On November 21, the Orthodox Church marks the feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Mother of God into the Temple - celebrated in Bulgaria as the Day of the Christian Family and Youth
When the Most-holy Virgin Mary reached the age of three, her holy parents Joachim and Anna took her from Nazareth to Jerusalem to dedicate her to the service of God according to their earlier promise.
Many kinsmen of Joachim and Anna gathered in Jerusalem to take part in this event. Leading the procession into the Temple were virgins with lighted tapers in their hands, then the Most-holy Virgin, led on one side by her father and on the other side by her mother.
The high priests and temple servants received them with sacred hymns.
Placed on the first step before the Temple entrance, the young Mary, to the astonishment of all present, ascended the fifteen steps unaided and stood on the highest one.
She was met by the High Priest Zacharias, who was to be the father of St. John the Forerunner. Taking her by the hand, he led her not only into the Temple, but into the “Holy of Holies,” the holiest of holy places, into which no one but the high priest ever entered, and only once each year.
Her parents offered gifts and sacrifices to God and, receiving the priests’ blessing, returned with their relatives to Nazareth.
St Mary lived within the Temple precincts, where young women consecrated to God and widows serving in the Temple had their own quarters. Travellers and strangers also found shelter there. St Anna, the Virgin’s mother, who was widowed shortly after Mary’s entry into the Temple, joined them, but lived only briefly with her holy daughter before passing away.
The Virgin was brought up under the guidance of older devout maidens. She worked diligently, prayed constantly and loved to read the Holy Scriptures. The Church honours her as the radiant dawn from which the Sun of Righteousness rose.
When the time came for the maidens raised in the Temple to return to the world and marry, the priests urged Mary to follow the same path. She revealed to them her wish to dedicate herself entirely to God and to remain unmarried. By inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they betrothed her to the elderly Joseph, a relative of her parents, who became guardian of the Virgin and respected the vow she had made before God.
Icons of the “Entry of the Mother of God” depict the three-year-old Mary ascending the steps and entering the Temple.
The Feast was first celebrated as an independent festival in 715.
In 543, Emperor Justinian the Great built a church in Constantinople dedicated to the Entry of the Mother of God. The celebration falls during the Nativity Fast, a period in which the faithful receive Holy Communion and draw renewed strength to resist sin.
The day is also observed as the Day of the Christian Family. The family’s attendance at church symbolises the three-year-old Mary’s entry into the Temple and reminds parents of their spiritual responsibilities towards their children. The family has long been regarded as the first and best school for learning about God, Orthodoxy and the Christian virtues that sustained the Bulgarian people for centuries.
By decision of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in 1929, the feast is also marked as the Day of the Christian Family and Orthodox Youth.
This feast reminds parents and teachers alike of their duty to raise children in piety and faith, in obedience to their parents and in purity of life.
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