Pagan roots of the holiday March 8th. Days of honoring women in different countries

“The night has passed and the day has approached:
Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on
in weapons of light. Who differentiates the days
for the Lord he discerns; and who doesn't
He distinguishes between days, but for the Lord he does not distinguish.”
(Rom.13.12,14.6)

The roots of the holiday of March 8, so beloved by the Soviet people in the past, lie in the Old Testament Jewish holiday of Purim. (For more details, see the article “Is it possible not to celebrate March 8?” by Deacon Andrey Kuraev in the appendix). Purim is a holiday of unpunished beating of Persians by Jews under the Persian king Artaxerxes, organized by the king’s wife Esther, who took advantage of the power of a carnal connection with him.
Thanks to the power of her influence on the king, she turned 180 degrees the king’s intention to beat the Jews, which arose at the instigation of the Persian military leader Haman. As a result, the murderous intent emanating from the Persian ruler was realized by the force and power of a carnal connection on his own people, weakening the “body” of his power, actually undermining his strength and power as a ruler - this is the lesson of these events. I will not touch on the moral side of the issue of celebrating March 8th/Purim by Russian citizens uninitiated in its true meaning, especially Orthodox ones. This part is described in detail in the article by A. Kuraev.
The conclusion of A. Kuraev’s article is that it is not appropriate for Christians to celebrate the holiday of Purim, even under a different name - this is a holiday that Christians want to become a thing of the past. This is right.
On the other hand, watching how our family and friends, including Orthodox Christians, with mimosas and drinks, without knowing it, commemorate the great bloody massacre... It hurts.
So is it possible not to give the enemy the power that has already taken root? folk tradition celebrate this holiday without sinning against truth and morality?
It’s possible if you figure out WHAT to note and HOW to mark?
To do this, first of all, we must remember what distinguishes those who now profess Judaism and are waiting for their Moshiach from those who confessed the One God for centuries before His appearance in the Flesh and continues to confess His Triune now in the bosom of the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church created by Him.
The main difference is that the latter are enlightened by the light of the Holy Gospel and perceive the entire sacred history with its events in the bright spiritual light of the Gospel.
The first have abandoned this Light and are content with the light of the memory of flesh and blood, which in comparison with the Light of the Gospel is darkness.
So, one of the shepherds of communism, Clara Zetkin, knew WHAT she was celebrating, slyly involving the blind flock in the holiday.
Let us use the lessons of history for good and, being the new spiritual Israel, consider and celebrate this day in the light of Christ. Let us remember that (according to the Apostle Paul) our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of the world and the powers of the darkness of this age.
Let us make the day of March 8 a holiday of the victory of renewed flesh over the enemies of the human race - the spirits of wickedness in high places, murderers from the beginning.

The malicious slanderous plans of our spiritual enemy, planted in the king of our head - the mind, can lead to the destruction of our race, because like the Jews (soul and flesh) we have something for which to be condemned by the mind (Persians). Moreover, if the enemy presents our mind with a correspondingly selected selection of negative facts about our relatives, our loved ones, our Church (such a one-sided selection of facts of human iniquities with the assertion that this is the whole person is called slander).
Let's use Esther's example spiritually.
So, on the day of March 8, let us unite ourselves, like Esther, to the King of Kings Christ through a carnal connection.
What kind of carnal connection is this that destroys the power of the devil and providentially turns the machinations of the enemy onto his own head and weakens the enemy army?
This connection is given to us by the Church in the sacrament of the Eucharist - the Holy Communion of the Life-giving Flesh and Blood of Christ.
And approaching the Holy Chalice, let us ask Him TO TURN ALL THE EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY AUTHORITIES TO SUPPORT US AGAINST THE SPIRITS OF HUMAN KIDDER, THE SPIRITS OF JUDGMENT, WISHING THE DESTRUCTION OF US AND OUR KIND. AND LET'S THANK THE NEW ESTHER - THE HOLY VIRGIN, THE CLIMBED VOYODA - THE MOTHER OF GOD, WHO GAVE FLESH TO THE BEGINNINGLESS GOD, FOR THE SALVATION OF EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES HIM, IN THE BOSS OF HIS ONE HOLY CATHEDRAL APOSTOLIC CHURCH.
By doing this on this day, we will thereby celebrate the spiritual Purim/March 8th - the holiday of the victory of the new Israel, native in Christ, over its true enemy (the enemy of the human race).

Application:

