Why Christians Are Not Permitted to Arrange Amusements on the Eves of Sundays and Feast Days
by Archbishop Averky of Blessed Memory
How strange and painful it is for modern Christians that many
of them do not understand the full blameworthiness of arranging
amusements on Saturday nights! How can one talk about
Christianity or the Christianization of life if such a simple,
seemingly obvious truth does not get through to the consciousness
of the representatives of modern atheistic and unchurched
society. For those who are still capable of learning, we offer
the following historical note.
"And the evening and the morning were the first day"
(Genesis 1:5)—this is how far back into antiquity—to
the first day of the creation of the world—one can trace the
origin of the Church's custom of considering the next day to
begin with the evening of the day before. Of just as ancient an
origin are our holidays which the Lord Himself, the Creator of
the world and of man, commanded us to "sanctify":
"And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it"
(Genesis 2:3). This "seventh day", sanctified by God
Himself at the dawn of human history, was again commanded to be
kept holy 1600 years before Christ's birth on the solemn day of
the giving of the law at Sinai. This command made up the special
fourth commandment of the Law of God, proclaimed in this way:
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt
thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the
sabbath of the Lord thy God" (Exodus 20:8-10). The sanctity
of this seventh day—the sabbath in the Old Testament, the
celebration of which always began from the evening of the
preceding day, was protected by fear of death: "You shall
keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one
that defileth it shall surely be put to death" (Exodus
31:14).
In place of the Old Testament sabbath, in the New Testament
the day following the sabbath, the "Day of the Lord" or
the "day of resurrection," came to be celebrated the
Christians, because in that day the Lord Jesus Christ rose from
the dead and, having conquered hell, freed us from the power of
the devil and eternal death. The beginning of its observation, as
is testified to by the Sacred Scriptures and the most ancient
monuments of Christian literature, goes back to the first days of
Christianity. For us Christians this day is a day of bright joy,
of paschal joy, the Pascha of the Lord which we celebrated
weekly. For in this day the Lord appeared to His disciples
assembled together, and "the disciples were glad, when they
saw the Lord" (John 20:20). "After eight days,"
i.e. once again in the very same day of the week, the Apostles
again were assembled together, and again the Lord appeared to
them, renewing their joy (John 20:26). Seven weeks later, on the
day of Pentecost, which occurred again on the same day, the
Apostles, following an already established custom, assembled for
prayer in the upper room on Zion, and this day became for them
the day of a glorious new triumph: the Lord sent down on them the
Holy Spirit, Who from that time has constantly abided in the
Church (Acts 2:1-4). From that time, as is clearly seen in the
book of the Acts of the Apostles, the "day of the Lord"
became an especially honored day for all Christians. Following
the example of the Old Testament sabbath and because, according
to the Church's belief, the Lord rose at midnight, the
celebration of that day began on Saturday evening, continued all
night, and was completed in the morning by the "breaking of
bread," i.e., by performing the greatest Christian mystery,
the Eucharist, by Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ (Acts
20:7-11), which was received by all the faithful who were
present. It is from this that our public Divine service which is
called the "all night vigil" took its origin; it should
last the whole night from Saturday to Sunday and it is only
because of our laziness and carelessness that it is now being
shortened more and more. We find indications of such a public
night prayer of the Christians even in the Acts of the Holy
Apostles. Thus, when they were locked in prison the Apostles Paul
and Silas praised God at midnight (Acts 16:25). The whole first
Christian community in Jerusalem assembled at night for prayer
(Acts 12:12). The Christian community in Troas assembled on
"the first day of the week", i.e. on Sunday, for prayer
in the evening and spent the whole night "until dawn"
in prayer and hearing the instruction of the holy Apostle Paul,
completing this prayer assembly with the "breaking of
bread," i.e. communion of the Body and Blood of Christ (Acts
20 :7-11). Such ancient monuments of Christian literature as the
Epistle of St. Barnabas, the epistles of St. Ignatius the
God-Bearer, the works of St. Justin the Philosopher, Theophilus
of Antioch, Irenaeus of Lyons, Melito of Sardis, and many others
also speak of this celebration of Sunday. The great father of the
Church St. John Chrysostom and the very famous teacher Origen
unanimously testify that all-night vigils on the eve of Sundays
trace their origin from the time of the Apostles and were
established by the holy Apostles themselves. Also worthy of note
is the non-Christian testimony which has come to us the
well-known letter of the pro-consul of Bithynia, Pliny the
Younger, to the Emperor Trajan. In it Pliny writes that the
Christians assemble in the established day, before sunset, and
sing hymns to Christ as God. According to the testimony of many
holy Fathers and Christian writers of the first centuries of
Christianity, all-night vigils were not held just on the eve of
Sundays, but also on the eve of feasts of the Lord and Mother of
God, and of days dedicated to the memory of the holy martyrs. We
find clear indications of the contents of these all-night vigils
in the book of Apostolic Constitutions (19th chapter of book V).
"From the evening until the cock crows," it says,
"remain in watching, prayer, and supplications to God,
reading until cock crow the law, the prophets, and psalms, and
after reading the Gospel, offer the people a sermon." St.
Cassian and St. Basil the Great testify that the all-night vigil
included the night and morning service and ended "after
cockcrow."
That is how the first Christians met Sundays and feast days.
