concept
Annunciation (feast)
the Annunciation
also: Благовещение, Blagoveshchenie
The Orthodox feast (March 25 O.S.) commemorating the announcement to the Virgin Mary of Christ's conception, one of the twelve great feasts of the liturgical year; the story opens on the eve of the Annunciation and its blizzard, and the icon of the Annunciation stands on the Terekhovs' prayer-room table.
Reading notes
- Мужики §251 on Easter it snowed
The Annunciation (Благовещение, March 25 O.S.) and Easter (Пасха), mentioned together at the close of the winter chapter, are used here purely as calendar markers for how unnaturally long and hard that particular winter dragged on -- weather still wintry at feasts that, by the Orthodox calendar, should already fall in spring.
- The Murder §2 the eve of the Annunciation
Благовещение (the Annunciation, March 25 O.S.) commemorates the angel Gabriel's announcement to the Virgin Mary; it is one of the twelve great feasts of the Orthodox year and falls within Great Lent, which is why the blizzard outside is remarked on as unseasonable "despite" the feast.
- The Murder §20 the icon of the Annunciation
The feast icon appropriate to the day is placed on the prayer-room's covered table for veneration, per Yakov Ivanych's exacting private rule (see section 49); its presence marks this as still the Annunciation itself, the same feast whose eve opened the story.