To baptize or not to baptize?

"My grandson was born. I suggested

For many years we tried to find a worthy substitute for traditional holidays and celebrations. But it turned out that the Komsomol wedding could not eclipse the ceremony of the wedding. The New Year holiday is inextricably linked with Christmas. And for Easter, which is a sin to hide, we still paint eggs. So the baptism ceases to be a curiosity. What attracts people to the church?

At noon I go down Nezhdanova Street and enter the golden-domed church, strangely festive among the faceless gray hulks of houses approaching it. In the lateral limit there are people with Children in their arms. The sacrament of baptism is hidden from prying eyes. It smells of incense. The candles crackle. The sorrowful faces of the saints look at us, making us feel the significance of the upcoming event. The rite was performed by a young priest, Father Artemy, who, despite his age, already teaches at the theological academy. After completing the rite, I come up to my parents with the question: "Why did you decide to baptize your child?" None of them dares to introduce themselves, and they are reluctant to talk, as people seem to be afraid that some of this has happened,where they will inform. I want to make a reservation right away, now no passport data is required for baptism.

So, why are they here? One kid was brought secretly to the church by my grandmother, who sincerely believes that the guardian angel will take care of her grandson. Two young couples listened to the advice of their parents. Young milf pursues the goal of "medical": the witch doctor refused to speak to an unbaptized child. Two girls want to join the Christian religion - "the bearer of eternal wisdom."A shy eighteen-year-old boy was brought to the church by a mother who lost her eldest son, who died in Afghanistan, and hopes that baptism will help the younger to be saved from troubles. The young couple explained their decision this way: "Everyone is baptized today. So we thought, maybe there really is something in it. "A bearded man holding a son in his arms whispered: "Here they pray for the child, not for the passport!" The young girl said that she was tired of her "herd events" with paper flags, that she would like to return at least once with not worn out legs, butwith a rested soul.

In a word, these people came here not for idle curiosity and not under compulsion. But of all the respondents there was not one who made this step thoughtfully, fully understanding the true meaning of the sacrament of baptism.

I asked Father Artemy to tell about the meaning and content of the rite of baptism:

- Baptism is one of the seven sacraments. It helps a person to connect with God, to feel himself a true Christian. The moral content of the rite is unquestionable. The adult person becomes clearer and more enlightened after baptism. A kid is trying to guide his true parents, professing Christian morality. The whole ceremony is full of profound meaning. Every detail in it is significant. And the white robe? It's not just a uniform. White color symbolizes purity, truth, innocence. But, unfortunately, today we are not always able to strictly follow the canons of the ritual. There are many reasons for this. And one of them is that some people turn to the church not in search of spiritual life and comfort, but following the fashionable savor, not trying to realize the depths of centuries-old wisdom and thereby depriving themselves of Divine grace. This is the fault of the priests themselves. I have often witnessed the simplification and sometimes distortion of the rite of baptism, and its importance is belittled. The priest is responsible for the souls of the people who came to him. Bad is the doctor who does not sympathize with the patient. So the priest, who is formally doing his work, can not be a spiritual shepherd and a spiritual healer. What can he teach? After all, the teacher is not only the one who teaches, but to a greater extent the one who learns.

our reportage can not claim the exhaustive completeness. And this is not the goal we pursued, publishing it. The main thing that interested us was the viability of the church rituals and those spiritual sources that feed their forces. Neither prohibitions nor persecutions could destroy them or pervert them. Why are we raised in the time of militant atheism, again enter the temple, watching with interest the events? Or maybe we are running from the heartlessness of civil ceremonies, which have not been able to replace us with celebrations and celebrations polished for centuries?

Many questions. But is the church only a worthy alternative to the cold officialdom? After all, a lot of holidays, rooted in religion, have long been popular. Caroling in Transcarpathian villages is an indispensable attribute of the New Year holidays. Farewell to the Russian winter in some Kostroma villages and today remind those who captured Kustodiev in their canvases. Traditional carnival on the Wo-hitch is famous for the obligatory campaign "to the mother-in-law for pancakes" and sledding. And as they say "apple salvage" in the Kursk region, famous for its Antonovka! And the famous Bashkir Sabantuy! And magnificent festivities on the Lithuanian mountain Rambinas! Do not consider the traditional days of folk fun.

There are canonical holidays, which are everywhere marked almost equally. But there are also many that are associated with a particular place, like Sorochinsky Fair in Mirgorod or "wintertime" in Pavlovsk, where the ice battles of famous fighting geese are arranged.