Parental Saturdays: calendar of memorial days for 2022

In the Orthodox church calendar there are special days of remembrance – parental Saturdays. Every year, memorial days may fall on different dates, because they depend on the main Christian holiday – Easter.

When parents’ Saturdays are celebrated in 2022, find out in our article.

Parental Saturdays in 2022

• February 26
  – Universal Meatfare Saturday in 2022. It is held on the eve of Maslenitsa, 8 days before the start of Lent. On this day, all Christians who lived on Earth and were baptized are commemorated.
• During Lent, parental Saturdays in 2022 fall on 19 and 26 March and 2 April
  – i.e. for the second, third and fourth weeks of fasting. Funeral Liturgies are held in the temple these days.
• May 9
  – an intolerable memorial day, when the dead soldiers are commemorated.
• May 3
  – the holiday Radonitsa, when the living share with the dead the joyful news of the victory of Christ over death and the acquisition of eternal life. Radonitsa always falls on Tuesday, the ninth day after Easter. But from the second week after the Resurrection of Christ, people begin to commemorate their dead relatives.
• June 11
  – Trinity Saturday. This is the Ecumenical memorial Saturday, because on this day they remember not only their deceased relatives, but also all Christians who lived on Earth. Funeral services are held in churches, and graves in cemeteries are decorated with fresh greenery and flowers.
• November 5
  – Dmitrievskaya memorial Saturday is celebrated on the eve of the day of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica. This day is also dedicated to the memory of the winner of the Battle of Kulikovo Dmitry Donskoy and the commemoration of the souls of the soldiers who fell in the battle.

It is still customary for people to commemorate relatives in Intercession parental Saturday
, which in 2022 will be October 8
, as well as in Michael’s parental Saturday
, which falls on November 19
2022. But there are no such memorial days in the Orthodox calendar, because this is just a folk tradition.

Why memorial days are called parental

Actually people remember not only parents
, but also other relatives, as well as close people with whom they do not have a blood connection.

The Church calls memorial days parental, because according to the laws of life parents ahead of their children leave this world
.

And the duty of children pray first of all for the souls of your parents and grandparents
who gave them life. Only after that you can read prayers for other people – relatives, friends, acquaintances.

Memorial days are very important for the souls of the departed, because they can no longer pray to the Lord for themselves. The living must remember them on Earth and read prayers
so that in the afterlife their souls would be in paradise.

To commemorate relatives, you need to go to church for a funeral liturgy, order a memorial service, put candles near the crucifixion of Christ, and read a prayer. People also bring food to church. of passing souls
, visit the cemetery, and at home arrange a memorial meal for the whole family.

Earlier we talked about the meaning and history of the icon of the Baptism of the Lord.