After Christ's ascension, the disciples remained in Jerusalem and in a room on Zion they often gathered and prayed together to God, eagerly awaiting the promised Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father. The place of Judas Iscariot among the twelve was filled by the lot with Matthias. On Pentecost, they were all together, when a roar filled the whole house and tongues of fire appeared and rested on each of the apostles. Going out onto the roof of the house, they spoke and preached to the gathered people in languages ​​they had not known before, so that all those gathered, both Jews and non-Jews, understood them. Three thousand people on this day believed the apostles' preaching and were baptized. This day is considered the day of the birth of the Church of Christ.

Just as on the feast of Pentecost the Jews, and therefore the apostles on that Pentecost, decorated their houses with branches, flowers, and grass, recalling the time when, after slavery, they wandered with Moses in the desert and lived in huts made of branches and leaves, so today, on the feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, the Orthodox Church fills itself with grass and flowers from which wreaths are woven.

Venerable Nikita the Confessor. Holy Martyr Elikonida. Saint Ignatius, Bishop of Rostov.