Today, Christians celebrate one of the biggest religious holidays - Pentecost!

I congratulate all Christians on this great holiday and wish you all happiness and God's blessing! I wish you all health, joy, kindness and love! May the Lord protect every Ukrainian family, all the soldiers and people every day.

The holiday Pentecost is one of the most respected and favorite holidays among Ukrainians, it has been celebrated since ancient times. Pentecost or Whitsunday is a symbol of unity and victory of truth. According to the Bible, on the 50th day after the Resurrection, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples of Christ and they began to speak different languages, preaching the words of their teacher. This day is considered the birthday of the Christian church. This is one of the biggest religious holidays, it was celebrated even in Soviet times, when the church did not actually exist.

Another name for this holiday is the Green holidays, which is celebrated for three days before and three days after Pentecost. Traditionally, on these days Ukrainians decorate their homes with fragrant branches of calamus and fresh herbs as a symbol of renewal and rebirth. Priests wear green clothing for the liturgy on this day. Christians inherited this custom from the Jewish holiday Shavuot, which was celebrated a week ago: synagogues were decorated with greenery in the memory of how at Mount Sinai everything flourished and was green on the day when Moses received the tables of the Testimony.

Ukrainians have one more meaning to the Pentecost, this is the celebration of summer, waiting for the new crop and worship to the earth. The day before so-called Rusalii or mermaid days were celebrated – the special events to commemorate the dead, commemorative days. It was believed that on these days you can not swim in water and habitation should be protected with wormwood from mermaids and mavkas. In some villages wheels were decorated with flowers - a symbol of the sun - and then they tried to set fire to it.

Once again I congratulate everyone on this merry holiday and wish peace, joy and goodness. I wish you meet Pentecost with good hopes, bright thoughts and good deeds.