The Blessing of Fruits

In the Orthodox Church it is traditional to bless fruits on the feast of the Transfiguration which is 6 August. On Sunday 5 August Valentina gave me a lovely basket of fruits in thanksgiving for the photographs which I took of her daughter Masha.

Since the next day was the feast day on the new calendar and I had this basket of fruits, I attended Liturgy at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation. The parish had a basket of grapes and we included my fruits to be blessed.

I'm going to be lazy and copy what Silouan sent me. He thinks that some of the information came from Fr. Joseph Huneycutt's blog.

In a text from the 7th century ("The Laws of the Kingdom" by emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitos) this custom is described vividly: "The Emperor of Constantinople gathers the 'beginnings' ('aparches') in Chalcedon, where there are many vines, and then he waits for the Patriarch of Constantinople to come on the the Feast of Transfiguration, to bless the fruits and to personally hand out the grapes to the people." This is still the custom in many places in Greece where grapes are grown. It is also the custom in many Greek churches in North America.

"However, as grapes do not ripen at the same time everywhere, the Church adapted this tradition in various ways. In some places in the Holy Land, for instance, grapes are blessed on the feast of the prophet Elijah. In Russia, where grapes were not always readily available, apples were more commonly blessed, and Transfiguration is known as "Yablochny Spas", "the Apple Feast of the Saviour." In northern Russia, where even apples weren't ripe by August 6/19, it was traditional to bless peas.

Nowadays, when you can buy any sort of fruit or vegetable year round, we've lost the sense of getting a blessing to partake of the first fruits. But we can still try to keep to the spirit of this tradition. In one particular monastery we bless all sorts of fruit on Transfiguration, but we abstain only from grapes, taking care not to eat grapes of the new harvest until the feast, in keeping with the ancient monastic practise." - Mother Ephrosynia of the Lesna Convent in France

"It is the tradition of the Day of Transfiguration to consecrate grapes, apples and other fruit after the Divine Liturgy. The custom of bringing fruit to the temple for consecration originates in the Old Testament time (Gen 4:2-4; Ex 13:12-13; Num 15:19-21; Deut 8:10-14). The Apostles brought this tradition to the Church of the New Testament (1 Cor 16:1-2). Instruction regarding bringing fruit to temple is found in the Third Rule of the Apostolic Canon, the earliest collection of ecclesiastic laws (canons), known since the second century.

"In the first centuries of Christianity, the faithful brought forth to the temple the fruit and crops of the new harvest: bread, wine, oil, incense, wax, honey etc. Of all these offerings, only bread, wine, incense, oil and wax were taken to the altar, while the rest was used for the needs of the clergy and the poor whom the church was caring for. These offerings were to express gratitude to God for all goods, but at the same time help servants of God and people in need." Bishop Alexander Mileant.

I showed up at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation with a basket full of fruits, including grapes. As soon as I walked into the building, a woman who was fixing a basket of grapes, accepted my grapes and added them to her basket and the cantor took both the basket of grapes and my basket of fruits into the temple and we blessed both. The priests understand that I come from a Russian tradition and they usually have no problem with this.

After the Liturgy I had a very interesting conversation with a gentleman about the issue of unity in the Church. We all talk about it, but too often we also blame each other. Stephen gave me additonal perspectives on the issue. I do hope that one day we will put aside our petty differences and work together so that, as the oratorial contestants at the 2007 Parish Life Conference all desire, we can have a unified voice in this country.

Fr. James posted a link to Fr. Eugene Tarris's translations of Bulgakov on the feast of the Transfiguration. It is very good reading.