Do you think that Christianity, by taking Slavic pagan holidays, distorted their meaning and changed the meaning, or did it bring improvements?
– The Day of the God Veles was replaced by the Day of Vlasius; – The Day of Maslenitsa-Madder was declared simply Maslenitsa; – The Day of the God Kupala became the day of John the Baptist, or as it was called in the Russian manner – Ivan Kupala, i.e. Ivan who bathed everyone in the river; – The Day of Triglav (Svarog-Perun-Sventovit), turned into the Trinity; – The High Day of the God Perun was replaced by the Day of Elijah the Prophet… etc.
Metropolitan Hilarion (Ivan Ogienko) wrote a whole book about holidays and customs, which orthodox Christianity ( from the pro – Western Nikon-Orthodoxy) “borrowed from the Slavs-Vedists (pagans or filthy in church jargon).
And Christianity didn't steal these holidays from the good life. Up until the 19th century, the common Russian people (peasants) continued to actively resist the imposed force of religion.
If anyone doubts, read Russian folk tales, especially from Afanasyev's three-volume collection. All the priests there are definitely negative characters.
And the missionaries of the overseas faith had to add to the chamber Christianity (church, Bible, priest) the most favorite nature holidays of the Slavs-Vedists.
Of course, the holidays were perverted in Orthodoxy.
For example, the rite of winter Yuletide carols referred to the Slavic god Kolyada. and they stuck him to Christ. Maslenitsa was the least affected. Feast of the god Yarilo on the day of the spring equinox. It was simply moved for two weeks according to the church calendar and a strict fast was attached to it.
The festival of the summer solstice (solstice) in honor of the god Kupalo (not Ivan Kupala – this is the popular name) was also moved forward two weeks and turned into John the Baptist.
At the same time, all the magic of the holiday was lost. After all, the evil spirit climbed out into the light of day on June 22, and not at the beginning of July. But the love for the holiday itself is still strong. People celebrate Kupalo, not the Baptist.
The churchmen and monarchs-satraps did not manage to erase the Slavic, Old Russian spirit from the Russian people. Now Vedism is on the rise, and Christianity is gradually disappearing. In Europe, there are generally 20-30% of believers.
Of course, the days of celebration have changed their meaning.
For Christianity, holidays combined with ancient Slavic customs were embedded in a universal and universal concept of the universe, based on the trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
In order not to celebrate the same holiday every day,a list of Holy Hierarchs, saints, martyrs, etc. was created, combining their day of veneration and celebration of church worship..
Let's look at it from the point of view of Jesus.
Matthew chapter 15 verse 3
It depends from whose point of view. With pagan – perverted. From the Christian side, it brought a new meaning to pagan holidays (for example, the Feast of the Sun became the feast of the Sun of Truth – Christmas).
Christianity does not have the roots of Slavic paganism. Christinanism is based on more than 2/3 of the “sacred” writings of the previous religions: Buddhism – is considered to have originated around 600 BC, when the Messenger Buddha preached; Judaism – around 1270 BC, when Moses preached; Zoroastrianism – around 2087 BC – preached by Zarathustra; Hermeticism – around 2400 BC – preached by Hermes; Hinduism – around 3050 BC – preached by Krishna; Veddism – about 2050 BC-preached by the Prophet-around 4000 BC-preached Rama (Abraham, Imma). Information about earlier religions, and apparently there were quite a few of them, has not reached us…
Were the Jews really only able to copy someone else's name, change it, and take it for themselves? It seems wild to me. How they were just allowed to do this. And I would like to know, if ordinary people could at least somehow resist this, why it is not in the history. There are only approximate casualties. I understand that the story is written by the winner, but this price is too high to be forgiven. Even if Easter is a pagan feast of sacrifice.
Since the true living God that Christians worship is the Creator of the universe, everything in the world is His, by definition. Everything belongs to God , including every day of the year. Therefore, in Christianity, there is no problem with taking some pagan holiday of saturnalia and replacing it with a pious feast of the Nativity of Christ.