Orthodox Christians celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

On August 28, Orthodox Christians celebrate the Dormition of the Mother of God. The great feast, established in memory of the departure of the Most Holy Theotokos to the Lord God, ends the strict Assumption Fast, which lasted two weeks. According to Holy Tradition, the Heavenly Queen did not die in the usual sense for us, but as if she fell asleep - and the perfect soul was taken to Heaven by Her Divine Son.

On the Assumption, no matter what day of the week this holiday falls, many believers gather in Orthodox churches for common prayer. On the day of the holiday and in the evening on the eve, festive services are held, during which bread is traditionally consecrated - on the Assumption in many regions of Russia, Ukraine and other countries, the harvest of grain is completed by this time.
Despite the fact that the events remembered by the Church on this day are associated with death, for Christians the Assumption is an exceptionally bright holiday. The Blessed Virgin, having finished her earthly path, was born for Eternal Life - a huge moral lesson for the believer lies in the realization of this. “... When they carry Her to the resting place, when the Apostles sing funeral chants, vivid memories of the Great Teacher of love and of His gentle and majestic Mother. And there will be, there will certainly be those who will join the Apostles and water the grave of an exemplary Nazarene woman with a warm tear, and rule their lives and affairs according to the Gospel of Her Son. Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, the world will forget about its worries and will restore in its memory the whole life of this Wife, who had a strong faith, - and he himself will be convinced that the name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous man runs into it - and is safe (Proverbs 18, 11) ”, - says in the sermon on the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God of St. Nicholas (Velimirovich).