Baptism: 7 seditious facts

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

1. Dashing boyars

Historians know the fact that Ivan the Terrible liked to demonstrate to amazed foreign ambassadors the valor and daring of his boyars: he made them throw off their fur coats and merrily dive into the hole, pretending that it was easy and simple for them. Moreover, he did this not within the framework of Orthodoxy, but precisely in the traditions of military valor.

Slavic traditions of swimming in an ice-hole are part of the ancient pre-Christian military rituals, initiations, initiations. Even the ancient Scythians dipped their babies into icy water, accustoming them to the harsh nature. In Russia, after the bath, they loved to plunge into ice water or jump into a snowdrift.

2. Rites

In the Russian winter calendar cycle, the pagan Slavs inscribed the cult of ancestors - "dzyads", and all the rituals were tied to this particular cult. These rituals included numerous producing magical actions: traditional meals, scattering grain, well-wishes of the first guest (polaznik), ritual plowing and sowing, "intimidation" and "waking" of fruit trees, rituals with poultry and cattle, baking of ritual bread, etc.

The rituals associated directly with the spirits of the ancestors included traditional meals with invocation and symbolic feeding of the dead; Christmas bonfires, to which the ancestors were called to "warm up", elements of caroling and mumming. It is from the latter, by the way, that the notorious "Santa Claus" appeared.

Great importance in the winter period was attached to another group of rituals, which included cleansing actions with water, explained by beliefs about the uncleanness of the Christmastide period and ritual actions of that time - dressing, games, etc. labor on the river, etc.; all people who dressed up for Christmas time also traditionally washed themselves in an ice-hole to cleanse themselves of an unclean spirit. Most of the rituals associated with bathing in the pagan tradition were intended to drive away and neutralize evil spirits. Winter was considered a time of special revelry for many unclean spirits, and first of all their activity fell on Christmastide.

3. Baptism … by fire

The word "baptism" goes back to the ancient word "kres" meaning "fire". Kresalo - flint, flint for carving fire). Thus, "baptism" means "burning." Initially, it referred to pagan initiatory rituals, called upon at a certain age to “kindle” in a person the “spark of life” that is in him from the Family. Thus, the pagan rite of baptism meant (or consolidated) a person's readiness for the field (military art, craft).

Just think about the expressions "baptism of fire", "work baptism", "baptism of fire." Or on the more modern expression "work with fire."

Until now, in the West, for example, in the Czech Republic, the tradition of lighting bonfires for Epiphany is preserved, which is explained in a modern Christian way: supposedly, the path of the Magi is illuminated by the light of "Epiphany lights".

4. Cross-Kryzh

The word baptism, of course, is one of the versions with the word “cross”, which used to mean several (not necessarily two) mutually crossed crossbars - comes from the word “cross”, meaning a type of fire pit (logs folded in a certain way).

This name of the campfire laying later extended to any intersection of logs, logs, boards or lines.

Otherwise, it sounds like "kryzh". Traces of this word in the modern language remain the name of the city of Kryzhopol (the city of the Cross) and in accounting professional terms "kryzhik" - a cross (check mark) in the statement, the verb "kryzhit" - to check, verify the statements. In other East Slavic languages it is used this way (in Belarusian, for example, "crusader" is "kryzhanosets, kryzhak").

5. Sacred Cross

Few people know that there is evidence that Christians even despised the cross as a pagan symbol.

As for the crosses, we do not venerate them at all: we Christians do not need them; it is you, pagans, you for whom wooden idols are sacred, you worship wooden crosses.

Christian writer Felix Manutius, who lived in the 3rd century A. D. (dating TI)

And this is another kind of malice in the peasants - they baptize bread with a knife, and they baptize beer with a cup with something else - and they do it like a disgusting thing.

Chudovsky list "Words about idols", XIV century (dating TI)

As you can see, the author of the medieval teachings decisively opposed the cross-shaped sign on ritual bread-koloboks and over a ladle of beer, considering it a pagan relic. “The author of the lecture obviously knew. - rightly notes B. A. Rybakov, - that the drawing of the cross on bread had by that time at least a thousand-year "trash" tradition."

6. Baptism of Rus

The only source from which the traditional version of the Baptism of Rus begins is the Radziwil (Konigsberg) Chronicle, of which the Tale of Bygone Years is a part.

It is written on 15th century Polish-made paper and contains 618 drawings. Now they call it comics. It is unique and not only because we do not know of other illustrated chronicles of this time.

In the drawings in the Byzantine style, you can see the peaked Gothic roofs of buildings, European dresses and headdresses of princesses, Western European military armor, swords, shields, crossbows, cannons, heralds in two-tone suits, and much more, which has never been in Russia.

“And Vladimir began to reign in Kiev alone,” says the chronicle, “and put idols on the hill behind the terem courtyard: the wooden Perun with a silver head and golden mustache, then Khors, Dazhdbog, Stirbog, Simargl and Mokosh. And they brought sacrifices to them, calling them gods … And the Russian land and that hill were defiled with blood …"

Then there is a story about how Vladimir summoned Muslims, Jews, "Germans from Rome", Byzantine Christians to Kiev and, having listened to the arguments of each in defense of his faith, settled on Byzantine Orthodoxy (by the way, in the history of the Khazar Kaganate, and the choice of Kagan Bulan faith, also use this tale of the calling of missionaries "of all faiths").

This canonical version is just based on one single source. This source is "The Tale of Bygone Years". And from that very time, the most terrible heresy is considered to be in doubt.

7. Baptism of Rus in foreign studies

In foreign sources of the X-XI centuries, researchers still have not found evidence of the baptism of Russia in 988. For example, the medieval historian Fyodor Fortinsky in 1888 - on the eve of the 900th anniversary of Vladimir's baptism - did extensive work, looking for even the slightest hints of such a significant event in European sources. The scientist analyzed Polish, Czech, Hungarian, German, Italian chronicles. The result amazed him: none of the texts contained at least any information about the adoption of Christianity by Russia at the end of the 10th century.