“To sanctify the heaven and the earth”: processions in the European North of Russia between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 20th centuries

The article deals with the main regularities of the formation and evolution of the tradition of making processions in the European North of Russia. It is revealed that by the end of the 18th century there was a stable tradition of organizing church processions. Documents show that processions were performed in connection with holidays and other significant events of everyday peasant life, the past of confessional communities. The participation of state bodies in the processions of the cross was taken into account in the protection of law and order. On the part of the Church authorities, only the collection of statistical information on processions of the cross is noted.