For starters, let's figure out what is customary to invest in this concept. A rite is a certain sequence of actions that are established by custom or ritual. As a rule, each rite embodies some household traditions or religious ideas of the people. At the same time, there are no restrictions on social groups, the entire population without exception can take part in such actions.
Rite is something that has been accompanied by important moments of a person's life since ancient times. For example, those associated with the birth of a baby (baptism, naming), a wedding ceremony (matchmaking, traditional bride price, engagement), the beginning of activities in a new field (initiation into pioneers, students or workers, an oath in the army, etc.), the transition to a new age stage (initiation), as well as death (burial, commemoration, funeral).
There are also holiday rituals and traditions. And we will tell about the most interesting of them now.
The Veil Day (October 14)
On this day, young girls woke up at dawn and immediately ran to church to light a candle. There was a belief that the one who lights the candle before everyone else will be the very first to leave.married. In the 12th century, an Arab traveler described an equally interesting custom: if a guy threw a veil over the head of a girl who placed a candle in front of the icon of the Intercession of the Virgin and said a special prayer, she unquestioningly became his wife.
Christmas and New Year fortune-telling
From time immemorial, the period of winter festivities was considered by our ancestors to be the best for divination and attempts to look into the future. For example, if a girl hurt or pricked her finger to blood on New Year's Eve, she could safely count on marriage in the coming year. Also, by the New Year, water was often frozen in a spoon. If the ice turned out to be convex, bubbles were present in it, this spoke of the fortuneteller's longevity and good he alth. But a hole in the ice foreshadowed an untimely death. A whole series of fortune-telling for a betrothed or betrothed made it possible to find out where to look for your happiness, how long it was left to wait for him. Many people also wondered about the weather or the harvest, wanting to know if they would go hungry in the coming year.
Christmas
There was one interesting Christmas ritual. It is a custom to make figures of sheep and cows from wheat dough. These figurines should be kept until the very Epiphany. And after the blessing of water in Epiphany, the mistress of the house had to soften these figures in holy water, and then feed them to livestock to improve milk yield and offspring.
Shrovetide
Everyone knows the funny Russian Maslenitsa rituals with baking delicious pancakes and the ritual burning of an effigy of winter, this, it was believed, helped spring enter intoyour rights.
Easter
One of the most important holidays in Christianity has always been accompanied by painting eggs in different colors, baking special bread - Easter cake. The girls tried to wash themselves with red egg water to maintain a he althy glow and a beautiful complexion.
In fact, there are thousands of rituals and traditions, and it is almost impossible to list them in one article. Each ritual is a centuries-old story that is passed down from generation to generation and allows us to get closer to our ancestors.
