The Nut Feast of the Saviour is the third ''spas'' feast of the Saviour which celebrates the Holy Mandylion of the Lord. It is celebrated as the

afterfeast An Afterfeast is a period of celebration attached to one of the Great Feasts celebrated by the Orthodox Christian and Eastern Catholic Churches (somewhat analogous to what in the West would be called an Octave). The celebration of the Great Feast ...

of the solemnity of the

Dormition The Dormition of the Mother of God is a Great Feast of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches (except the East Syriac churches). It celebrates the "falling asleep" (death) of Mary the ''Theotokos'' ("Mother of ...

. After the

Honey Feast of the Saviour The Honey Feast of the Saviour or Wet Saviour known as the Honey ''Spas'' is the First Saviour Day of a triduum in honor of the Saviour, celebrated on August 1 in the Julian calendar which corresponds to August 14 in the Gregorian calendar. It is ...

and the

Apple Feast of the Saviour The Apple Feast of the Saviour or Apple Spas (sometimes the Feast of the Saviour on the Hill) is an East Slavs, Eastern Slavic folk name for the Feast of the Transfiguration, which is observed on August. It is the second of the three Feasts of th ...

, the Nut feast is therefore placed on August 16 in the Julian calendar and on August 29 in the Gregorian calendar.

Etymology

The third Spas is known as the Nut feast of the Saviour because in most places in central Russia, nuts ripened at the time of the year in late August when this festival is celebrated. This festival is also referred to as the “Savior on Canvas”, “Savior on Canvas”, “Canvas Spas” - from this day they sell homespun canvases; "Bread Spas" as it also matches the time when the harvesting of the wheat end and the first new bread is baked. It can also be called "Autumn Spas" when winter grains are sown.

Liturgy

This liturgical afterfeast which is known technically as the feast of Our Saviour of the Mysterious Image is considered a "Small Spas" - or a semi-holiday - in contrast with the major

feasts of Jesus Christ Feasts of Jesus Christ are specific days of the year distinguished in the liturgical calendar as being significant days for the celebration of events in the life of Jesus Christ and his veneration, for the commemoration of his relics, signs and mi ...

. The tradition is to organize processions outside the church as well as special blessings on this occasion. The liturgical ''ordo'' however is not connected to the popular feast but to the celebration of the Holy Mandylion which

Vespers Vespers is a service of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic (both Latin liturgical rites, Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern), Lutheranism, Lutheran, and Anglican ...

and

Divine Liturgy Divine Liturgy ( grc-gre, Θεία Λειτουργία, Theia Leitourgia) or Holy Liturgy is the Eucharistic service of the Byzantine Rite, developed from the Antiochene Rite of Christian liturgy which is that of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of C ...

Origin

An agricultural autumn festival

On the third Savior, birds fly away, especially swallows and cranes. It is believed that swallows fly off at three Spas. If the crane flies off to the third Spas, then it will be frosty on ''Pokrov'', the feast of the

Intercession of the Theotokos The Intercession of the Theotokos, or the Protection of Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, is a Christian feast of the Mother of God celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches on October 1 (Julian calendar: ...

Vladimir Dal Vladimir Ivanovich Dal ( rus, Влади́мир Ива́нович Даль, p=vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr ɨˈvanəvʲɪdʑ ˈdalʲ; November 22, 1801 – October 4, 1872) was a noted Russian-language lexicographer, polyglot, Turkologist, and founding me ...

, in the interpretation of the farmer's calendar, compiled according to folk signs and observations, gives an original view: “Winter flask on trees promises, as they say, a good harvest for bread; a harvest of nuts promises a plentiful harvest of grain for the coming year, at least it has been observed that a strong harvest of nuts and bread is never together; that, moreover, there is never a great harvest of nuts for two years in a row; therefore, with an abundance of nuts, there will be no next year, and probably there will be a harvest for bread. Returning to the name of the third Savior, called “bread” or “nut”, the people celebrated it as a day of thanksgiving to the Lord for daily bread for every day, which is heard in folk proverbs and sayings: “The Third Savior has stored bread”, “It’s good if the Savior - on the canvas, and the bread is in the

threshing floor Threshing (thrashing) was originally "to tramp or stamp heavily with the feet" and was later applied to the act of separating out grain by the feet of people or oxen and still later with the use of a flail. A threshing floor is of two main type ...

