Ascension of the Lord is a celebration full of traditions and customs from ancestors. It is one of the most important holidays for Christians and is celebrated every year 40 days after Easter. What is given as alms for the Ascension of the Lord and what prayer is good to say on this day, find out in the following lines.
What is given as alms on the Ascension of the Lord?
This year, the Ascension of the Lord will take place on May 25. On feast days, there is a tradition for people to share different foods for the souls of the departed in the eternal ones. The Ascension of the Lord is one of the most important of the year, and the faithful usually give more food as alms to have health and luck.
On the Ascension of the Lord, the heavens are opened, and the souls of the dead, who came on Easter day to the houses where they lived all their lives, ascend to heaven again. Therefore, the alms represents the necessary meals for the journey back to heaven.
In order to have abundant health, it is said that all the faithful should give alms at the Ascension of the Lord pasture boiled in sweet milk. This is larger ground corn that is boiled in milk to which vanilla and other spices have previously been added. Those who give this alms dish will have luck, health and will be protected from evil all year.
Moreover, believers can also give packages containing cakes, pies, fruits, vegetables or a cage. Women who have relatives who have passed away still give alms of warm bread, green onions, cheese and brandy. On the Ascension of the Lord, packages are also distributed to the needy, to those in the church or to those they meet on the street, upon returning home.
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Traditions and customs of the Ascension of the Lord
It is said that those who pass away near this great holiday will go to Heaven. Ascension Day is the last day of the year when housewives can dye eggs, and the remaining dye must be placed at the root of a tree. At the same time, on this day, the graves of the sleeping ones are visited, to light candles for them.
On the day of the Lord’s Ascension, Christians greet each other using “Christ is risen” and “True is risen”. In certain areas of the country, people use these greeting formulas for 10 days. On the day of the Lord’s Ascension, people wear walnut and linden leaves around their waists, because that’s what Jesus had when he ascended to heaven.
In other areas of the country, there is a tradition for people to take walnut leaves to church. These are consecrated and kept in the house, like the willow from Florii. The holiday is also called “Easter of Horses” due to a legend. According to her, at the birth of Jesus Christ, the horses made a lot of noise, and the Virgin Mary cursed them not to be satisfied until the day of the Ascension.
Read also: Ascension traditions and customs. What to do for health, luck and growth
The prayer to say for the Ascension of the Lord
“Lord, glorious Christ, our God, descending from the heavenly heights for our salvation and feeding us with spiritual joy in the holy and pre-luminous days of Your resurrection, and again, after the completion of Your earthly ministry, You ascended with glory from us to the heavens and you sat at the right hand of God and the Father! On this serene and all-luminous day of Your Divine Ascension to the heavens, the earth celebrates and jumps, the sky rejoices today in the Ascension of the Creator of creation, people glorify incessantly seeing our lost and fallen nature, on Your shoulders, now, Savior, taken and raised to heaven. The angels rejoice, saying: Who is this, who came with glory strong in battles and strong in wars? Is this really the King of Glory?
Entitle us also, the powerless, who still think of earthly things and do unceasingly what pleases the flesh, to think about your fearful ascension to heaven, to throw away carnal and worldly cares and together with your Apostles to look at heaven now and, with all our hearts and minds, let us remember that up there, in the heavens, is our abode, and here on earth we are only strangers and travelers, departed from the Father’s house in the distant land of sin.
For this we earnestly pray, Lord, that through Your exalted ascension, you enliven our conscience, take us out of the slavery of this body and this sinful world, and make us worthy to think about the high things, not the earthly things; that it is not for us to please ourselves, but for You, our Lord and God, to serve You and to work, until, loosing ourselves from the bonds of the body and passing the customs of the air, we acquire Your heavenly abodes, where sitting at the right hand of Your Glory, together with the Archangels and Angels and with all the Saints, we will glorify Your Most Holy Name, together with Your Father without beginning and with Your Most Holy and Good and Life-giving Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen.”
