Holiday of the Holy Trinity

Fifty days after Easter, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the great holiday of Pyatidesyatnitsa — the feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit. It was on this day, as God had promised, that the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles. According to Orthodox teaching, and indeed Christianity in general, God exists in three entities — Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The notion of Trinity became dogma, adopted and expressed as a symbol of faith at the first ecumenical council in 325 A.D.

In Russian folk tradition, Pyatidesyatnitsa is called Troitsa (Trinity). This holiday somehow merged with the old Slavic pagan holiday Semik (from the Russian word for the figure ‘seven’ – sem). It was one of the most joyful summer festivals of the ancients Slavs – a sort of farewell to spring and a welcome to summer.

Semik was considered a female holiday because in pagan times agriculture was mainly a woman’s job. Agricultural spirits, which pagans believed to be patrons of the crop and favoring fertility, were also considered to be female. In order to please and appease them (these customs and rites are still observed in some parts of Russia), people would cut down a young birch tree in the forest, decorate it with ribbons and flowers, and take it to the other extreme of the village where they would sing and dance around the tree and have a kind of party beneath it — serving pies, fried and boiled eggs and other food. They decorated themselves  and their homes and churches  with birch branches and flowers. Girls also wore special garlands made of birch branches. At the end of the feast, they would go to the river bank, throw the garlands into the water and watch how they floated. The fate of the garland would be the same as the fate of the thrower in life.

Another rite observed on Trinity Day was paying tribute to the dead on the so-called Parents’ Saturday. According to pagan beliefs, Slavs were expected to honor the departed because they could influence the fate of the living — by affecting their health, crops or livestock. So Slavs always visited the graves of their ancestors, decorated them with flowers and birch branches, put meals there and, after singing ritual songs began eating, inviting the dear departed to the ‘table’ too.

This cult of the dead is also linked with the legend of the mermaid. Ancient Slavs believed that mermaids were the spirits of young girls and women who died unnatural deaths, or souls of unbaptized children or children killed by their mothers. Pagans taught that in spring these mermaids walk along the river banks or wander in the forests and fields looking for living people to entice into the water or tickle to death. Slavs feared mermaids and were at pains to be good to them, so during Semik any girl who had mermaids among her nearest and dearest would say prayers to these dead, leave food in the fields and clearings, and hang clothes and decorations on the trees. Mermaids were considered to be female spirits of the water and vegetation which watched over the growth of cereals, herbs and fruit. For this reason, the Semik/Troitsa week is also called rusalnaya, meaning Mermaid week.

Calendar in Brief

The name of the first month of summer came to Russia from Byzantium. It honors the Greek Goddess of fertility, the guardian of marriage and rain, Yunona. Later juny turned into iyun. This name then replaced genuinely Slavic names for the month like izok, the old name for grasshopper, and chervets, a kind of worm (they come to the surface in June). Incidentally, Russians have collected these worms since ancient times and made a very strong dark red dye from them. Photos from Great Encyclopedia of Russia.

June is a very poetic month in Russia, starting with a date dear to the heart of every Russian — the birth of ‘The Sun of Russian poetry’ Alexander Pushkin. This year people will celebrate the 197th anniversary of his birth. Paradoxically, the more years separate us from Pushkin, the closer to us he becomes, the more contemporary his verses sound. This is the core of his genius.

One hundred seventy five years ago another Russian poet, Apollon Maikov, was born on June 4, 1821. A renowned master of lyrical poetry, he is also famous for one of the best translations of the ancient epic masterpiece Slovo o polku Igoreve (The Lay of Igor’s Host), which described a May 1185 battle against the Polovtsy.

Maikov’s talent was praised by the famous Russian critic Vissarion Belinsky, who was 10 years older than the poet (born June 11, 1811). Nicknamed by his colleagues ‘Vissarion the frenzied,’ Belinsky was also known for his revolutionary and democratic spirit. He stigmatized autocracy and the clergy (he considered the Russian Orthodox Church a servant of despotism). He urged the abolition of serfdom and corporal punishment and even said he “understood the bloody love Marat [one of the leaders of the French revolution] cherished for freedom.”

In recent times, Belinsky’s revolutionary views have not always been appreciated. However, his contribution to Russian literary criticism is something approaching that of Pushkin in Russian poetry. Belinsky defined such important concepts in literature and criticism as ‘the folk character’ and ‘the typical’ in literature, and did a classification of the different genres. Many generations of Russian readers became acquainted with the works of Pushkin, Gogol and Lermontov through the eyes of Belinsky.

Two other names complete the pleiad of talented writers born in June. Fyodor Glinka — a poet and prominent public figure in the last century — fought in the war of 1812. He wrote a masterpiece of Russian literature called The Letters of a Russian Officer, while his poems Troika (1824) and Prisoner (1831) became the lyrics of popular songs.

Sixty years ago, on June 18, Maxim Gorky died. Likely the most influential figure in 20th century Soviet letters, his controversial life and work seemed to merit more in-depth coverage – which you will find on page 14.

However, June is not all poetic and lyrical. It is also marked by tragic and dramatic events, such as the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (June 22) which, according to the latest official statistics, may have claimed as many as 27 million lives. Historians still argue about whether or not the Soviet military command was taken by surprise. At any rate, the vast majority of the population was — officers were on leave, and when German troops crossed the border and planes started jettison bombing Kiev at 4 am, the whole country was sound asleep.

Bloody events in Russian history were not always precipitated from outside. In June 1671, Stepan Razin, leader of the peasant revolt of 1667-1671, was quartered on the execution block beside St. Basil’s Cathedral. The church itself, meanwhile, known officially as the Intercession Cathedral (Pokrovsky Sobor) was also completed in the month of June, some 110 years earlier. Considered by many to be the symbol of Moscow, the cathedral stands out for its beauty, majesty and original design. An architectural monument of world importance, listed by UNESCO, it has been attracting admirers from all over the world for 435 years.

Finally, in tribute to Russia’s new market economy, it bears mentioning that June marks the anniversary of the opening of the first Russian stock exchange,  in St. Petersburg in 1816. It still remains to be seen whether this event will be blessed or damned by posterity.

Last, but definitely not least, June 12 is the day when Russia celebrates its independence (on this day five years ago Boris Yeltsin was elected President). Four days later this year, on June 16, the country will elect a new (or old) President, possibly indirectly deciding whether Russia’s Independence Day will remain in the calendar or not...