Many people are interested in, if a person dies before the Ascension of the Lord, where does he end up? In fact, this major Christian holiday does not affect where the soul of the deceased will reside after death, in Heaven, Purgatory or Hell. However, it has great significance for believers.
This event is usually celebrated on the 40th day after the Resurrection of Christ, as stated in the Holy Scriptures. The Savior spent these forty days with his disciples, during which time he showed their eyes various miracles, for example, turning water into wine. He fed the poor, he could make enough food from one loaf of bread to feed dozens of people, according to a source at rsute.ru.
Folk signs for the Ascension of the Lord
The church holiday is celebrated on the 40th day after Easter.
For marriage
Unmarried girls washed themselves with dew in the morning to become a bride by autumn. A good omen is to hear the nightingale singing the night before the holiday. This bird is believed to bring mutual love and happiness.
To attract the attention of single men and boys, it was supposed to treat them with personally baked pancakes. To preserve beauty, girls wove wreaths from dandelions.
Fortune telling on birch branches helped to find out about marriage. The girls braided them. If the leaves on them have not withered before Trinity, there will be a wedding this year.
To attract a groom, the girl's mother baked bread. She scattered the crumbs from him in different directions so that unmarried guys would come from everywhere, and the daughter chose the most worthy of them.
About the weather
If it rains on Ascension, it will last another 6 weeks, and on Elijah’s day there will be a thunderstorm. Dry weather will also last for 1.5 months. If on the morning of the holiday the dawn is red, there will be many thunderstorms in the summer. A strong cold wind blows on Ascension - drought is expected.
If there was a little rain on Ascension, the year will be lean and the cattle will get sick a lot. If rainy weather lasts for several days, large losses are not expected.
Abundant dew in the morning promises a prosperous year. She was credited with healing properties. They washed themselves with dew to get rid of diseases, preserve youth and beauty.
Bright sun on Ascension - to a rich harvest.
Cash
To attract material well-being, several bills or coins were buried in the garden. This ritual was believed to attract money.
You cannot make mutual payments during the holiday. By repaying a debt, a person gives up his happiness. If you take the returned money, you can attract other people's troubles. All financial matters must be completed on the eve of the holiday or left for another day.
Birth or death
It is considered a favorable sign if a person dies on a great church holiday. On the Ascension of the Lord the gates of heaven are open. Therefore, the souls of the deceased get there without hindrance.
The birth of a child on Ascension means he will have a happy destiny. The baby is under the protection of Jesus himself, and not just a guardian angel. Everything planned by such a person comes true. In a dream, he often receives hints and signs that help in difficult situations.
It’s good if your birthday coincides with the Ascension of the Lord. Such a person will be lucky all year.
Other signs
If you happen to get sick on Ascension, don’t be upset. The illness will not last long; the patient will soon recover. To speed up his recovery, they cut several branches from the birch tree and placed them next to his bed.
To keep household members healthy, they baked dough stairs with 7 steps. The baked goods were consecrated and placed behind the icon as a talisman for the next year. The rest were distributed to household members to eat and drink with a glass of holy water. It gave health and good luck.
Seeing a bird on Ascension is a good sign. It is especially favorable to hear her sing. It gives health. The singing of a nightingale is for love and happiness. But you can't catch a bird. The person will be haunted by failures throughout the year.
The croaking of a crow under the window promises bad news. If a dove coos, a romantic date is ahead. The cries of a magpie foretell a new addition to the family.
A hen lays an egg on Ascension - good luck. It was hung under the roof to protect the house from trouble.
Results
Question: is it good to die on Easter, does the answer mean positive or negative? If you believe popular superstitions, this is very good. An atheist will answer in the negative; in his opinion, dying is always bad. The priests explain: it depends on whether the deceased wanted to be saved, whether he was open to God, and whether he participated in the sacraments of the Church. The Lord sees the desire and sends grace. If there was no aspiration, any church rituals are powerless, the gift of Eternal Life is inaccessible, the date of death is not important.
