219 Sentences With "Great Lent" | Random Sentence Generator

For Eastern Orthodox Christians there, rich, oily tahini is a key ingredient during Great Lent (Orthodox Easter falls on May 1).

All Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics observe Soul Saturdays on Meatfare Saturday (i.e., two Saturdays before the beginning of Great Lent); the second, third and fourth Saturdays of Great Lent; and the Saturday before Pentecost.

In Eastern Christianity, the spiritual preparation for Easter begins with Great Lent, which starts on Clean Monday and lasts for 40 continuous days (including Sundays). The last week of Great Lent (following the fifth Sunday of Great Lent) is called Palm Week, and ends with Lazarus Saturday. The Vespers which begins Lazarus Saturday officially brings Great Lent to a close, although the fast continues through the following week. After Lazarus Saturday comes Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and finally Easter itself, and the fast is broken immediately after the Paschal Divine Liturgy.

The Orthodox also celebrate an additional Veneration of the Cross on the third Sunday of Great Lent.

As a result, this first Saturday of Great Lent has come to be known as Theodore Saturday.

Uniquely, on weekdays of Great Lent there is no public reading of the Epistles or Gospels. This is because the readings are particular to the divine liturgy, which is not celebrated on weekdays of Great Lent. There are, however, Epistles and Gospels appointed for each Saturday and Sunday.

In the Byzantine Rite, i.e., the Eastern Orthodox Great Lent (Greek: Μεγάλη Τεσσαρακοστή or Μεγάλη Νηστεία, meaning "Great 40 Days" and "Great Fast" respectively) is the most important fasting season in the church year. The 40 days of Great Lent includes Sundays, and begins on Clean Monday and are immediately followed by what are considered distinct periods of fasting, Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, which in turn are followed straightway by Holy Week. Great Lent is broken only after the Paschal (Easter) Divine Liturgy.

The theme of the Last Judgment is found in the funeral and memorial hymnody of the Church, and is a major theme in the services during Great Lent. The second Sunday before the beginning of Great Lent is dedicated to the Last Judgment. It is also found in the hymns of the Octoechos used on Saturdays throughout the year.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, its equivalent, the Sunday before Great Lent, is called "Forgiveness Sunday", "Maslenitsa Sunday", or "Cheesefare Sunday". The latter name comes because this Sunday concludes Maslenitsa, the week in which butter and cheese may be eaten, which are prohibited during Great Lent. The former name derives from the fact that this Sunday is followed by a special Vespers called "Forgiveness Vespers" which opens Great Lent. On this day the Eastern Orthodox Church Christians at the liturgy listen to the Gospel speaking of forgiveness of sins, fasting, and the gathering of treasures in heaven.

See the Oikematarion written at Mone Esphigmenou (ET-MSsc Ms. Sin. gr. 1262, ff.67v-131r). As such it could only be performed in short sections throughout Great Lent and became a kind of para-liturgical genre. In the modern practice it is reduced to heirmologic melos which allowed the celebration of the whole Akathist on the morning service of the fourth Sunday of Great Lent.

The first week of Great Lent starting on Clean Monday, the first day of Great Lent. The name "Clean Week" refers to the spiritual cleansing each of the faithful is encouraged to undergo through fasting, prayer, repentance, reception of the Holy Mysteries and begging forgiveness of his neighbor. It is also traditionally a time for spring cleaning so that one's outward surroundings matches his inward disposition. Throughout this week fasting is most strict.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches that use the Byzantine Rite, Psalm 137 (known by its Septuagint numbering as Psalm 136) is a part of the Nineteenth Kathisma (division of the Psalter) and is read at Matins on Friday mornings throughout the year, except during Bright Week (the week following Easter Sunday) when no psalms at all are read. During most of Great Lent it is read at Matins on Thursday and at the Third Hour on Friday, but during the fifth week of Great Lent it is read at Vespers on Tuesday evening and at the Third Hour on Friday. This psalm is also solemnly chanted at Matins (Orthros) after the Polyeleos on the three Sundays preceding the beginning of Great Lent.

For instance, during Great Lent, the Lenten Triodion provides triodes at Matins on Monday through Friday: on Mondays they consist of Odes I, VIII and IX, on Tuesdays, Odes II, VIII and IX, and so on through Friday which consists of Odes V, VIII and IX. The Saturdays of Great Lent have tetraodes, consisting of Odes VI, VII, VIII and IX. Because the use of triodes is so prevalent during Great Lent, the book containing the changeable portions of services that liturgical season is called the Triodion. In the Russian Orthodox Church, for arcane historical reasons, the Pentecostarion is called the Flowery Triodion even though it contains no triodes. Triodes and tetraodes are also found during certain Forefeasts and Afterfeasts.

The theme of The Ladder is not Great Lent itself, but rather it deals with the ascent of the soul from earth to heaven. That is, from enslavement to the passions to the building up of the virtues and its eventual theosis (union with God), which is the goal of Great Lent. Besides the Ladder, in some monasteries the Paradise of the Holy Fathers by Palladius and the penitential sermons of St. Ephrem the Syrian are read during Matins.

