What is the difference between Birthday, name day and Angel's Day?

Angel's Day and name days are holidays that are heard by everyone, but very few people today celebrate them properly. In the popular consciousness, name days have long been identified with birthdays. We call a “birthday boy” someone who celebrates growing up for another year. Children have fun playing the famous game “Loaf”, where they all sing: “We baked a loaf for our name day.” Believers, of course, remember when they and their relatives have an Angel Day, but often limit themselves to only verbal congratulations. Whereas 150 years ago in Russia, celebrations of these dates were surrounded by many traditions, preserved today only in folklore heritage.

Two Angels

However, a person’s patron saint should not be confused with his Guardian Angel, who is assigned to a person on the day of his spiritual birth - Baptism, for protection from life’s troubles, care, warning against sins and posthumous accompaniment.

As Saint Theodore of Edessa wrote: “The Lord gives each of us two Angels, one of which - the Guardian Angel - protects us from all evil, from various misfortunes and helps us do good, and the other Angel is the holy saint of God, whose name we bear , intercedes for us before God, prays to God for us. His prayers, as more worthy and pleasing to God, are more likely to be accepted than our sinners.”

The rank of naming

The naming of a Christian name, according to the charter of the Church, is performed before baptism and is one of the first preparatory actions for it. In ancient times, the name was given long before the day of the child's baptism. Now the naming of a name usually occurs on the day of Epiphany, before the rite of announcement. According to the instructions of the Trebnik (chapter 2), Christian names should be given to babies on the eighth day after birth, following the example of the Savior Christ, who took the name Jesus on the eighth day after His birth (Luke 2:21), as required by the Old Testament law of circumcision and names (Gen. 17: 4-15).

Of course, the names of saints are given to us in order to indicate the closest models that we should imitate in a godly life. The name of the saint obliges us to be like him in deeds and virtues... We can fulfill these duties properly only by knowing his life and exploits well...

Material prepared by Ignatova Natalya

Visit to the temple

The main action that an Orthodox Christian must perform on Angel Day is visiting a temple. Archimandrite Ambrose (Yurasov) notes that on the eve of the celebration of his spiritual birthday, the birthday person should come to the evening service and certainly confess his sins, and in the morning pray at the liturgy and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) explains that on the day of remembrance of the saint, the Lord God gives him the special grace to pray for those on earth who bear his name and are under his heavenly protection. To partake of this grace, you need to be present in church and, in addition to spiritual communion with your saint, offer prayers to the Lord, Our Lady and Guardian Angel with special feeling and warmth.

The holy righteous John of Kronstadt noted that you need to pray to your saint so that he intercedes for a person before God and says: “Our birthdays and name days should come before all other weekdays, turn our hearts and eyes to heaven, with grateful feelings to the Creator , Provider and Savior, with the thought that there is our fatherland and Father, that the earth is not a fatherland, but a place of coming and wandering, that to cleave to perishable things is reckless, sinful... it is disgusting to God, that we must cleave to God with all our hearts.”

Name of a person in the ancient world

Especially, a reverent attitude towards the name has been inherent in man since ancient times.

It is well known that in Ancient Egypt the personal name was carefully guarded. The Egyptians had a “small” name, known to everyone, and a “big” one, which was considered true: it was kept secret and pronounced only during important rituals.

The names of the pharaohs were especially respected - in hieroglyphic texts they were highlighted with a special frame - a “cartouche”. The Egyptians treated the names of the dead with great respect - improper handling of which, according to the ancients, caused irreparable harm to the otherworldly existence of the deceased.

The name and its bearer were one. An Egyptian myth is typical, according to which the “god” Ra hid his name, but the “goddess” Isis managed to find him out by opening his chest - the name literally turned out to be inside the body!

For a long time, a change in name corresponded to a change in human essence. New names were given to adolescents upon initiation, that is, upon joining adult members of the community. In China, there are still children's "milk" names, which are abandoned as they grow older. In ancient Greece, when people became priests, they renounced their old names, carved them on metal tablets and drowned them in the sea.

Relatively speaking, distant echoes of these ideas can be seen in the Christian tradition of naming new monks monastic names, when someone who has taken monastic vows leaves the world and his former worldly name. This custom captures a person’s initial conviction about the need for a radical change in life when dedicating oneself to God, even to the point of changing such an important component of one’s personality as one’s name.

Many peoples were forbidden to pronounce the names of pagan gods and spirits, so as not to attract their attention and not allow their destructive influence into their lives. It was especially dangerous to call evil spirits, that is, “cursing,” and thus calling on “evil power.” Until now, the very use, especially oral, of the word “devil” and its derivatives is extremely indecent for an Orthodox Christian.