What can you do on this day
On Ascension, Orthodox Christians go to the temple for a solemn service that ends with the removal of the shroud.
On the 40th day after Easter, the swimming season in Rus' began. Rituals were often performed to improve the harvest in order to appease Mother Earth. On Ascension, baked goods were decorated with seven-step stairs as a symbol of the holiday.
On the holiday, it is customary to engage in charity, to perform good deeds in memory of how Jesus walked among the people in the form of a beggar after his miraculous resurrection.
How does the church look at the death of a person on Easter Day?
Unlike the laity, some of whom may consider death on the main Orthodox holiday to be the great good of the Lord, who grants salvation to the soul of the deceased and frees him from the Last Judgment with ordeals, church ministers do not support such a point of view.
All representatives of the church rely only on the official scriptures, which say that all souls of the departed must go through God's judgment, repent and be cleansed of the sins of earthly life. The Bible does not contain any other instructions related to death on Easter Day.
Priests explain to believers that such superstitions do not correspond to the true Christian faith, since they make it possible to doubt the inevitability of God’s judgment for the sinner.
For a believer, death on the day of Easter may be a special mercy of God, but not deliverance from the Last Judgment. True believers who know all the canons of Christianity well are not afraid to appear before God. They find joy for themselves and their loved ones only in the fact that they have at least in some way come closer to the Savior, having completed their life’s journey on the main Orthodox holiday.
True believers do not seek salvation only in this. Usually they begin their journey of soul salvation long before the hour of death, and repose on Easter is given to them and their loved ones as consolation in grief, but not as a guarantee of direct entry into the Heavenly Kingdom.
What not to do on Ascension Day
On a major church holiday, you cannot do housework. Sweeping, dusting, taking out trash is a bad omen. General cleaning is completed the day before in order to meet the celebration in cleanliness.
You cannot cry, swear with loved ones or slander. You need to free yourself from negative thoughts. It is necessary to do good deeds and occupy your head with bright thoughts about the Lord.
On holiday you cannot go to the bathhouse, wash, cut your nails, or shave. All hygiene procedures must be completed the day before in order to meet the Ascension of the Lord clean. You can't cut your hair or make up your hair on a special day either. According to signs, this is how a person shortens his life.
What to believe about where the soul goes after death
Regardless of whether a person believes in Hell and Heaven, he must realize that evil will always be punished and good will be rewarded. Since God really exists and there is a lot of evidence for this. He controls our lives, because man himself cannot do this.
In order to prevent chaos from occurring in the world, God came up with laws for people to live by. There must be balance in everything, as Theodore Dreiser wrote, balance will come anyway, whether a person wants it or not. Balance is nothing more than a creative force, as well as universal agreement about order and peace in human society.
How to Avoid Negative Predictions
To protect themselves from troubles, they went to church services in the morning. This day is especially suitable for remembering deceased relatives. In the church they lit a candle for the repose or ordered a memorial service. After the end of the festive service, we went to the cemetery to remember relatives and clean up the graves. At the cemetery, crumbs from the birthday cake were always scattered around the gravestone. It was considered a good sign if birds began to peck at them.
Conducting a memorial ceremony
The list of erroneous beliefs among people does not end with the belief that one can automatically go to heaven if a person dies on Easter. The commemoration of the deceased is carried out according to standard custom, without turning the mentioned event into a magnificent feast. A funeral dinner is permitted because Lent is completed before the start of the holiday week. Meat and fish dishes are allowed. Commemoration during Easter week is carried out without alcohol. List of dishes that can be on the table:
- borsch;
- lean pies;
- chicken;
- salad;
- lean buns and so on.
There is a common misconception. The soul is not remembered during Easter Sunday. On the mentioned day, they remember the sacrifice that the Lord made. Close people who suddenly died during Easter week are remembered a day later.
The list of infidels continues with the recommendation to prohibit commemoration on the day after death. People believe that prayer “will not reach” its recipient. Priests refute such prejudices. The date of the ceremony and subsequent burial is chosen after a conversation with the priest. Believing relatives should not make decisions on their own.