Kuraev Andrey, deacon

In religious studies and cultural studies there is such a genre of work: mythological reconstruction. Just as an archaeologist tries to reconstruct the appearance of a temple from a fragment of a column, just as a paleozoologist tries to restore the appearance of a dinosaur from a vertebra, so a historian of religion, from a gesture, from a fragment, from a silent mention, tries to reconstruct the belief that was once alive and determined the fate of people, and then faded away and went away. . There is a certain hymn, there is a strange name for a certain spirit or deity. But what kind of deity is this, why did this particular person turn to him in this particular situation? What did this prayer mean to him? What did his universe have to be like for these strange words to be full of meaning?
This fragment, a vertebra from a dinosaur, is how the celebration of March 8 has survived to this day. What is behind this tradition? Why is she so tenacious, despite the fact that she comes from a time that is commonly criticized today? What beliefs, associations, thoughts and hopes were associated with this date in those days when the celebration of March 8 was not a tradition, but an unheard-of novelty?
For many years, as this date approached, I began to ask everyone I met, including historians and journalists who were preparing to write holiday essays: “why are we celebrating this particular day?” It would be natural to celebrate spring on March 1st. It would be logical to honor her on March 22 - the day of the spring equinox. Women's Day could be celebrated on any Sunday in the spring. But why was the 8th of March chosen? No, no, I explained, I'm not against celebrating women's day, I am not against the beginning of spring being marked by a secular holiday, and not just a church Maslenitsa. But why was March 8 chosen for such a holiday? I understand why November 7 is celebrated. Why the day of class solidarity of workers is celebrated on May 1 is also known to everyone (at least the official version claims that this is in memory of the workers’ demonstration in Chicago). But the choice of March 8 was not explained in any way. Neither official historiography nor folk legends have preserved anything about any event that once occurred on March 8, and turned out to be so significant and memorable for the ardent revolutionaries that they decided to preserve the memory of this day for centuries.
But if people celebrate a day about the motives for which they themselves know nothing, isn’t it strange? Doesn't this make it possible for some people (the extras invited to the celebration) to celebrate one thing, while others (the organizers) celebrate something completely different? Maybe the organizers decided not to divulge the secret of their joy? Like, we have great joy, and we don’t mind the whole world congratulating us on this day. But we have our own, very private and not understandable reason for the holiday, and we want a universal holiday, and so that the whole world will sincerely have fun and sincerely congratulate us, we will give it a different, profane-exoteric interpretation of the holiday.
So what could be the secret, esoteric content of this holiday?
Is it true that March 8 is Women's Day? After all, everyone knows that March 8 is International Women's Day. Everyone also knows that women live in all countries. In addition, almost everyone has learned in recent years that March 8 was celebrated only in the USSR. Why didn’t women in other countries celebrate it? - So it was not the day of a woman as a woman. On this day, women with certain qualities were to be glorified. And for some reason these qualities were not very valued in other countries.
The reason for this oddity is obvious: March 8 is not the day of women, but the day of revolutionary women. And therefore, in those countries where the revolutionary wave of the early twentieth century died out, the celebration of the Revolutionary Woman did not take root.
The need for the revolutionary movement to have its own holidays instead of traditional folk, church and state holidays is understandable. It is understandable to want to give a reason to once again encourage and honor our comrades and comrades in the struggle. A very smart and effective idea was to involve not only working men, but also women, in the revolutionary struggle, giving them their own movement, their own slogans and their own holiday.
But why was March 8 chosen as the day when revolutionary women were supposed to take to the streets and declare their current infringement of rights, as well as their unshakable conviction in the impending emancipation? Who was fired from work that day? Who was sent to prison? Which of the leaders of the democratic movement was born on this day? There is no answer.
This means that the motives for such a decision were not social, not historical, not public. The creators of this holiday associated something personal with this date. What? What could this day mean for the leaders of the European revolutionary movement at the turn of the century?
Since the motives were personal, it means we need to take a closer look at the individuals. And this series of portraits is familiar to us from our youth. It was only recently that we allowed ourselves to notice that these luminaries and heroes were related not only by belonging to the party of the revolution and devotion to the ideas of the International. They also had ethnic kinship. The International, as it turned out, was extremely mononational. Well, today this is a fact, without which a serious conversation about the history of the revolutionary movement in Europe at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries is impossible. It was people from the Jewish people who raised the world to fight the “world of violence” and called for its destruction “to the ground.”
Remembering this circumstance, let's try to get used to the world of these people. Imagine yourself in the place of, say, Clara Zetkin. You came up with a wonderful idea to create a women's revolutionary detachment, use feminine energy to fight the "exploiters". And to consolidate and promote this movement, you need a symbolic day, which would be the day of the Revolutionary Woman. Which day should be given such significance?
The revolution, as we know, lives by religious pathos; it itself is a myth, and myth is characterized by thinking by precedents. The current action must reproduce a certain pattern, an archetype, first revealed to the world in the mythologically rich “on time.” We must imitate the example. And the myth-making instinct of the revolution requires us to pose the question this way: Have there been women in history who raised the people to fight tyranny and achieved success?
A German, a Frenchman, an Englishman, when posing the question in this way, would immediately remember Joan of Arc. But Clara Zetkin is a Jew. And for her, associations with the history of her native people are quite natural. And in this story there was such a figure - Esther.
Many centuries ago, she saved her people from a tyrant. The memory of those events has been preserved for centuries. And not only on the pages of the Bible. The annual and most happy holiday Jewish people - the holiday of Purim. And it is celebrated just at the turning point from winter to spring (the Jews retain lunar calendar, and therefore the time of Purim celebration slides in relation to our solar calendar almost the same way as the time of celebration slides in relation to it Orthodox Easter). Perhaps in the year when the decision was made to begin celebrating “International Women’s Day,” the holiday of Purim fell on March 8th.
Changing the date of the Revolutionary Women holiday every year would be both inconvenient and too obvious: it would be too noticeable that only Purim is celebrated. And therefore, the celebration of the Destroyer Woman was decided to be separated from the Purim holiday, fixed, and annually on March 8, regardless of lunar cycles, call on all the peoples of the earth to glorify the Warrior Woman. Glorify Esther. That is, congratulations on Purim (even without realizing it).
