Orthodox believers celebrate the Transfiguration of the Lord

Orthodox believers today celebrate one of the twelve most important Christian holidays - the Transfiguration of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ.

It is established 40 days before the Exaltation of the Cross. It is associated with the biblical event when Jesus, shortly before his crucifixion, ascended Mount Tabor with his three closest disciples to pray. There he appeared to them transfigured, to reveal his divine essence. "And his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as snow and radiant as light." The Holy Gospel states that whoever merely touched the hem of the Savior's garment was healed of their ailments. With his Transfiguration, the Savior showed people what they would become in the future life, in the Kingdom of Heaven, and how our entire earthly world would be transformed then.

An ancient custom is associated with this day - blessing the fruits of the new harvest. In Belarus, these are usually apples. Therefore, the holiday is also popularly called Apple Spas. On this day, by consecrating apples and honey, they appease the approaching autumn. Among all fruit trees, the apple tree is especially revered by the Eastern Slavs. It not only symbolizes life, eternity, and immortality, but it was believed that it could bestow these upon a person by giving him its fruits.

On Spas, in many places, apples consecrated in church were taken to the cemetery, where one fruit was placed on the grave of each relative. "Spas" was also explained by its similarity to the verb "to sleep." It was claimed that the earth sleeps on this day, and therefore its sleep should not be disturbed, and thus work should not be done. On this day, it was customary in ancient times to give the destitute all that could be gathered from the harvest. Folk wisdom says: "On the Second Spas, even a beggar will eat an apple," "From the Savior's Transfiguration, the weather transforms!", "The Second Spas has come - get your mittens ready!"

The Second Spas is also called Oseniny (Autumn Meeting). It marks the meeting of autumn. Nights become colder from this day on, and storks begin to fly away. If storks gathered in the south a week before Spas, it meant that winter would come earlier and be frosty, and spring would be warm; if after Spas the autumn turned out to be warm, winter would be late, and spring would be cold.