Dreams for Ascension
On the eve of major church holidays, dreams often contain hints and warnings. They are usually understandable and accurately describe the current situation. When deciphering, pay attention to the nature of the dream and the emotions experienced by the dreamer. The words you hear mean a lot. They contain clues from the subconscious.
Many people have prophetic dreams. They are usually executed quickly. Since the Ascension of the Lord always falls on Thursday, what is seen on Friday night comes true very often. Angels often appear in dreams. If they give instructions, they must be followed exactly.
If you had a bad, scary dream, you need to retell it to running water. All the negativity will go away, and the good will come closer to the person.
If a person died before the Ascension, their soul may go to Hell or Purgatory
Religion teaches us that everyone has their own Guardian Angel, who watches over a person throughout his life and writes down all the good and evil deeds he has done in the “book of existence.” Therefore, a believer and baptized person can pray to him for help, so that he will guide him on the path of truth and faith in the Almighty, and help him not to succumb to temptation.
Hell is described in different ways, some present it as a place devoid of human joys and blessings, others as a fiery hyena. In the underworld, a person finds himself in complete loneliness, which leads him to a mental breakdown. He is sad because there is no one to talk to and tell about his misfortunes to comfort him. In addition, Hell does not mean easy and routine work.
However, a sinner can save himself by repenting of his crime and doing good deeds. Of course, someone who has shown cruelty towards another, an animal or a person, will have to greatly regret it.
In Purgatory, repentant sinners have the opportunity to learn the secrets of the Universe, for they have access to this knowledge. Every day will be filled with meaning, they will spend time usefully for themselves, and they will have the opportunity to think about their actions during life. Because Angels will talk to them about this.
Signs and recommendations
- If there is a snowstorm on this day, then this phenomenon can be expected in 3 months.
- People born on January 18 have a calm and quiet disposition. They are meek and unnoticeable. They should wear an opal or emerald as a talisman.
- It is a bad omen to accidentally spill water on Epiphany Eve - I won’t talk about the consequences so as not to scare you, but we watch the liquid closely.
- Forget about alcohol and overeating on January 18th. Will bring illnesses for the whole year.
- Also forget about quarrels, scandals, intrigues and investigations on this day. Otherwise, your luck will run out for the whole year.
- I really don’t recommend picking up a broom and sweeping garbage out of the corners and throwing it away, because there is a belief that on this day the souls of dead people come, gather in the corners, and after Baptism return to heaven.
- On this day you should refuse work that is not obligatory.
- If you decide to do laundry on January 18, you can do it before lunch. This rule also applies to cleaning the house.
- If you like to do sewing, knitting or other handicrafts, then you can. But with the only exception - for yourself or for gifts. Not for sale. It will sell poorly all year.
- If you decide to visit the hairdresser on this day, then the time is ideal. Get rid of negative energy.
- If you decide to perform rituals on Christmas Eve, then you need to do it alone. And approach the process as seriously as possible. You also cannot tell anyone about divination at Epiphany.
- On January 18, the sky opens, and therefore you need to make wishes, pray and burn candles.
- You should definitely take a bath on January 18th - it will give you health and beauty for the whole year.
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Traditions on Epiphany Christmas Eve
Many people compare this day with Christmas Eve, since on the eve of the holiday strict fasting was required, and the celebration began only after the first star appeared in the sky. But only lenten dishes were allowed to be served on the table. And then again it was necessary to fast until the water was blessed. The priests held a service that night, but not in the temple, but on the river, where an ice hole in the form of a cross had previously been prepared. This tradition has survived to this day. Everyone who is not too lazy has climbed and climbed into this water in order to wash away their sins and cleanse their karma. They also stocked up on holy water. Then the people hurried home, where a Lenten dinner awaited them. And then the fun began. One of the main entertainments for baptism was ice skating and carousel skating. And just like at Christmas, people went from house to house with carols, songs and dances. And again, water was given special power. I will tell you more about this later.