This idea would only be witty if the holiday of Purim was an ordinary holiday like Harvest Day or New Year's Day. But Purim is too unique. Perhaps none of the modern nations has a holiday dedicated to this kind of event.
This is not a religious holiday. This is what the “Jewish Encyclopedia” says about it, emphasizing that this holiday “is not associated either with the temple or with any religious event” (Jewish Encyclopedia. Body of knowledge about Jewry and its culture in the past and present. vol. 13. M ., Terra, 1991, stb. 123).
The Babylonian captivity of the Jews ended. Those who wished could return to Jerusalem. True, it turned out that there were significantly fewer people wishing to return to their homeland than could be imagined from the laments and demands that preceded the liberation (from the cursed “prison of nations” - Russia - when its borders were opened, much fewer Jews also left than the leaders of the Zionist movement would like). For many in the capital of the world empire (which was then Babylon), things went quite well, and a considerable number of Jews did not want to leave the houses they had lived in for a century, sever their usual ties, trade contacts, or lose their established clientele. Thousands of Jewish families remained to live in the cities of the Persian Empire, and in a situation that was by no means slavish.
Over time, the current situation began to surprise the Persians themselves. Looking around, they ceased to understand: who conquered whom. Did the Persians conquer Jerusalem, or did the Jews conquer Babylon? As usual in such situations, the last institution of power that recognizes the threat to national interests and tries to defend them is the “security forces.” And so, like Kryuchkov, who reported to Gorbachev about “agents of influence,” the Persian Minister of Defense, General Aman, goes to the royal Xerxes (the events take place around 480 BC) and shares his sad observations.
As just noted, the times were still far from evangelical, and morals were by no means Christian. Xerxes' reaction was decisively pagan: exterminate all Jews. His wife Queen Esther learns about Xerxes' plan. The king does not know about her nationality. And so, in a moment of delight and promises, Esther extracts confessions and promises from her husband: do you love me? does that mean you love those I love? does that mean you love my people? does that mean you hate those who hate me? does that mean you hate those who hate my friends and relatives? does that mean you hate the haters of my people? So give vent to your hatred! Destroy my enemies, whom you consider your enemies too! And Xerxes, who without much hesitation answered with consent to all these questions, is now surprised to discover that he agreed to destroy all the enemies of the Jews he hated...
As a result, on the 13th day of Adar (this month of the Jewish calendar falls at the end of February - beginning of March), the royal command regarding pogroms comes to all cities of the empire. But everything was getting ready for the beating of the Jews. But the messengers brought a completely different decree. It turned out that the king allowed Esther and her cousin and the teacher Mordecai draw up a decree about the upcoming pogroms: “write about the Jews whatever you want, in the name of the king, and seal it with the royal ring... And the royal scribes were called and everything was written as Mordecai ordered to the rulers of one hundred and twenty-seven regions on behalf of the king - that the king allows the Jews who are in every city to gather and stand in defense of their lives, to destroy, kill and destroy all the powerful in the people and in the region who are at enmity with them, children and wives, and their property to plunder" (Esther 8:8-11)
And for two days, “all the princes in the regions, and the satraps, and the executors of the king’s affairs supported the Jews. And the Jews beat all their enemies, and destroyed them, and dealt with the enemies according to their own will” (Esther 9:3-5). Haman was hanged with ten of his children. In total, 75,000 Persians were killed. Elite of the country. Everyone who could be competitors. The fate of the Persian Empire was sealed.
I am not currently writing a theological study, nor am I engaged in the interpretation and apology of the Old Testament. I will not say a word of condemnation towards the characters of Sacred History. I will only note that in the Hebrew text of the book of Esther the word of God is never mentioned. This is a historical tale, not a revelation of God.
My bewilderment is about something else: how can you celebrate the events of that day after thousands of years... Is there another people on earth who joyfully celebrates the day of obviously unpunished massacres? I understand the holiday in honor of a military victory. It was an open and risky clash, and Victory Day is a masculine and honest holiday. But how to celebrate the day of the pogrom? How to celebrate the day of the murder of thousands of children? And how can you write about the “merry holiday of Purim”?
And this holiday is very fun. This is the only day on which the sober and pedantic Talmud prescribes getting drunk: “In the afternoon they eat a festive meal and drink alcoholic beverages until they can no longer distinguish between the words “cursed is Haman” and “blessed is Mordechai”” (Siddur. The Gate of Prayer (shaarei tefilah) on weekdays, Saturday and holidays. Translation, commentary and explanation of the order of prayers, edited by Pinchas Polonsky. Jerusalem-Moscow, 1993, p. 664). The festive meal includes pies with the poetic name “Haman’s ears” (Jewish Encyclopedia. vol. 13. stb. 126). Such a sweet family scene: the parent, who no longer distinguishes the name Haman from the name Mordecai, suggests to his little son: “Darling, would you like to eat more of the flesh of our enemy?”
And this holiday is considered the greatest. Among the Talmudic sages, “there is even an opinion that when all the books of the prophets and hagiographers are forgotten, the book of Esther will still not be forgotten, and the holiday of Purim will not cease to be observed” (ibid., stb. 124).
So is the assumption groundless that in the minds of the Jewish leaders of the International the women's revolutionary movement was associated with the name of Esther, and March 8 was chosen by them due to the habit of celebrating on these days family holiday Purim?
The International had international and planetary goals. They had something to say to all nations. Purim is a holiday of beating enemies. Who are the enemies of the Jews? Is it only the fellow tribesmen of the unfortunate Haman? In the medieval “Disputation of Nachmanides,” a Jew interprets the psalm “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” The Jew agrees that this is about the Messiah. And he explains: “God will help the messiah until he makes all nations his footstool, for they are all his enemies - they enslave him, they deny his coming and his power, and some of them created for themselves another messiah” (Disputation of Nachmanides. Jerusalem-Moscow, 1992, p. 48). So, in the history of Jewish thought there is a current that believes that all peoples are enemies of the Jews. The events of Purim remind us exactly how to deal with our enemies. This is the enormity of this “merry holiday”: from generation to generation it reproduces the pattern of treatment of those whom the Jews will one day consider their enemies. No history, no progress. There is no growth in spiritual consciousness and morality. Old Testament bloodthirstiness has not changed. Those norms are still alive. The archetype has not been canceled. It continues to be regarded as a model worthy of reproduction (for now - ritually-symbolic, on occasion - real)...