This makes some sense. If a corporeal being does not become closer to us from pronouncing its name, then ethereal forces, which do not have a clear limited stay and easily move in space, through invoking their name, quickly come into contact with us. And this contact, in the case of communication with demons, can be dangerous for us. And vice versa, the constant invocation of the Name of God in prayer introduces an element of sanctification into our lives. This is the basis, for example, of the practice of constantly reading the Jesus Prayer, which, when used correctly, allows a person to achieve great spiritual heights and communion with God.

By the way, not all cultures considered calling God by name acceptable. The ancient Jews, out of a sense of special reverence, did not dare to pronounce the Name of God: Yahweh (Jehovah) in the Old Testament is the “ineffable Name”, a sacred tetragram (that is, an abbreviation of four letters), which can be translated as “I am the One who truly exists and is the source of His existence."

According to the Bible, renaming becomes a sign of a special transformation, a change in the purpose of existence. So the Lord gave especially meaningful names to Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Ishmael, Solomon, and renamed Jacob Israel. The special religious gift of the Jewish people was manifested in many names, which are called “theophoric,” that is, “God-bearing.” Thus, through his personal name, a person mysteriously joined God.

Invitation

Publicist Nikolai Kostomarov in his work “Image of Home Life. Family morals. The order of house management. Home Rituals” states that the invitation to celebrate Angel Day was birthday cakes. Particularly respected guests received a more substantial pie, while the rest were given standard-sized pastries.

Sometimes commoners were awarded birthday cakes, which were given to them by the reigning persons celebrating their own Angel Day upon leaving the church. In this case, there was no need to attend the appointment.

Festive table

The festive meal on the occasion of Angel Day did not imply a rich feast and surprise the guests with delicacies, since the main purpose of gathering at a common table was spiritual unity. The central treat of any such celebration was the loaf, which was even glorified in a song previously sung at name days, and nowadays often heard at birthdays: “How on [someone’s] name day we baked a loaf...”. In addition to the loaf, the table had to have dishes with filling - meat, fish, mushroom or vegetable pies, pies, dumplings, pancakes with cottage cheese. The royal name days were celebrated on a special scale, but even on them the central dish was the loaf.

Alexander Polovinkin in his book “Orthodox Spiritual Culture” writes that if a name day falls during fasting, then the entire meal should consist of Lenten treats. However, if Angel Day falls during Lent, then the clergy advises postponing the celebration either to the next weekend, that is, Saturday or Sunday, or to celebrate this important event after Easter, when Bright Week begins.

Church calendar of names for 2022

Name day in January

Name day in February

Name day in March

Name day in April

Name day in May

Name day in June

Name day in July

Name day in August

Name day in September

Name day in October

Name day in November

Present

On Angel's Day, it is customary to present the hero of the occasion with gifts, which, according to tradition, should contain religious affiliation, be it a beautiful candle, a shelf for icons or a vessel for holy water. Archpriest Andrei Ustyuzhanin advises, as a gift in this case, to consider a variety of spiritual video or audio recordings, church literature, the Gospel, which contribute to the inner growth of a person.

It would be appropriate to present the birthday person with an icon depicting a saint who is his heavenly patron. If one cannot be found, due to the fact that the person is given a rare name, it is recommended to bring him as a gift the icon of All Saints, on which all the saints glorified by the Orthodox Church are symbolically represented.

Nowadays, in churches you can purchase special greeting cards dedicated to Angel Day, which already contain a solemn text with similar content: “Please accept congratulations on your Angel Day. I wish you and pray to the Lord for your long life, the peaceful course of your life in happiness, peace of mind, in good health through the prayers of your holy heavenly patron.”

In the old days, wildflowers were an indispensable attribute of honoring the birthday person. Those who celebrated the holiday in the cold months were given dried bouquets and armfuls of spikelets.

Historian Nikolai Kostomarov noted that even kings were given gifts on Angel Day. Each merchant was obliged to send his gift to the sovereign, which ended up in the government yard, where after some time a sale of gifts was held. It happened that merchants could redeem their offering and send it back to the ruler the next year.

Small name days

In the Saints, which presents a list of the names of saints in accordance with the day and month when the church honors their memory, quite often there are the same names belonging to different saints. In this case, the church rule is applied to determine the name day. According to it, the Day of the Lay Angel is considered the closest day of remembrance of the holy namesake, which comes after a person’s earthly birthday. On the days of remembrance of other saints with the same name, a person can celebrate “small name days.”

So, let's summarize

A name day is the birth name of the saint whose name you were named at baptism.
Usually this is the apostle, preacher, great martyr or other holy person closest to you by date of birth. The name for baptism is chosen according to church books - Christmastide. There is always a choice, since for every day there are several male and female names. In this case, you can also choose the name of a saint from a close day - a few days ahead after the date of birth. When using materials from thebestvideo.ru, a link to the source is required.