The priest told where the tradition to visit the cemetery for Easter came from

The custom to visit the cemetery on Orthodox Easter has purely Soviet roots and is not associated with the Church, he told the agency. NEWS.ru Archpriest Andrey Lorgus.

He explained that a similar habit was developed among believers in the 1960s and 70s under Soviet rule. According to him, it is possible to commemorate the dead 10 days after Easter – on Radonitsa.

“Visiting a cemetery at Easter is not a church custom, but a Soviet one. No other country, no other Church has this. Where the population has not lost its church traditions, no one goes to the cemetery on Easter. 10 days after Easter, on Radonitsa, you can. In the western regions of the Russian Empire, they went on Saturday of Easter week – a week after Easter, Lorgus emphasized.

He noted that such a tradition began to take shape in the late 60s and early 70s of the last century, when the leadership of the USSR relaxed supervision over believers and they began to show “Easter activity, but there were no churches, and they went to the cemetery.”

“Where are the other crosses? At the cemetery. They went there to openly pray there, at the cemetery they were always allowed to pray, to cross themselves, to eat eggs, Easter and Easter cake together, to drink. Cemeteries were a loyal place for both the authorities and the Church. And by the 90s it turned into a “pilgrimage”. And there is another aspect. You need to go to church in appropriate clothes, confess, take communion, but no one demands anything at the cemetery. And keep in mind, many cemeteries are located near churches,” Lorgus concluded.

Former Mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin said that on Easter night, the work of public transport in Moscow would be extended. The mayor wrote that the metro and the MCC would close only at two in the morning, that is, an hour later than usual. According to the head of the metropolis, more than 160 buses, electric buses and trams will start running on their routes until half past four in the morning.