Now all we have to do is remember that the International’s rise to power in Russia was associated with a change in the calendar, and ask: when was the day now called “the eighth of March” celebrated in the revolutionary circles of pre-revolutionary Russia? It turns out that March 8th according to the new style is February 23rd according to the old style. Here is the answer - why “men’s” day and “women’s” day are so close to each other. When European brothers in the International celebrated the “eighth of March,” in Russia this day was called February 23rd. Therefore, in the pre-revolutionary years, party members and their sympathizers were accustomed to consider February 23 a holiday. Then the calendar was changed, but the reflex remained to celebrate something revolutionary on February 23rd. There was a date. In principle (given the floating nature of Purim), this date is no worse or better than March 8. But it was necessary to find a cover for her. A few years later, a corresponding myth was created: “Red Army Day.” The memory of the first battle and the first victory.
But this is a myth. On February 23, 1918, there was no Red Army yet, and there were no victories. Newspapers at the end of February 1918 do not contain any reports of victory. And the February 1919 newspapers did not rejoice over the first anniversary of the “great victory.” Only in 1922 was February 23 declared Red Army Day." However, a year before February 23, 1918, Pravda writes that February 23 is a holiday: "Long before the war, the proletarian International designated February 23 as the day of the international women's holiday"(Great day // Pravda, March 7, 1917; for more details, see M. Sidlin. Red gift for International Women's Day on February 23 // Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 22.2.1997).
However, it was necessary to come up with a cover for the celebration of February 23 also because it was on February 23, 1917 that the “February Revolution” began. Since the Bolsheviks did not play a leading role in it, but nevertheless accepted it, welcomed it and included it in their calendar, it was necessary to give a different name to the day of the “overthrow of the autocracy” (while maintaining its festivity). It became "the day of the Red Army."
Thus, the tradition of celebrating Purim led to the establishment of a women's holiday on March 8. The riots of allegedly starving women residents of Petrograd on February 23, 1917 were timed to coincide with Women's Revolutionary Day. The fall of the Russian Empire coincided (“coincided”) with the defeat of the Persian Empire. Since Purim 1917, there has been a smell of pogrom in Russia - a pogrom of Russian culture... So the Soviet congratulations on March 8 (as well as on February 23) are also congratulations on the “deliverance” from “tsarism”. For Orthodox people to congratulate each other on such a holiday is no longer humility, but sadomasochism.
And one more thing: the only military event that took place on February 23, 1918 was the decision of the Central Executive Committee of the Council of People's Commissars to accept the terms of the Brest Peace. This is the day of Russia's surrender in the First World War. Surrender at the behest of the International, which turned “the imperialist war (more precisely, the domestic war) into a civil war.” It is difficult to find a more shameful day in the military history of Russia (including Soviet Russia). And the fact that today this day is called “Defender of the Fatherland Day” is another mockery.
In general, it is very interesting to listen to the hints that those “initiated” into the secret of Purim utter in the presence of people whom they consider uninitiated. For example, in 1994 a kosher food store opened in Moscow. The main “anti-fascist” of Moscow, deputy of the Moscow City Duma Evgeny Proshechkin, speaking at the opening ceremony of this store, “made a toast to the increased role of trading enterprises in the development of national-political relations. By the way, at one time oils played a special and very worthy role in them, with which the body of the biblical heroine Esther, the wife of the Persian king Artaxerxes, was rubbed" (P. Ehrlich. Kosher Moscow. // Today, 6/30/1994) What subtle humor! It turns out that slaughtering 75 thousand people means playing “a worthy role in the development of national relations”! Supporting the deputy’s elegant joke, the journalist continues: “They say the tsar left a little for the Osem company and for you and me.” So, do the owners and visitors of the kosher store intend to reproduce the plot of the book of Esther in Russia? By the way, according to the same journalist, the presentation menu included a dish called “Haman’s ears”...
I understand that the easiest way to dismiss the above arguments is to label them “anti-Semitism.” But this will not be true. I'm not an anti-Semite. And to this day I do not renounce my article “Anti-Semitism is a sin” (Jewish Newspaper, No. 1, 1992). Any hatred, including national hatred, is sinful. But if the Jewish National Congress and NTV allow themselves to look at our Gospel with an unkind eye (truly, deliver us “from the eyes of the ghost”), then I also considered it acceptable to look at the history of Purim with a look that does not smooth out the sharp corners. So this article of mine can be considered a response to the “last temptation” of NTV. This is just a reminder: don't throw stones when you live in a glass house. But this is a reason.
And the reason for my dislike for March 8 is much more prosaic: I simply couldn’t stand March 8 since childhood. And having become a church person, I fell in love with the Orthodox “Women’s Day” - “the week of the Myrrh-Bearing Women,” celebrated on the third Sunday after Easter (this year - May 3). So I wrote this article not so that someone would treat Clara Zetkin and her people worse, but so that respect for our Orthodox traditions would return. For the sake of having a holiday in our Russian home.
P.S. Since I often have to argue with occultists, I cannot help but take this opportunity and point out the thread that connects the Jewish Purim and the occult believers of the “Age of Aquarius.”
Here the following roll call is built: among astrologers, the current era is called the “era of Pisces.” It began around the Nativity of Christ and ends at the very beginning of the 21st century. Fish is an early Christian symbol (in Greek fish - icquj - can be deciphered as a combination of the first letters of the expression “Jesus Christ the Son of God, Savior”). Therefore, the “age of Pisces” is interpreted by occultists as a time of the triumph of Christianity, and, accordingly, magical “ignorance”, as a time unfavorable for “esotericists”. With the advent of the “era of Aquarius,” hopes are associated with the flourishing of occult and magical abilities. Talmudic literature agrees with the occultists that the sign of Pisces is unfavorable for Jews. She tells that Haman was an astrologer, and in choosing the time to persecute the Jews, he turned to astrological tables. "However, every month turned out to be favorable for the Jews: thus, Nisan was favorable for the Jews because of the Passover sacrifice; Iyar - because of the Little Passover, Sivan - because the Torah was given in this month, etc. But when Haman reached Adar, then found that he was under the zodiac sign of Pisces, and said: “Now I will be able to swallow them, like fish swallowing one another” (Jewish Encyclopedia. vol. 6, stb. 124). This Talmudic story is already taking shape. in the Christian era, and in the minds of its authors and listeners for centuries it was clearly associated with the “time of Pisces,” that is, with the era of the dominance of Christians, I will not touch upon the question of the influence of Judaism on European occultism. But the consonance of feelings and ideas is still undeniable. .Both there is an association: fish-Christians-evil.
So it is not appropriate for Christians to celebrate the holiday of Purim, even under a different name. After all, this is a holiday that wants us to become a thing of the past.