For them the night before Sunday, the night before a feast was a
holy night, the whole of which they spent in prayer, preparing
themselves to receive the great mystery of communion of the Body
and Blood of Christ in the morning. In this nighttime prayerful
preparation and in them performing the Divine Liturgy in the
morning there was, in fact, contained the celebration of the
given memorial day sanctified by the Church.
Can one then after this consider the person a Christian who
spends the holy night before a feast of the given memorial day
sanctified by the Church.
Of course not, for such a person, by breaking his communion in
prayer with the Church on this holy night, thereby voluntarily
cuts himself off from the body of the Church. This is why in the
past those who missed three Sunday services in a row without a
serious reason were completely excommunicated from the Church as
worthless, dead members. It is thus even more inadmissible for
Christians to organize on this holy night parties and amusements
which are in their very essence improper and out of place at a
time when the thoughts and hearts of Christians should be
directed toward God. Besides the fact that they might distract
Christians from attending the services of the feasts, the act of
organizing them itself in these days and hours which are sacred
for Christians is insulting to a believing conscience and is a
blasphemous outrage in its canonical rules, which are obligatory
for all Christians, strictly forbids any sort of public
entertainment and popular amusements in those days when they
would interfere with attendance at holidays divine services.*
There are few who know that in earlier, pre-revolutionary
Russia the sanctity of Sundays and holy days was protected not
only by ecclesiastical, but also by civil laws. Thus in 1627 a
decree of Tsar Michael Theodorovich Romanov was issued which
forbade, under the threat of the whip, attendance at popular
entertainments. Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich fought even more
energetically against these festival amusements which penetrated
more and more into us from the West. In 1648 he issued a special ukase
forbidding "any sort of drunkenness and any sort of
restless, diabolical activity, mockery and buffoonery and any
sort of diabolical games" on Sundays; in place of this the ukase
orders going to Church for Vespers, Matins, and Liturgy and
"standing here humbly and with all piety." Those who
disobey are commanded to be "beaten mercilessly with
rods" and even to be exiled. In 1652 the tsar issued a new ukase
forbidding the sale of wine on Sundays during the whole
year. The 26th article of the famous "Code" of 1648 is
noteworthy: the laws which protect the sanctity of Sunday refer
in it to the period of time beginning on Saturday three hours
before the beginning of evening. Emperor Peter I, famous for his
homage to the West, who introduced among us in Russia worldly
amusements on the western model (the so-called "assemblies
"), nonetheless by a special decree did not permit
organizing them earlier than the end of Liturgy on Sunday. On
February 17, 1718 he also issued a decree obliging all people on
Sundays to attend Vespers, Matins, and especially Liturgy. By a
decree in 1743 Empress Elizabeth Petrovna forbade the opening of
taverns on Sundays before the conclusion of Liturgy. Emperor Paul
I in a decree of October 22, 1796 forbade theatrical performances
"on all Saturdays," while by a decree of 1799 the sale
of alcoholic beverages was forbidden during the times of Divine
services. In 1833 under the Emperor Nicholas I through the
efforts of the famous Speranskiy, the "Codex of Laws of the
Russian Empire" was compiled, in the XIVth volume of which
there is a special article on preserving the sanctity of Sundays.
The laws dealing with Sunday are presented here in the following
form: Sundays should be devoted to "rest from labor and
godly piety." The law advises avoiding dissolute living on
these days and going to church to Divine services. Along with
this, the civil power took upon itself the responsibility of
seeing to the preservation of order, quiet, and peace during
Divine services, both in the church and around it. Public houses
could be opened after Liturgy. This law decisively forbids any
sort of entertainment, music, theatrical presentations, and any
other public amusements and games before the conclusion of the
Sunday Liturgy. By a special decree of September 21, 1881 Emperor
Paul I's prohibition was again confirmed against organizing
theatrical performances and presentations "on all
Saturdays," with the exception of dramatic presentations in
foreign languages (there was, of course, a concession to
foreigners here).
From everything that has been said above it is quite clear
that even the civil laws of former Imperial Russia required the
faithful to meet feast days in prayer and piety, and if this was
not done in some places, it was precisely as a result of that
decline in faith, that scandalous instability of minds and hearts
which finally led our homeland to all the horrors of
blood-thirsty, atheistic communism. And the atheist communists
now intentionally organize all sorts of spectacles and
entertainments at the time of festival services and even on the
night of Pascha itself so as to draw the people away from
attending church.
How can we here abroad not be ashamed to imitate the atheist
communists in their efforts to draw the faithful away from
attending feast-day services?
Is it really not yet clear to us by this time that Russia was
destroyed because we too blindly followed after every sort of
self-proclaimed "leader" and "teacher" who
inspired us with the spirit of imaginary "freedom" and
of disobedience to our Mother, the Holy Church, and her saving
institutions.
Whoever wants to "free" himself from obedience to
the Church is digging himself a pit of perdition with his own
hands. It is time to understand this and to open our eyes at
least now, when the whole world, having gone too far in its
opposition to the genuine Church of Christ, finds itself at the
edge of a frightening abyss, ready to swallow it up!
* Canon 66 of the VI Ecumenical Council, Canon 72 of the
Council of Carthage.
Translated by Father Deacon Seraphim
Johnson, The Present Times in
the Light of God's Word: Sermons and
Speeches, Vol.
I, pp. 59-63. St. Job of Pochaev Press, Holy Trinity Monastery,
Jordanville, New York.
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