Orthodox Book Day celebrated in Russia

On March 14, the Russian Federation celebrates the Day of the Orthodox Book. Its celebration was established at a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, held on December 25, 2009, and was timed to coincide with the publication of the first printed book in Russian - 'Apostle' by Ivan Fedorov, which was released on March 1, old style.

The initiator of the establishment of the memorable date was the Belgorod and Stary Oskol diocese - on its canonical territory this day was celebrated even before the official establishment of the all-Russian holiday. And today in the Belgorod region on this day, book exhibitions and spiritual readings are annually held, prayers for children and the gift of intelligence are heard in churches, lectures on Orthodox culture, conferences on printing and distribution of Orthodox literature are held.

In a series of other events, timed to coincide with the Day of the Orthodox Book, in the city of Graivoron, Belgorod Region, on the eve of the holiday, a meeting of students of a local school with in-depth study of individual subjects was held with the rector of the Gora-Podolsk Church of the Archangel Michael, Priest Viktor Belozerskikh. Especially for the meeting of the children with the priest 'There is a miracle on earth with the name Book', a book exhibition 'Through the book - to goodness and light' was prepared.

It is no secret that modern children read much less than their peers twenty or thirty years ago. Today they often learn about the Church, faith, the Lord Jesus Christ in personal communication with a priest than from books. According to the network edition of the Graivoronsky urban district 'Rodnoy Kray', during the meeting, the schoolchildren not only learned about what mark the printed word can leave in a person's life and what source of wisdom it represents, but also got the opportunity to get acquainted with old publications that Father Victor - for example, with the Psalter of 1834 and the Gospel of 1868.

Touching the book monuments and the opportunity to look through their pages themselves made a great impression on the children. “It’s an amazing feeling to touch the old books, by which more than one generation of Russian people learned to live. Amazing rarities of one kind make you think about the meaning of life, '- told the' Rodny Krai 'correspondent on At the end of the meeting, sixth grade student Alexander Tsygankov.