They are as old as time and are known to everyone. Just in case, I checked with my colleagues and realized that many only know the official version. On the eve of Women's Day, we decided to collect all the stories that, in one way or another, relate to the creation of International Women's Day. Some of them may shock and even discourage people from celebrating this day at all.

Version one, official: Day of Solidarity of Working Women

The official version of the USSR says that the tradition of celebrating March 8 is associated with the “March of Empty Pots,” which was held on this day in 1857 by New York textile workers. They protested against unacceptable working conditions and low wages. It is interesting that there was not a single note about the strike in the press of that time. And historians have found out that March 8, 1857 was actually a Sunday. It is very strange to organize strikes on a day off.
In 1910, at a women's forum in Copenhagen, German communist Clara Zetkin called on the world to establish International Women's Day on March 8th. She meant that on this day women would organize rallies and marches, and thereby draw public attention to their problems. Well, we all already know this story.
Initially, the holiday was called the International Day of Women's Solidarity in the Fight for Their Rights. The date of March 8 was summed up by the same textile workers' strike, which, perhaps, never actually happened. More precisely, there was, but it was not the textile workers who went on strike. But more on that later.
This holiday was brought to the USSR by Zetkin’s friend, the fiery revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai. The same one that conquered the Soviet Union with the “great phrase”: “You should give yourself to the first man you meet as easily as drinking a glass of water.”

Version two, Jewish: praise of the Jewish queen

Historians have never agreed on whether Clara Zetkin was Jewish. Some sources claim that she was born into the family of a Jewish shoemaker, and others into a German teacher. Go figure it out. However, Zetkin’s desire to connect March 8 with the Jewish holiday of Purim cannot be silenced.
So, the second version says that Zetkin wanted to connect the history of Women’s Day with the history of the Jewish people. According to legend, the beloved of the Persian king Xerxes, Esther, saved the Jewish people from extermination by using her charms. Xerxes wanted to exterminate all the Jews, but Esther convinced him not only not to kill the Jews, but, on the contrary, to destroy all their enemies, including the Persians themselves.
This happened on the 13th day of Ardah according to the Jewish calendar (this month falls at the end of February - beginning of March). Praising Esther, Jews began to celebrate Purim. The date of the celebration was flexible, but in 1910 it fell on March 8th.

Version three, about women of the oldest profession

The third version is perhaps the most scandalous for all representatives of the fair sex, anxiously awaiting International Women's Day.
In 1857, women did protest in New York, but they were not textile workers, but prostitutes. Representatives the oldest profession they demanded to pay wages to sailors who used their services but did not have the money to pay.
In 1894, on March 8, prostitutes demonstrated again in Paris. This time they demanded that their rights be recognized on an equal basis with those women who sew clothes or bake bread, and that special trade unions be established. This was repeated in 1895 in Chicago, and in 1896 in New York - shortly before the memorable suffragette convention in 1910, where it was decided to declare this day a women's and international day at Zetkin's suggestion.
By the way, Clara herself carried out similar actions. All in the same 1910, together with her friend Rosa Luxemburg, she brought prostitutes onto the streets of German cities demanding an end to police excesses. But in the Soviet version, prostitutes were replaced with “working women.”

Why was March 8 implemented?

Many historians agree that March 8 is an ordinary political campaign of the Social Democrats.
At the beginning of the 20th century, women protested throughout Europe. And to attract attention, they didn’t even need to show their breasts. It was enough to simply walk through the streets with posters on which socialist slogans were written, and public attention was guaranteed. And to the leaders of the Social Democratic Party, a tick, they say, progressive women are in solidarity with us.
Stalin also decided to increase his popularity and ordered to recognize March 8 as International Women's Day. But since it was difficult to tie it to historical events, the story had to be slightly adjusted. But no one really bothered to look into it. Since the leader said it, it means it was so.

International Women's Day, now celebrated in dozens of countries at the state and unofficial levels, was first celebrated on March 8, 1910. However, the tradition of giving gifts and giving special attention the beautiful half of humanity is older. Similar holidays, albeit on a smaller scale, were in Ancient Rome, Japan and Armenia.

Days of honoring women in different countries

The history of the holiday dates back to the ancient era. In ancient Rome, celebrations in honor of freeborn women, matrons, were held on the calendars of March. Every year on March 1, married Roman women were given gifts. Dressed in elegant clothes and wreaths of fragrant flowers, the matrons headed to the temple of the goddess Vesta. Slaves also received their gift on this day: their mistresses gave them a day off.

According to the poet Ovid, the tradition of celebrating the holiday originated during the Sabine War. Legend has it that during the founding of Rome, the city was inhabited only by men. To continue the family line, they kidnapped girls from neighboring tribes. Thus began the war between the Romans and the Latins and Sabines. And if the men of the “eternal city” quickly dealt with the former, they had to fight for a long time with the latter.

