spelling and in the genitive case. As a donation, it is customary to bring lean products to the temple - bread, sweets, fruits, vegetables. But meat products or alcohol (except for Cahors) are not allowed to donate.

On the Dmitrievsky parental Saturday, all Christian believers visit the graves of their deceased relatives, in temples, churches and cemeteries, funeral services and funeral litias are served, and memorial meals are arranged.

The morning of the Demetrius Saturday must begin with a visit to the church and a prayer for the repose of the souls of deceased Christians. Unlike other parental days, Dmitrievskaya Saturday also carries a special meaning: established after the Battle of Kulikovo, it reminds us of all those who died and suffered for the Orthodox faith. If it is not possible to visit a temple or cemetery, you can pray for the repose of the deceased in home prayer.