Church New Year and Peace Circle (beginning of the indictment)

Secular society celebrates the change of the annual cycle on January 1, combining this date with Christian Christmas But in the Orthodox Church itself, the New Year-Summer celebration is celebrated on September 14, that is, September 1 according to the old style The full name of the holiday is “Consecrated Time of the Church: Church New Year and Peaceful Circle,” and its roots go back to the origins of the Byzantine Christian faith In the 3-4 centuries in the Eastern Roman Empire, the Orthodox foundations of the new religion were established; in many ways, they arose as a rejection of pagan beliefs In connection with this opposition, in 312, Emperor Constantine introduced time calculation by indictions, instead of the ancient Olympiads Indict or indiction (from the Latin “renewal”) is a cycle of 15 years Initially, in the Roman Empire the term meant a tax on grain, which was in connection with the census Constantine the Great connected the indictment with church chronology It is noteworthy that the year within such a cycle was also called an indict, so it can be argued that this concept is synonymous with the New Year or New Summer The Great Indiction lasted 532 years, its approval was associated with the Julian calendar at the first Church Council In Rus', this large time period was called the Peaceful Circle; it contained the cyclic repetition of celestial phenomena and the eternal circular flow of time The Orthodox Church classifies Holy Time as a middle holiday, but at the same time, on September 14, they celebrate the day of Simeon the Stylite and his mother Martha, and also remember the fasting virgins and their teacher, the martyr Ammun the deacon Therefore, the evening service on the eve of the New Year is performed in honor of three great memorable deeds At Great Vespers, the clergy interpret the events described in the Gospel of Luke about the coming of Jesus Christ to the Nazareth synagogue There, the Savior read to those present the lines of the book of the prophet Isaiah about preaching the favorable year of the Lord In Muscovite Rus', the New Summer coincided with the end of the harvest and the completion of agricultural work; the holiday was celebrated everywhere on a grand scale It was considered especially important to give gifts to the poor and prisoners in prison Well-born, noble boyars, and even the tsar himself, did not shy away from giving alms Not a single beggar was left without alms that day The suffering were fed hearty meals and presented with clothes and shoes But the reign of Peter 1 largely changed ancient Russian customs; New Year's festivities on the occasion of January 1 are gradually pushing aside the autumn holiday As a result, the date of September 14 is today revered as a church date, and in order to spread it into secular society, a number of state-level events are necessary The question arises about the revival of the best traditions of Orthodox Russia, which include the celebration of the onset of the Peacemaking Circle