Many Orthodox Christians are celebrating the feast of the Nativity of Christ very soon. How did non-religious Soviet people celebrate it? Why are there millions of paintings on the Christmas theme? Archpriest Vladimir Vigilyansky, rector of the Church of the holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University, ex-press secretary of Patriarch Alexei II and Patriarch Kirill, answers these and other questions to the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.
Photo: razrisyika.ru
First and foremost, it’s a family story
—Why is the feast of the Nativity of Christ still significant for believers and non-believers alike? What makes it so strong?
—A brief yet dramatic Gospel narrative about the Birth of Christ can definitely interest not only believers and church people. First and foremost, it’s a family story. A family went to Bethlehem to take part in the census. Since there was no inn to stay, they had to hide from the cold in a cave. At that time Mary’s labor began. Another important aspect of the Christmas account is the story of the angels who appeared in the skies—the shepherds saw them and got scared. But the angel of the Lord said to them: “Do not be afraid—great joy awaits you.”
Another significant detail of the Christmas narrative is the foreign Magi! They saw a star in the sky and followed it.
Lastly, when this episode full of unusual events ended with the Birth of the Messiah, King Herod, who had heard about it, fearing for his power, ordered all the infants in Bethlehem to be exterminated so that the King of Judea born there would be killed with them. And this whole story, related almost on one page, never ceases to excite and overwhelm absolutely different people. This episode and its role in the history of mankind will never be ignored.
Archpriest Vladimir Vigilyansky: The Nativity is the main Christian theme of Russian poetry. Photo: RIA Novosti If God was born in human form—the One Who will save us—then the division into believers and non-believers is not so important, because this is joy; one Gospel calls this joy full (Jn. 15:11), and another calls it great (Lk. 2:10). People feel such joy only when they have a living contact with God. I would advise doubting or over-rational people to go to a Nativity service and look at the faces of people in the church.
Love is the cure for fear
—So, for non-believers the Nativity is already such an archetypal case, and it is impossible to throw it out of global public consciousness, as it were?
—Of course, it is impossible. And the Christmas story suggests another very important thing. The angel of the Lord said to the shepherds, “Fear not!” Unfortunately, we have not yet parted from fear that has permeated the life of mankind over many, many centuries. It remains one of our most important emotions. People constantly fear a wide range of dangers—whether to their well-being or the restriction of their freedoms. We are afraid of loneliness, poverty, hunger, unemployment, homelessness, natural disasters, catastrophes, illnesses—our own and those of our loved ones. Phobias, anxiety, worries and panic accompany human life. People seek protection. Any recipes aimed at overcoming fear are relevant. And Christianity gives us this recipe. It says: only love, which is born from the union of man with God, is the main means of protection. The whole dramatic message of the Nativity and all the emotions associated with it are dictated by the thirst for unfeigned love, without which it is impossible to overcome all our phobias. This Gospel story and its meaning is a very vivid thing. That’s why we are so excited about everything related to this feast. I know people who do not consider themselves Christians, but go to church twice a year: on the Nativity and on Pascha. Therefore, the Nativity has not been forgotten and is relevant in all ages. And in periods of persecution against Christians, both church-goers and non-church people loved this feast. In the 1970s I used to work at the State Institute for Art Studies and had not yet been baptized.
Among the art critics of our department was a Christian, the well-known film critic and essayist Neya Markovna Zorkaya (1924–2006). She always—once a year—invited us, the whole department of fifteen members (I was the youngest), to her house for Christmas dinner. All our intellectual elite always came to her every year. It was the Soviet era, but no one, not even non-believers, could raise a voice against the feast of the Nativity. This is how the intellectuals celebrated the Nativity in the USSR, even if outside the Church.
Millions of paintings and thousands of poems are dedicated to the Nativity
—Christmas is represented in a myriad of works of art...
—The fact that our culture is permeated by Christianity struck me even when I was slowly beginning to integrate into Church life. Without exaggeration, millions of paintings are dedicated to the event of the Birth of the Savior. For twenty centuries the Nativity has inspired artists and painters to create their own pictures. And take poetry! Back in Soviet years I started collecting whole anthologies of poems on Christian themes. Russian poetry was especially distinguished by the presence of the Christmas theme, from Mikhail Lermontov to Joseph Brodsky. Afanasy Fet, Alexander Blok, Boris Pasternak, Ivan Bunin, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Vladislav Khodasevich, Sergei Yesenin, Vladimir Solovyov… And Nikolai Gumilev translated poems about the Nativity. All the major poets wrote about this event. Brodsky wrote ten poems dedicated to the Nativity! I am the husband of the poet Olesya Nikolaeva, who composed five poems dedicated to this feast.
Caravaggio. Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence. Photo: Wikipedia —Do you have any favorite lines from her Christmas poems?
—O my heart! Thou art the cave|
Of mystery, breaking on the highest notes
When the Only One, the Babe is born
There, in thy deepest darkness!
The Catholics and Orthodox Nativity
—I once heard from a Catholic that the Nativity is a joyfully harmonious and rather “Catholic” feast in its spirit, while the Orthodox love Pascha more—drama and tragedy in the Joy of the Resurrection.
—To say that the Nativity is the most important feast for the Catholics and Pascha is for the Orthodox is theologically incorrect. The path of the God-man from the Nativity to Pascha cannot be broken. The Nativity is impossible without Pascha and vice versa. To ask which feast is dearer to you is like asking whom you love more—your father or your mother. Another thing is that the Nativity as a festival is undoubtedly richer in traditions, beautiful legends, nice fairy tales and folk beliefs. The Christmas tree, a manger, a Nativity scene, and the gifts of the magi... Take the legend about how different trees bowed to the newborn Christ and only a humble fir tree stood aside... And Pascha is people’s hope for eternal life! A one-time miracle of miracles, to which everything had been going through terrible events—the Passion, unfair trials, and the murder of God. The Apostle Paul said pointblank: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain (1 Cor. 15:14). Of course, nice fairy tales and legends do not blend with all this.
Why in the West they try to remove the words “of Christ” from the feast of Nativity
—Recently there was a news report that in the West they point to the “too high Christian-centricity” of the feast of the Nativity of Christ.
—My eldest daughter teaches at a French Lyceum (one of the Alexandre Dumas lyceums scattered all over the world). French children study there, and they are forbidden to say, “the Nativity of Christ”—only “the Nativity”. When children ask whose Nativity it is, the teachers are forbidden to answer because it can allegedly upset adherents of other faiths. It’s a strange, cunning tolerance, if not a diabolical delusion. The wonderful poet Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin (1911–2003) once told me that he was admitted to a school in Odessa in 1917 at a three percent rate for Jews. The Law of God was taught there. Of course, this subject was optional for children from Jewish families. But he attended these lessons, giving a good reason to the priest-teacher of the Law of God to shout at the school students: “Lipkin, a Jew, knows the Law of God better than you fools!” I asked him, “Semyon Izrailevich, why did you attend those classes?” He replied, “Well, I was surrounded by Orthodox Christians and I needed to know what law they lived by. Why should I remain in the dark about it?” This is still relevant today. Okay, your religion is different, but you should know what people around you are celebrating. Why should this knowledge offend you? All those strange self-accusations of the French and the Germans that “the Christmas tree offends Muslims” are a cunning deception.
