With the arrival of spring, the Christian world begins to prepare for the next big holiday - the Bright Day of Christ - Easter. This holiday is preceded by Maslenitsa, and then-Great Lent. Maslenitsa is gone... The house is cleaned of paper flowers and gilded gingerbread. One of the heroes of the "Summer of the Lord" Ivan Shmelev said that at this time "the soul will begin", "the soul must be prepared", "go to sleep, fast, prepare for a Bright Day". Preparation for the fast was felt in everything: in the reading of the "lenten prayers", and in the decoration of the house: "they lit a lenten, bare glass lamp, and now it will burn unquenchably until Easter." Spring worries are inseparable from the expectation of Easter, they smoothly and inevitably turn into pre-holiday chores: making a pascha. page 81 sochek-wooden molds for cheese Easter-a must-have curd holiday meal. A forgotten custom is also described - to burn crosses over the doors with a candle brought from the church. In I. S. Shmelev's nostalgic memoirs, the mountain is always intertwined with the lower, earthly. Fasting for him is both the preparation of the soul and the celebration of Russian lenten cuisine. The author colorfully displayed the Old Moscow "lenten market": "Self-fresh cranberries! Arkhangelsk key-kuva!.. And blue cloudberry, and blueberries - for lean pies and jelly (...) And here's the cabbage. Wide cadi on a sledge, sour and stinking spirit. Golden from the sun, juicy (...) And here are the cucumbers, strong and fresh spirit, dill, horseradish. Golden cucumbers play in brine, dance..." Somewhere near the end of Lent comes the feast of the Annunciation (April 7) and very little remained until Easter. I. S. Shmelev's mention of the feast "The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem" (in the Russian tradition, this is Palm Sunday ) is introduced by the short metaphor "willow". In Moscow, on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter), people carry Easter cakes in cardboard boxes to sanctify the temples. R ... Read more