The Sabines almost won, but the outcome of the battle was decided by the kidnapped women. Over the years, they started families, gave birth to children, and the war between fathers and brothers on the one hand and husbands on the other tore their hearts. During the battle, disheveled and crying, they rushed into the thick of it, begging to stop. And the men listened to them, made peace and created one state. The founder of Rome, Romulus, established a holiday in honor of free women - Maturnalia. He gave Roman Sabine women equal property rights to men.

More than a thousand years ago, the tradition of celebrating Women's Day in Japan began. It is celebrated on March 3 and is called Hinamatsuri. The history of the origin of the "Girls' Day" is not known for certain. It most likely began with the custom of floating paper dolls in a basket down the river. It was believed that this is how Japanese women ward off misfortunes sent by evil spirits. Almost 300 years of Hinamatsuri - national holiday. On this day, families with girls decorate their rooms with balls of artificial tangerine and cherry flowers.

The central place in the room is given to a special stepped stand, on which beautiful dolls in ceremonial outfits are displayed. On the historical Women's Day, girls, wearing colorful kimonos, visit each other and treat each other with sweets.

The Armenian Holiday of Motherhood and Beauty has ancient Christian roots. It is celebrated on April 7 - the day when, according to the Bible, the guardian angels informed the Virgin Mary that she was expecting a child. In modern Armenia, both traditional and International Women's Day are celebrated. Thus, daughters, sisters, mothers and grandmothers here accept congratulations throughout the month.

The history of the holiday

Since the end of the 19th century, women have actively fought to obtain the same rights as men. The ideas of emancipation found a lively response among representatives of left-wing organizations. That is why many politically active women of that time joined the ranks of socialists and communists. One of the representatives of the labor movement, Clara Zetkin, in 1910, at an international conference in the capital of Denmark, called for the establishment of International Women's Day. The idea was not new. A year earlier, the American Socialist Party proposed celebrating Women's Day on February 28. Clara Zetkin chose a different day - March 8th.

There are several versions why the communist insisted on this particular date. According to one of them, the idea of ​​creating a holiday was linked to the first mass protest of working women. A demonstration of New York seamstresses and shoemakers took place in 1857. The workers demanded to reduce the working day to 10 hours, increase wages and improve working conditions. The appearance of the holiday on March 8 could also be associated with another political event - the 15,000-strong rally of 1908. New Yorkers fought for women's right to vote and a ban on child labor.

There is also a Jewish version of the origin of the holiday. Her supporters claim that March 8 was chosen by Clara Zetkin in honor of the Jewish holiday of Purim. For Jews, this is a day of carnival fun, dedicated to the events of 2 thousand years ago. Then, under King Artaxerxes, his wife Esther saved the Jews of Persia from mass extermination. Several facts indicate the inconsistency of this version. Firstly, the Jewish origin of Clara Zetkin, née Eissner, is questionable. Secondly, Purim is a moving holiday, falling on February 23 in 1910.

Holiday of spring, beauty and femininity

The date chosen by Zetkin did not take root for a long time. At the suggestion of another left-wing activist, Elena Grinberg, International Women's Day in 1911 was held on March 19 in a number of countries. The following year, rallies took place on the 12th. In 1913, political actions were organized in eight countries, but they took place scatteredly during the first two weeks of spring. On the eve of the First World War, March 8 fell on a Sunday, which made it possible to coordinate events in six countries.

With the outbreak of hostilities, the activity of the women's movement in the world subsided. It increased again three years later, when the economic situation in European countries deteriorated noticeably. At the beginning of 1917, a social explosion occurred in Russia. On February 23, or March 8 according to the new style, Petrograd textile workers, taking their children with them, went on strike. Constant malnutrition and war weariness made them brave. Women demanded bread, approaching the soldiers' cordons, and asked the men to join them. Thus began the February Revolution, which put an end to the autocracy.

In the early 20s of the last century, already in Soviet Russia, they remembered the events of that March 8th, and the history of the holiday continued. Since 1966, this day has become a day off in the USSR, and in 1975 it was recognized by the UN. According to the map on Wikipedia, March 8, in addition to Russia, is officially celebrated in the following countries:

• Kazakhstan;
• Azerbaijan;
• Belarus;
• Turkmenistan;
• Mongolia;
• Sri Lanka;
• Georgia;
• Armenia;
• Ukraine;
• Angola;
• Uzbekistan;
• Moldova;
• Zambia;
• Cambodia;
• Kyrgyzstan;
• Kenya;
• Tajikistan;
• Uganda;
• Guinea-Bissau;
• Madagascar;
• DPRK.

For a long time, March 8 and the history of the holiday were associated with politics, since the appearance of the date was closely connected with the activities of the protest movement. And it was not intended as a celebration, but as a day of women’s solidarity in the struggle for their rights.

Over time, the feminist and socialist component of the holiday faded into the background.

In the 70s and 80s in the Soviet Union there was a gradual “humanization” of the event, and traditions were formed. Girls and women were presented with flowers. The symbols of the March 8th holiday are tulips and mimosa branches. In kindergartens and schools they made homemade cards for mothers and grandmothers. Houses were usually covered festive table. All these traditions have migrated to modern times. Now March 8th is a holiday of femininity, beauty and the coming spring.

Well, I learned something interesting about our favorite holiday. Everyone should know about this!

The roots of the holiday of March 8, so beloved by the Soviet people in the past, lie in the Old Testament Jewish holiday of Purim. Purim is a celebration of the victory of the Jews over the Persians under the Persian king Artaxerxes, organized by the king's wife Esther, who took advantage of the power of her connection with him.
You can read more about all these events in the biblical book “Esther.”

