Those who firmly believe in the existence of the Almighty always have an Orthodox calendar at hand. This almanac contains the dates of all holidays, fasts and other memorable dates that every self-respecting Christian should remember.

The calendar helps to prepare for the celebration of this or that Orthodox celebration on time, without too much fuss.

If you need to know what will come church holidays in March 2017, do not be too lazy to look at the calendar in order to remember and keep in memory for a long time all the days of remembrance that are important for the church, which do not allow our faith to shake.

Orthodox holidays in March 2017

March 1, 2017 (Wednesday)

• Memorial Day of St. Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna.

March 2, 2017 (Thursday)

• Memorial Day of the Great Martyr Theodore Tyrone.
• Hieromartyr Hermogenes, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, miracle worker.

It is noteworthy that Great Lent begins during the heyday of earthly forces, the awakening of nature from sleep. Everything around is transformed, changed, becomes more beautiful.

No matter what they say, spring is the most beautiful time of the year and Lent, despite its severity, emphasizes this beauty with its rites. What are the beautiful “larks” birds that skillful housewives bake to “attract” the attention of the beautiful spring.

All Saints, Tone 2

Apostles, martyrs and prophets, / saints, reverend and righteous ones, / who have done a good deed and kept the faith, / having boldness in the Savior, / for us, as Good, pray, / / ​​be saved, we pray, to our souls.

Translation: Apostles, martyrs and prophets, saints, reverend and righteous, who valiantly accomplished the feat and preserved the faith, having boldness before the Savior, implore Him for us, as good, we pray, for the salvation of our souls!

The Lord asked the apostles, how do they understand Him? In the face of St. Apostle Peter, they answered: “You are the Christ” (). This confession did not suddenly mature, but, having matured, it settled into the depths of the heart and became its source guide. It was overshadowed by the death of the Lord, but not shaken, and, having been resurrected with even greater power by the Resurrection, it aspired the apostles throughout their lives to preach to the whole world.

There is a moment for every believer when he says with all his strength: “You are Christ, my Lord and Savior. You are my salvation, my light, my strength, my comfort, my hope, and my eternal life.” Then that happens, from which he and the apostle cry out: “Who separated from love and Christ's! () - and, like him, he begins to pursue everything that is pleasing to Christ the Lord, until he reaches the measure of His age.

April is a spring sunny month, during this period a real aroma of freshness appears in the air. In the calendar for the specified month, there is not a single public holiday. But the calendar of church holidays in April contains very important and significant dates for various religions. In Orthodoxy, a significant celebration is designated for April - this is a bright Easter. As you know, this event is fundamental to the Bible, because Easter means the sacred resurrection of Christ. It is from the date of Easter that the record of all other important dates of Orthodoxy begins.
In Catholicism, many solemn events descend from Orthodoxy, the only difference between these religions is the dates of the meeting of important religious holidays. What church holidays in April 2017 are marked by the religious calendar?

Orthodox holidays in April

From the beginning of April, the Great and Strict Lent continues. This restriction is based in honor of the wanderings of Jesus in the wilderness, when he renounced human passions and desires as a sign of liberation from sins and mental anguish. According to the rules of Strict Lent, believers must also observe the strictest restrictions in nutrition, as well as in the conduct of earthly life. The main restriction concerns the usual rules of nutrition - Christians are forbidden to eat any food of animal origin. For the duration of the fast, other fundamentals must also be observed: lead a modest lifestyle, do not celebrate entertainment celebrations, read prayers regularly, do not swear, do not have sexual intercourse.

Great Lent ends with the advent of Easter. In April of this year, the great Orthodox celebration is scheduled for the 16th. What other Christian holidays in April 2017 are important for all believers?

Catholic holidays

All Catholic church holidays in April 2017 are included in the religious calendar. What significant dates are celebrated in the spring month by Catholics?
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Most church holidays come from Holy Scripture, and each of them is associated with some event in the life of Jesus Christ. Many people wonder when all these celebrations are celebrated? When in 2017: Annunciation, Palm Sunday, Lazarus Saturday, Radonitsa, Easter, Krasnaya Gorka and other major Orthodox holidays?

The main Orthodox holidays of April 2017Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary falls on 07.04.2017.

As you know, any work is prohibited on this day. There is very little information about the reason for the origin of such rules. As the church broadcasts, it is with this that the embodiment of the Lord's plan for the salvation of mankind begins, through the only son of Jesus Christ.

Lazarus Saturday

Lazarus Saturday falls on 08.04.2017.

This is one of the most joyful holidays, which reminds us of the great miracle of the Lord, who resurrected Lazarus.

Jesus treated Lazarus very well, he often visited his house. Unfortunately, death doesn't look good or bad. The young man was quite young and full of strength, but he was struck down by an illness and died. Already on the fourth day, Jesus was informed about the death of the guy. His family had lost all hope. Even when Christ came and asked to boil the tomb, they began to dissuade him, because the body had already begun to decompose and give off a smell. Nevertheless, they opened the stone, and the Lord said: “Lazarus! Get out!". There was a shock in front of the eyes of relatives and all those who came, because a young man came out of the tomb, all in bandages and scraps.

