Western Christians celebrate the Day of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary

On December 8, Catholic believers celebrate one of the main feasts of the Mother of God in the calendar of the Western Church: the Day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In Catholic countries, many churches are dedicated to this holiday - in particular, the cathedral in the capital of Russia, Moscow. On this day, festive services are performed in Catholic churches, the words of special prayers and chants are heard, the main of which is the hymn Ave, maris stella! (Rejoice, Star of the Sea! ').

The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary (lat. Immaculata conceptio) is a dogma of the Catholic Church, according to which the Blessed Virgin, although she was conceived from ordinary parents, did not pass the original sin onto her. If Orthodoxy sees the reason for the sinlessness of the Mother of God in her personal purity, intelligence and power of will (in contrast to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born a perfect man), then the Catholic Church teaches that the inability to sin was present in the Mother of God from the very beginning, from the moment Her conception by the righteous Joachim and Anna.
Immaculate Conception '> In the Roman Catholic Church, the celebration of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary on December 8 was established in 1476 by Pope Sixtus IV. Officially, this dogma was enshrined by Pope Pius IX in 1854.
It is from December 8 that the sale of 'Christmas candles' begins: traditional red-green flowers, buying which and bringing them home is an old custom. The entire collection from their sale is traditionally directed to charity.