Is it possible to wash clothes on church holidays?

Many believers prefer not to delve into religious canons, instead blindly believing various rumors, speculations, and superstitions. For example, the idea that laundry is forbidden on church holidays and Sundays. Without delving into the meaning of Christian traditions, they consider any work on such days a serious sin. Let's try to figure out whether laundry is permitted on holidays.

What to do if you need to do laundry?

Priests provide a simple and clear answer to Christians' questions about whether washing is prohibited on religious holidays. It's the personal choice of each believer whether to wash, clean, cook, or get a haircut. On holy days, it's true that one is supposed to attend church, pray to God, rest, and spend more time with family and loved ones. However, the Lord will not punish you for spending half an hour trying to make your home cleaner.

If you need to wash clothes on an Orthodox holiday, you can do it either by hand or in a washing machine.

When circumstances call for laundry, don't resist nature—there's no sin in that. Unfortunately, it's common today to honor church holidays only for relaxation and philosophizing, rather than for turning your thoughts to the Lord. On divine days, it is important to remember the holiday, commemorate the saints, attend church, and pray fervently, but if household chores require immediate attention, all of this can be combined.

The way of life demands it

If your family's daily routine requires you to do household chores on Orthodox holidays or Sundays, don't neglect your obligations—there's no harm in that. Modern life moves at a frantic pace, and sometimes weekends are the only available time to clean, wash curtains, wash outerwear, and so on.

Moreover, today, washing clothes takes minimal time. All a housewife needs to do is:

• sort the laundry;
• load a batch of items into the drum;
• add powder, pour in conditioner;
• select the desired mode;
• start the wash.

This useful and necessary task will take no more than 5 minutes, plus 10 minutes to hang out the clean laundry. There will still be plenty of time in the day to get out the Psalter, read prayers before the icons, turn to God with your thoughts, go to church, and receive Holy Communion.

Of course, if you spend the entire Orthodox holiday slaving away at the stove, the sink, vacuuming, and mopping the floor, without even a few minutes for spiritual reflection and turning to the Lord, this would be considered a sin. It's also a sin to lie on the couch all day in front of the TV, relaxing, without even thinking about finding time for spiritual reflection.

On Orthodox holidays, it is important to plan your activities wisely so that you can devote time to the Lord, your family, and your household chores.

There's no need to go to extremes when it comes to what's allowed or not allowed. The Church reminds us that on holy days, it's important to make time for spiritual matters, but it doesn't force us to forget about worldly concerns. Therefore, doing laundry on church holidays isn't prohibited by religious law. Moreover, modern people spend no more than 15 minutes doing laundry, and there's definitely time to pray.

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