Tatyana’s Day is a holiday that almost everyone knows about, but not everyone knows the history of this holiday. Tatyana’s day is called student’s day and is celebrated on January 25 (January 12 according to the old style). How did the tradition of this holiday come about? According to legend, in the third century A.D. Christian Tatiana (Tatiana) was severely persecuted for her devotion to Jesus and true faith in the kingdom of Christ. At that time, the young emperor Alexander Sever ruled Rome , although his mother was a Christian, he himself did not share her convictions, although he was quite loyal to the adherents of Jesus Christ. Using Alexander’s inexperience and inexperience, many of his associates easily promoted laws that were convenient for them, gradually taking power in Rome to their hands.
Some of the people close to the emperor did not approve of the degree of freedom that Christians have recently received. One of them was Ulpian, a member of the Council of State who fiercely hated believers in Jesus. Ulpian compiled a collection of laws that allowed the persecution of Christians, and again the blood of martyrs who did not want to worship pagan Roman gods poured . Among the people who suffered for the faith was Christian Tatiana. When she was forced to pray to the statue of Apollo, the girl, instead of submitting to the persecutors, began to earnestly pray to Jesus. The pagan deity collapsed from its pedestal, and the statue split into pieces. After numerous tortures, Tatyana was beheaded. Since 235, Christians celebrate a holiday in honor of the great martyress Tatyana, numbered among the saints.
Tatyana’s Day, a holiday whose history goes back centuries, acquired special significance in the 18th century, when Empress Elizabeth signed the Decree on the Establishment of Moscow University with her own hand. The project of the University and the very idea of its foundation, as is known, belong to M.V. Lomonosov and Count I.I. Shuvalov. They were well aware of how necessary the creation of such an institution could become for the Russian Empire, and took all possible measures to translate this idea into reality.
There is a version that Shuvalov presented the Decree to Elizabeth on January 12 (according to the new style - January 25), in order to bring joy to his mother, who celebrated her birthday on this very day. Since then, the holiday Tatyana’s Day, first of all, marks the foundation day of Moscow University.
At first, the holiday was celebrated without excessive pomp and included a moleben in the church at the University and small, rather modest celebrations. In the mid-nineteenth century, the situation changed, Tatyana’s Day, a holiday dedicated to the University, acquired the unofficial status of a student holiday. Usually the celebration consisted of two parts. The official part included lunch at the university cafeteria, an address by the rector to his students and presentation of the best of them awards, a church prayer, as well as impromptu excursions to the auditoriums and libraries of the University.
The informal part, of course, was richer. Students had fun as best they could, walked around Moscow, sang songs. Tverskaya and Nikitsky Boulevards were popular places for student festivities, and Trubnaya Square was not ignored . One of the favorite traditions of students of that time was improvised "cat concerts", which the youth arranged under the windows of the Moskovskiye Vedomosti publishing house. The newspaper Moskovskiye Vedomosti was published by representatives of the University and quite often students, being in high spirits, simply broke windows, throwing stones at them.
On this day, all the differences blurred: wealthy students had fun in the company of immigrants from poor families, teachers walked with their wards. Thus, Tatyana’s Day, a holiday that Russian students enjoy to this day, has become one of the favorite holidays of students. Today, January 25 is officially recognized as the Day of Russian Students. Tatyana’s Day is a holiday, with which millions of people in our country receive congratulations every year, which allowed reviving old traditions and rallying the ranks of Russian youth.