! However, the feast of Our Savior of the Mysterious Image was much less an agricultural feast than the two other minor ''Spas'' , so much so that when it was forbidden by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, believers knew little about it as it was not in any way associated with farming practice.

A historical commemoration: the lost image of Edessa

On this day, the Slav Orthodox Christians also celebrate the translation of the Holy Mandylion. The image was considered an ''

acheiropoieta ''Acheiropoieta'' (Medieval Greek: , "made without hand"; singular ''acheiropoieton'') — also called icons made without hands (and variants) — are Christian icons which are said to have come into existence miraculously; not created by a huma ...

'' icon "not made by the hand of man" similar to the

Shroud of Turin The Shroud of Turin ( it, Sindone di Torino), also known as the Holy Shroud ( it, Sacra Sindone, links=no or ), is a length of linen cloth bearing the negative image of a man. Some describe the image as depicting Jesus of Nazareth and bel ...

, with which it is sometimes associated. Coming from

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, it was moved to

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

in the 10th century. During the Arab occupation of the city in 944, Emperor Constantine VII bought this image from the Emir and with great honors transferred to Constantinople, the Church of the Blessed Virgin. This translation which was later interpreted as its "removal" is the historical event commemorated during the Nut Festival. The cloth disappeared when Constantinople was sacked in 1204 during the

Fourth Crusade The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...

, and is believed by some to have reappeared as a relic in King

Louis IX of France Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), commonly known as Saint Louis or Louis the Saint, was King of France from 1226 to 1270, and the most illustrious of the Direct Capetians. He was crowned in Reims at the age of 12, following the ...

Sainte-Chapelle The Sainte-Chapelle (; en, Holy Chapel) is a royal chapel in the Gothic style, within the medieval Palais de la Cité, the residence of the Kings of France until the 14th century, on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine in Paris, France. Co ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. This relic disappeared in the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

.Two documentary inventories: year 1534 (Gerard of St. Quentin de l'Isle, Paris) and year 1740. Se
Grove Dictionary of ArtSteven Runciman, Some Remarks on the Image of Edessa, Cambridge Historical Journal 1931
an
Shroud.com
for a list of the group of relics. See als
an image of the Gothic reliquary dating from the 13th century
i

.

The feast of Diomedes

On this day, Slav Orthodox Christians honor the physician and martyr Diomedes of Tarsus, who is prayed for with various ailments and illnesses. This festival also honors the

Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God The Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God (russian: Феодоровская икона Божией Матери), also known as Our Lady of Saint Theodore and the Black Virgin Mary of Russia, is the patron icon of the Romanov family. It is one ...

, before which women pray for a safe delivery.

Traditions

An urban rather a village tradition

In most villages in Russia, there were no big holidays on this day, as preparations began for the completion of summer field work before the onset of rains. In the cities from this day Velikodensky Carnival begins, as in Valdai for example. In the

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...

provinces of Russia, winter crops usually begins to be sown three days before ''Obzhynki'' and finished within three days after ''Obzhynki''. On this day, bread is baked from the grain of the new crop. The dates were adjusted depending on the weather and harvesting of spring crops. Sometimes we dropped out earlier to the

Blessing of the canvasses

It is customary to bring canvases to church in order to receive a special blessing. These canvas are an echo to the Holy Mandylion, and prayers are made so that the canvas of man, may be as beautiful as the icon not made by hands of man.

