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# Ivan Shmelyov in “The Summer of the Lord” on Holy Saturday evening at home
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/velikaia-subbota-vecher/
- Published: 2025-04-19T15:35:39.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:39:10.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Faith, Books, Mores

*Holy Saturday, evening. The house is quiet; everyone has lain down for a while before Matins. I creep into the drawing-room to see what is going on in the street. Few people about; they carry Easter cakes and kulichi in cardboard boxes. The wallpaper in the room is pink, from the sun, which is setting. In the rooms the crimson Easter lamps are lit before the icons. They have laid the Easter carpet in the parlour, the one with the crimson bouquets. They have taken the grey covers off the claret-coloured armchairs. On the icons are little wreaths of roses. In the drawing-room and along the corridors are new red runners... on down cushions, on the dining-room sofa, so that they should not sink in, lie enormous kulichi, covered with pink muslin, cooling. A sweet, fragrant warmth comes from them... Father puts on his summer jacket and begins to trim the lamps... He goes round the rooms with them and hums under his breath: “Thy Resurrection, O Christ our Saviour, the angels sing in heaven,” and I go round with him. My heart is joyful and quiet, and for some reason I want to weep...*

**Ivan Shmelev, “The Year of Our Lord”**