What is behind this tradition? Why is she so tenacious, despite the fact that she comes from a time that is commonly criticized today? What beliefs, associations, thoughts and hopes were associated with this date in those days when the celebration of March 8 was not a tradition, but an unheard-of novelty?
It would be natural to celebrate spring on March 1st. It would be logical to honor her on March 22 - the day of the spring equinox. Women's Day could be celebrated on any Sunday in the spring. But why was the 8th of March chosen? It is clear why until the recent past it was celebrated on November 7th. Why the day of class solidarity of workers is celebrated on May 1 is also known to everyone (at least the official version claims that this is in memory of the workers’ demonstration in Chicago). But the choice of March 8 was not explained by our authorities in any way. Neither official historiography nor folk legends have preserved anything about any event that once occurred on March 8, and turned out to be so significant and memorable for the ardent revolutionaries that they decided to preserve the memory of this day for centuries.

But if people celebrate a day about the motives for which they themselves know nothing, isn’t it strange? Doesn't this make it possible for some people (the extras invited to the celebration) to celebrate one thing, while others (the organizers) celebrate something completely different? Maybe the organizers decided not to divulge the secret of their joy? Like, we have great joy, and we don’t mind the whole world congratulating us on this day.

So what could be the secret content of this holiday?

Is it true that March 8 is Women's Day? After all, everyone knows that March 8 is International Women's Day. Everyone also knows that women live in all countries. In addition, almost everyone has learned in recent years that March 8 was celebrated only in the USSR. Why didn’t women in other countries celebrate it? - So it was not the day of a woman as a woman. On this day, women with certain qualities were to be glorified. And for some reason these qualities were not very valued in other countries.
The reason for this oddity is obvious: March 8 is not the day of women in general, but the day of a specific woman - a revolutionary.

And therefore, in those countries where the revolutionary wave of the early twentieth century died out, the celebration of the Revolutionary Woman did not take root.
The need for the revolutionary movement to have its own holidays instead of traditional folk, church and state holidays is understandable. It is understandable to want to give a reason to once again encourage and honor our comrades and comrades in the struggle. A very smart and effective idea was to involve not only working men, but also women, in the revolutionary struggle, giving them their own movement, their own slogans and their own holiday.

Remembering this circumstance, let's try to get used to the world of these people. Here is one of these revolutionaries - Clara Zetkin. She came up with the wonderful idea of ​​creating a women’s revolutionary detachment, using women’s energy to fight the “exploiters.” And to consolidate and promote this movement, you need a symbolic day, which would be the day of the Revolutionary Woman. Which day should be given such significance?
The revolution, as we know, lives by religious pathos; it itself is a myth, and myth is characterized by thinking by precedents. The current action must reproduce a certain pattern, an archetype, first revealed to the world in the mythologically rich “on time.” We must imitate the example. And the myth-making instinct of the revolution requires us to pose the question this way: Have there been women in history who raised the people to fight tyranny and achieved success?

A German, a Frenchman, an Englishman, when posing the question in this way, would immediately remember Joan of Arc. But Clara Zetkin is a Jew. And for her, associations with the history of her native people are quite natural. And in this story there was such a figure - Esther.

Many centuries ago, she saved her people from a tyrant. The memory of those events has been preserved for centuries. And not only on the pages of the Bible. The annual and most joyful holiday of the Jewish people, the holiday of Purim, is dedicated to Esther. And it is celebrated just at the turning point from winter to spring (the Jews retain the lunar calendar, and therefore the time of the celebration of Purim slides in relation to our solar calendar almost the same way as the time of the celebration of Orthodox Easter slides in relation to it). Perhaps in the year when the decision was made to begin celebrating “International Women’s Day,” the holiday of Purim fell on March 8th.

Changing the date of the Revolutionary Women holiday every year would be both inconvenient and too obvious: it would be too noticeable that only Purim is celebrated. And therefore, it was decided to separate the celebration of the Destroyer Woman from the Purim holiday, to fix it, and annually on March 8, regardless of lunar cycles, to call on all the peoples of the earth to glorify the Warrior Woman. Glorify Esther. That is, congratulations on Purim (even without realizing it).

This idea would only be witty if the holiday of Purim was an ordinary holiday like Harvest Day or New Year's Day. But Purim is too unique. Perhaps none of the modern nations has a holiday dedicated to this kind of event.

The Babylonian captivity of the Jews ended. Those who wished could return to Jerusalem. True, it turned out that there were significantly fewer people wishing to return to their homeland than could be imagined from the laments and demands that preceded the liberation (from the cursed “prison of nations” - Russia - when its borders were opened, much fewer Jews also left than the leaders of the Zionist movement would like). For many in the capital of the world empire (which was then Babylon), things went quite well, and a considerable number of Jews did not want to leave the houses they had lived in for a century, sever their usual ties, trade contacts, or lose their established clientele. Thousands of Jewish families remained to live in the cities of the Persian Empire, and in a situation that was by no means slavish.
Over time, the current situation began to surprise the Persians themselves. Looking around, they ceased to understand: who conquered whom. Did the Persians conquer Jerusalem, or did the Jews conquer Babylon?

The Persian Minister of Defense, General Aman, goes to the royal Xerxes (events take place around 480 BC) and shares his sad observations.
Xerxes' reaction was decisively pagan: exterminate all Jews. His wife Queen Esther learns about Xerxes' plan. The king does not know about her nationality. And so, in a moment of delight and promises, Esther extracts confessions and promises from her husband: do you love me? does that mean you love those I love? does that mean you love my people?
And Xerxes, who without much hesitation answered with consent to all these questions, is now surprised to discover that he agreed to save the Jews he hated...

