Today, the day of the Annunciation, Patriarch Kirill will release white doves into the sky

Photo: aif.ru

On Sunday, the Orthodox celebrate the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin.

Believers remember the event described in the Gospel of Luke, where the Virgin Mary appeared to the angel Gabriel and told that she would have a son who will be the savior of the world. According to legend, in the hands of the angel holding a white lily — a symbol of purity and innocence, which is represented in almost all the icons of the Annunciation.

The plot of the Annunciation — Archangel meeting and Mary — is depicted in the royal doors of the Orthodox churches. This holiday in a large number of churches across Russia.

Annunciation — one of the twelve great feasts neperehodyaschih, so every year it is celebrated in the same time. The date of its celebration was determined by counting back nine months from Christmas.

By long tradition, the Primate of the Russian Church will make to this day in the Annunciation Cathedral, the liturgy, followed by release in the Moscow sky white doves.

Birds will fly on the feast of the Annunciation in the sky above the many Orthodox churches as a symbol of sharing the good news of Christ\’s birth. In Orthodoxy, the pigeons also symbolize the Holy Spirit — one of the three incarnations of the Lord.

On this day, the primate also make prayer to St. Tikhon, Patriarch of All Russia, the Donskoy Monastery.