It was this event that became the manifestation of the Glory of God. But this is precisely what prompted the Pharisees to make the final decision to execute Jesus.

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday is tied to the event when Jesus entered Jerusalem. Many came out to meet Him with palm leaves in their hands. But not everyone reacted to His arrival with jubilation, many considered Jesus a threat to the policy of cruel Caesar. To get rid of the problem, they accused Him of attempting the throne, and decided to execute Christ.

A week later, everyone who greeted the Savior with rejoicing betrayed him and stood in the crowd with the rest and threw stones at him while he carried the cross to Mount Calvary.

This day is celebrated a week before Easter this year, and will fall on 09.04.2017.

Happy Easter

Easter is the happiest and most important holiday for Christians. It is dedicated to the Resurrection of Christ, His victory over death and disease. It is a celebration of light, love and hope.

On this day, all believers rejoice and rejoice. They bake cakes and paint eggs.

Each time, Easter falls on a different day, so it's quite difficult to predict on your own. It is calculated using the lunar calendar and this year Easter falls on 16.04.2017.

Red hill

This holiday combines both Orthodox traditions and reminders of pagan rituals. This holiday symbolizes the full arrival of spring and warmth. It falls on the first Sunday after Easter, which means 23.04.2017.

Radunitsa - Parents' Day

It is hard to believe that the holiday, when everyone commemorates the dead, brings a joyful mood. But it is. On this day, all living people turn to their ancestors with requests for help for a fertile harvest.

This year, Radunitsa (also Radonitsa), falls on 25.04.2017 - on the ninth day after the celebration of Easter. Countries such as Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and Russia call this holiday in different ways, but the most common name is Parents' Day.

When are other Orthodox holidays in Russia in 2017

April 1, 2017 Saturday

• Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos (Saturday Akathist).
• Celebration of the Icon of the Mother of God "Tenderness" of Smolensk.
• Righteous Sophia, Princess of Slutsk.
• Great Lent continues.

April 2, 2017 Sunday

• Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt, 5th week of Great Lent.
• Venerable Euphrosynus of Sinozero,
• Great Lent continues.

April 3, 2017 Monday

• The 6th week of Great Lent begins, the week of Vay.
• Reverend Seraphim of Vyritsky.
• Reverend James, Bishop of Catania.
• Great Lent continues.

April 4, 2017 Tuesday

• Celebration of the Izborsk Icon of the Mother of God.
• Hieromartyr Basil, Presbyter of Ancyra.
• Great Lent continues.

April 5, 2017 Wednesday

• Venerable Martyr Nikon Bishop and 199 of his disciples.
• Great Lent continues.

April 6, 2017 Thursday

• Prefeast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos.
• Celebration of the icon of the Mother of God "Fat Mountain".
• Great Lent continues.

April 7, 2017 Friday

• Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos.
• Celebration of the Icon of the Mother of God "Annunciation".

April 8, 2017 Saturday

• Commemoration of the Feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos.
• Lazarus Saturday - the resurrection of Lazarus the Four Days.
• Cathedral of the Archangel Gabriel.
• Celebration of the Icon of the Mother of God "Meletinskaya".
• Great Lent continues.

April 9, 2017 Sunday

• Palm Sunday - Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem.

From 10 to 15 April 2017 - Holy Week

April 10, 2017 Monday

• Great Monday of Holy Week.
• Venerable Hilarion the New, hegumen of Pelikite.
• Great Lent continues.

April 11, 2017 Tuesday

• Great Tuesday of Holy Week.
• Saint Eustathius the Confessor, Bishop of Bithynia.
• Great Lent continues.

April 12, 2017 Wednesday

• Great Wednesday of Passion Week.
• Saint John of the Ladder, hegumen of Sinai.
• Great Lent continues.

April 13, 2017 Thursday

• Maundy Thursday (Maundy Thursday).
• Saint Jonah, Metropolitan of Kiev, Moscow and All Russia, miracle worker.
• Great Lent continues.

April 14, 2017 Friday

• Good Friday (Good Friday).
• Remembrance of the Holy Saviors of the Passion of the Lord.
• Saint Euthymius, Archimadrid of Suzdal, miracle worker.
• Great Lent continues.

April 15, 2017 Saturday

• Great Saturday.
• Saint Titus the Wonderworker.
• Icon of the Mother of God "Key of Understanding".
• Great Lent continues.

April 16, 2017 Sunday

• Easter is the Holy Resurrection of Christ.
• End of Lent.

From 17 to 23 April 2017 - Bright Week

April 17, 2017 Monday

• Monday of Bright Week.
• Saint Joseph the Songwriter.
• Celebration of the icons of the Mother of God "Gerontissa" and "Redeemer".

April 18, 2017 Tuesday

• Tuesday of Bright Week.
• Celebration of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God and the Hodegetria Shuiskaya Icon.
• Transfer of the relics of St. Job, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.