Now all we have to do is remember that the International’s rise to power in Russia was associated with a change in the calendar, and ask: when was the day now called “the eighth of March” celebrated in the revolutionary circles of pre-revolutionary Russia? It turns out that March 8th according to the new style is February 23rd according to the old style. Here is the answer - why “men’s” day and “women’s” day are so close to each other. When European brothers in the International celebrated the “eighth of March,” in Russia this day was called February 23rd. Therefore, in the pre-revolutionary years, party members and their sympathizers were accustomed to consider February 23 a holiday. Then the calendar was changed, but the reflex remained to celebrate something revolutionary on February 23rd. There was a date. In principle (given the floating nature of Purim), this date is no worse or better than March 8. But it was necessary to find a cover for her. A few years later, a corresponding myth was created: “Red Army Day.” The memory of the first battle and the first victory.
But this is a myth. On February 23, 1918, there was no Red Army yet, and there were no victories.

However, this is a topic for another conversation and another article...
From here: www.4oru.org

Without which holiday is it difficult to imagine the beginning of spring? Of course, without March 8th. The history of the creation of the March 8 holiday has already been forgotten by many of us. Over time, it lost its social and political significance. Now this day simply symbolizes respect, love and tenderness, which, undoubtedly, all representatives of the fair sex on the planet deserve: mothers, grandmothers, daughters, wives and sisters.

The origin of the March 8 holiday is not known to everyone. Most of us only know about the official version. However, there is more than one story about the creation of the March 8 holiday. Moreover, each of them has the right to exist. Which of these versions to believe in, everyone decides for himself.

Official version

According to the official version of the USSR, the origin of the March 8 holiday is associated with a protest march organized by textile factory workers. Women came out to protest against harsh working conditions and low wages.

It is noteworthy that the newspapers of those years did not publish a single article about such strikes. Later, historians managed to find out that in 1857 March 8 fell on a Sunday. It may seem strange that women went on strike on a day off.

There is another story. On March 8, Clara Zetkin spoke at the women's forum in Copenhagen with a call to establish a German communist who implied that on March 8 women would be able to organize marches and rallies, thereby drawing public attention to their own problems. The date was framed as a strike by those same textile workers, which in reality never happened.

In the USSR, this holiday appeared thanks to Clara Zetkin’s friend, the fiery revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai. So in 1921, Women's Day became an official holiday in our country for the first time.

The Legend of the Queen of the Jews

Historians' opinions about the origins of Clara Zetkin are divided. No one can say for sure whether she was Jewish. Some sources say that Clara was born into a Jewish family. Others claim that her father was German.

Clara Zetkin’s desire to connect the holiday with the date of March 8 ambiguously indicates that she still had Jewish roots, since March 8 is celebrated as an ancient Jewish holiday- Purim.

What other versions of the creation of the March 8 holiday are there? The history of the holiday may be connected with the history of the Jewish people. According to legend, Queen Esther, who was the beloved of King Xerxes, saved the Jews from extermination with the help of her spells. The Persian king intended to kill all the Jews, but the beautiful Esther was able to convince him not to kill the Jewish people, but, on the contrary, to exterminate all enemies, including the Persians.

Praising the queen, Jews began to celebrate the holiday of Purim. The date of the celebration was always different and fell at the end of February - beginning of March. However, in 1910 this day fell on March 8th.

Women of an ancient profession

According to the third version, the origin of the March 8 holiday is scandalous and unpleasant for women who look forward to this day.

According to some reports, in 1857, the women of New York did organize a protest, but they were not textile workers, but representatives of the oldest profession who demanded wages for the sailors who used their services, since the latter could not pay them.

March 8, 1894 women lung behavior again held a demonstration, but in Paris. They demanded recognition of their rights on an equal basis with other workers who sew clothes and bake bread, and also asked to organize trade unions for them. The following year, rallies were held in Chicago and New York.

It is noteworthy that Clara Zetkin herself participated in such actions. For example, in 1910, she and her friend brought prostitutes onto the streets of Germany demanding to stop police brutality. In the Soviet version public women had to be replaced by “workers”.

Why was it necessary to implement March 8?

The history of International Women's Day in Russia is political. March 8 is essentially an ordinary political campaign carried out by the Social Democrats. At the beginning of the 20th century there were active protests to attract public attention. To do this, they took to the streets with posters promoting socialist calls. This was to the advantage of the leaders of the Social Democratic Party, since progressive women were in solidarity with the party.

This is probably why Stalin ordered the recognition of March 8 as Women's Day. Because it was impossible to connect the date with historical events, the story had to be slightly adjusted. If the leader said it, it had to be done.

Women from Venus

Traditions associated with the International are no less interesting than the origin of the March 8 holiday. For example, on this day it is customary to wear purple ribbons.

And this is not surprising, because this color represents Venus, which is considered the patroness of all women. That is why all famous ladies (politicians, teachers, medical workers, journalists, actresses and athletes) wear purple ribbons when taking part in March 8 events. Typically, they take part in political rallies, women's conferences or theater performances, fairs and even fashion shows.

The meaning of the holiday

There is no city where March 8 is not celebrated. For many, the history of the holiday personifies the indomitable spirit of women fighting for equality and their own. For others, this holiday has long lost its political overtones and has become an excellent occasion to express love and respect for the fair sex.

On the day, words of congratulations on March 8th are heard everywhere. In any organization, company or educational institution they honor female employees and give them flowers and gifts. Along with this, official events are held in cities on March 8th. A festive concert is held annually in the Kremlin in Moscow.

How is March 8 celebrated in Russia?

On March 8th, all women forget about household chores. All housework (cleaning, cooking, washing) is put off. Often men take on all the worries so that once a year they feel the full difficulty of carrying out the daily tasks that our women cope with. On this day, every representative of the fair sex should hear words of congratulations on March 8th.

This holiday never ceases to be the most long-awaited for all women. On March 8, it is customary to congratulate not only loved ones, but also colleagues, neighbors, store employees, doctors and teachers.

Don't skimp on kind words on this wonderful day. After all, without women, life on Earth would cease to exist!