Harvesting of nuts

Harvesting of

hazelnuts The hazelnut is the fruit of the hazel tree and therefore includes any of the nuts deriving from species of the genus ''Corylus'', especially the nuts of the species ''Corylus avellana''. They are also known as cobnuts or filberts according ...

also began from the third Spas. Using

holy water Holy water is water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy or a religious figure, or derived from a well or spring considered holy. The use for cleansing prior to a baptism and spiritual cleansing is common in several religions, from ...

, a specific blessing of the nuts takes place during the celebration. On this day, slavic households prepare festive dishes with nuts such as pies with mushrooms and dishes with nuts. Nut-based pastries are also prepared such as baked apples and sweets with nuts, as well as necessarily freshly baked bread using the new crops.

Literature

In ''The Living Grace: A Ukrainian Legend'' written by Liudmyla Starytska-Cherniakhivska, the events unfold during the Nut feast of the Saviour and the two other minor spas. After years of atheistic

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

, renewing such popular religious feasts was part of recovering the soul of Holy Russia according to dissident authors such as

Andrei Sinyavsky Andrei Donatovich Sinyavsky (russian: Андре́й Дона́тович Синя́вский; 8 October 1925 – 25 February 1997) was a Russian writer and Soviet dissident known as a defendant in the Sinyavsky–Daniel trial in 1965. Sinyavsk ...

References

Bibliography

* Атрошенко О. В. Русская народная хрононимия: системно-функциональный и лексикографический аспекты // Автореферат диссертации на соискание ученой степени кандидата филологических наук. Уральский федеральный университет. — Екатеринбург, 2013. * Баранова О. Г., Зимина Т. А., Мадлевская Е. Л. и др. Русский праздник. Праздники и обряды народного земледельческого календаря. Иллюстрированная энциклопедия / Науч. ред. И. И. Шангина. — СПб.: Искусство-СПБ, 2001. — 668 с. — (История в зеркале быта). — . * Георгиева Т. С. Культура повседневности. Русская культура и православие : Учеб. пособие. — М.: Аспект Пресс, 2008. — 400 с. — . * Даль В. И. О повѣрьях суевѣріях и предразсудках русскаго народа. — СПб.: Изд. М.О. Вольфа, 1880. — 148 с. * Спасать // Толковый словарь живого великорусского языка : в 4 т. / авт.-сост. В. И. Даль. — 2-е изд. — СПб. : Типография М. О. Вольфа, 1880—1882. — Т. 3. * Золотые правила народной культуры / О. В. Котович, И. И. Крук. — Мн.: Адукацыя i выхаванне, 2010. — 592 с. — 3000 экз. — . * Колесо времени: традиции и современность / Янка Крук, Оксана Котович. — Мн.: Беларусь, 2003. — 350 с. — . * Лозка А. Ю. Беларускі народны каляндар (белор.). — Мн.: Полымя, 2002. — 238 с. — . (белор.) * Некрылова А. Ф. Круглый год. — М.: Правда, 1991. — 496 с. — . * Некрылова А. Ф. Русский традиционный календарь: на каждый день и для каждого дома. — СПб.: Азбука-классика, 2007. — 765 с. — . * Погодой год припоминается: русский народный земледельческий календарь / Б. Ховратович. — Красноярск: Красноярское книжное изд-во, 1994. — 206 с. — . * Рожнова П. К. Радоница. Русский народный календарь: обряды, обычаи, травы, заговорные слова. — М.: Дружба народов, 1992. — 174 с. — . * Сахаров И. П. Сказания русского народа. Народный дневник. Праздники и обычаи. — СПб.: Издательство МГУ, 1885. — 245 с. * Скуратівський В. Т. Святвечір : нариси-дослідження : у 2-х кн. — К.: Перлин, 1994. — 207 с. — (Українська пізнавальна б-ка «Земляни». Серія «Українці»). — . (укр.) {{Slavic holidays, state=collapsed Weaving

Festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

Folk calendar of the East Slavs Summer holidays