April 19, 2017 Wednesday

• Wednesday of Holy Week.
• Memorial Day of Equal-to-the-Apostles Methodius, Bishop of Moravia.
• Venerable Platonis of Syria.
• 120 Persian martyrs.
• Celebration of the Kasperovskaya Icon of the Mother of God.

April 20, 2017 Thursday

• Thursday of Holy Week.
• Saint George the Confessor.
• Byzantine Icon of the Mother of God.

April 21, 2017 Friday

• Friday of Bright Week.
• Icons of the Mother of God "Life-Giving Spring".

April 22, 2017 Saturday

• Saturday of Bright Week.
• Martyr Eupsychius of Caesarea.
• Icon of the Mother of God "Caesarius".

April 23, 2017 Sunday

• Red hill.
• Week 2 after Easter, Antipascha or Fomin's day.
• Martyrs Terentius, Pompius, Africanus, Maximus, Zinon, Alexander, Theodore and 33 others.

April 24, 2017 Monday

• Hieromartyr Antipas, Bishop of Pergamum of Asia.
• Week 2 after Easter.

April 25, 2017 Tuesday

• Radonitsa, commemoration of the dead.
• Murom Icon of the Mother of God.

April 26, 2017 Wednesday

• Hieromartyr Artemon, Presbyter of Laodicea.
• Lent day.

April 27, 2017 Thursday

• Saint Martin the First, Confessor, Pope.
• Vilna Icon of the Mother of God.

April 28, 2017 Friday

• Apostles from the seventy Aristarchus, Puda and Trofim.
• Lent day.

April 29, 2017 Saturday

• Martyrs Agapia, Irene and Chionia.
• Ilyinsk-Chernigov and Tambov Icons of the Mother of God.

April 30, 2017 Sunday

• Week 3 after Pascha, holy myrrh-bearing women.
• Reverend Zosima, hegumen of Solovetsky.
• Icon of the Mother of God "The Redeemer".

Church fasts in April 2017

• Multi-day post in April 2017 - from 1 to 15 April Lent continues and ends April 15, 2017.
• One day posts April 26, April 28.
• A continuous week in which there is no fasting - Bright Week from 17 to 23 April 2017.

Humanity has experienced many large-scale pandemics and epidemics. It is believed that the first epidemic broke out in Athens from 431 to 427 BC, during the Peloponnesian War. About 30 thousand people became its victims. Modern scholars argue that the cause of the Athenian epidemic was not the plague, but a combination of measles and typhus.

The Plague of Justinian claimed many lives. The name of the epidemic is due to the fact that its beginning occurred during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Caesar Flavius ​​Justinian. The first plague epidemic on the shores of the Mediterranean lasted two centuries, from 541 to 750 AD. The peak fell on the year 544, when up to 5-10 thousand people died daily in Constantinople. According to various estimates, from 25 to 50 million people died from this epidemic in Europe, and more than 66 million people died in North Africa, Central Asia and Arabia. Plague caused pandemics more than once.

Smallpox was also a dangerous disease. Because of this disease, the population of China and Korea has decreased by a quarter, Japan - by 40%. In the XVII-XVIII centuries, smallpox mortality in Europe and Russia was up to 1.5 million people a year. The last smallpox epidemic in Europe was recorded in 1871-1873. In addition to individual outbreaks of plague and smallpox, several pandemics have been associated with cholera. Currently, this disease is practically not dangerous due to the development of vaccination and the widespread use of antibiotics. However, sporadic cholera outbreaks still occur in developing and poor countries today. So, ten years ago, a cholera epidemic arose on the island of Haiti, it affected 7% of the population and claimed the lives of 10 thousand people.

Four epidemics remain active today: AIDS/HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and influenza. Every year, about four million people become victims of them, despite the constant work on the creation of new drugs and treatments. At the same time, several diseases that caused deadly pandemics in the past can now be considered defeated. Scientists and doctors managed to find effective means of combating smallpox and plague, which killed hundreds of millions of people.

Epidemic of bubonic plague in Europe. infographics

On February 14, 1349, the inhabitants of Strasbourg burnt alive more than 2,000 Jews in the city cemetery.

At that time, the Jews became victims of pogroms and massacres not only in Alsace, but also in other regions of Western Europe. Popular rumor then repeated that allegedly Jews are much less likely to get sick with the plague, since they themselves spread it. And they do this, as it was said then, in order to exterminate the Christian peoples of Europe. At that time, the Polish king Casimir the Great volunteered to save the Jews from persecution, who invited all people of the Jewish faith to come to his possessions. Tens of thousands of people then found a new home on the lands of the so-called Lesser Poland, which then included the territory of western Ukraine.

See in the infographic how the plague raged in Europe and by what means they fought it.

Company infection. What infections can be picked up in a circle of friends

https://aif.ru/health/life/kompaneyskaya_zaraza_kakie_infekcii_mozhno_podcepit_v_krugu_druzey