His feast day is celebrated twice a year on November 14, the anniversary of his death, and on the Second Sunday of Great Lent. The reason for his commemoration on the Second Sunday of Great Lent is because Gregory's victory over Barlaam is seen as a continuation of the Triumph of Orthodoxy (i.e., the victory of the Church over heresy) which was celebrated the previous Sunday. Gregory's relics are kept in the Metropolitan Cathedral which is named after him.

Traditionally, these blessings should all be finished before the beginning of Great Lent. Afterfeast: The Feast of Theophany is followed by an eight-day Afterfeast on which the normal fasting laws are suspended. The Saturday and Sunday after Theophany have special readings assigned to them, which relate to the Temptation of Christ and to penance and perseverance in the Christian struggle. There is thus a liturgical continuum between the Feast of Theophany and the beginning of Great Lent.

A smaller tabernacle, sometimes referred to as a pyx, is used during Great Lent. This tends to be a rectangular, gold-plated box, often with a cross on top, with a hinged lid. On Sundays during Great Lent, the priest will consecrate extra Lambs (in the same manner as on Holy Thursday), for use during the Presanctified Liturgy. These Lambs will be kept in the pyx on the Holy Table, or sometimes on the Prothesis (Table of Oblation).

These parables are found in the Menaion, Triodion or Pentecostarion. During Great Lent, parables are read every day at vespers and at the Sixth Hour. These parables are found in the Triodion.

It remains in the center of the church through Friday of the week following (the Fourth Week of Great Lent).Sunday of the Cross Orthodox synaxarion The Epistle is and the Gospel is .

The Kontakion is also replaced by special Lenten hymns which are sung. Near the end of the Hour, the Prayer of St. Ephraim is said, with prostrations. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of the Fourth Week of Great Lent, the Veneration of the Cross takes place at the First Hour. During the Fifth Week of Great Lent, there is a kathisma only on Tuesday and Wednesday, due to the reading of the Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete on Thursday morning.

An icon of the Annunciation, the most important feast day on the fixed calendar that can fall during Great Lent (Church of St. Clement of Ohrid, North Macedonia). Since the season of Great Lent is moveable, beginning on different dates from year to year, accommodation must be made for various feast days on the fixed calendar (Menaion) which occur during the season. When these feasts fall on a weekday of Great Lent, the normal Lenten aspect of the services is lessened to celebrate the solemnity. The most important of these fixed feasts is the Great Feast of the Annunciation (March 25), which is considered to be so important that it is never moved, even if it should fall on the Sunday of Pascha itself (a rare and special occurrence which is known as Kyrio-Pascha).

He is also commemorated in common with other saints of the Kiev Caves Lavra on September 28 (Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Kiev Caves) and on the Second Sunday of Great Lent.

There are an additional seven days of fasting before the beginning of the Great Lent, which serve as a preparatory period. Often called "Pre-Lenten Fast" or "Preparatory Week", and also what was explained before.

Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, NY, USA). Icon of Saint Ephrem the Syrian (Meryem Ana Kilesesi, Diyarbakır, Turkey). "The Prayer of Saint Ephrem" (Greek: , Euchē tou Hosiou Ephraim), is a prayer attributed to Saint Ephrem the Syrian and used during the Great Lent by the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches. In the Byzantine tradition, this prayer is considered to be the most succinct summation of the spirit of Great Lent and is hence the Lenten prayer par excellence, prayed during all Lenten weekday services.

The forty days of Great Lent last from Clean Monday until the Friday of the Sixth Week. Each of the Sundays of Great Lent has its own special commemoration, though these are not necessarily repeated during the preceding week. An exception is the Week of the Cross (the Fourth Week), during which the theme of the preceding Sunday—the Veneration of the Cross—is repeated throughout the week. The themes introduced in the Pre-Lenten period continue to be developed throughout the forty days.

At Vespers on Sunday evening, people may make a poklon (bow) before one another and ask forgiveness. Another name for Forgiveness Sunday is "Cheesefare Sunday", because for devout Orthodox Christians it is the last day on which dairy products may be consumed until Easter. Fish, wine and olive oil will also be forbidden on most days of Great Lent. The day following Cheesefare Sunday is called Clean Monday, because people have confessed their sins, asked forgiveness, and begun Great Lent with a clean slate.

The feast dates of St. Savvas the New of Kalymnos are celebrated on various dates in different traditions, 7 April (25 March in the Old Calendar), and the fifth Sunday of Great Lent with St. Mary of Egypt.

The longest and most popular devotion involving Theotokia is the Akathist to the Theotokos. This is solemnly chanted on the Fifth Saturday of Great Lent, and many other times during the year as both public and private devotions.

One difference between Eastern Christianity and Western Christianity is the calculation of the date of Easter (see Computus). Most years, the Eastern Pascha falls after the Western Easter, and it may be as much as five weeks later; occasionally, the two dates coincide. Like Western Lent, Great Lent itself lasts for forty days, but in contrast to the West, Sundays are included in the count. Great Lent officially begins on Clean Monday, seven weeks before Pascha (Ash Wednesday is not observed in Eastern Christianity), and runs for 40 contiguous days, concluding with the Presanctified Liturgy on Friday of the Sixth Week.

In addition to the added readings from Scripture, spiritual books by the Church Fathers are recommended during the Fast. One book commonly read during Great Lent, particularly by monastics, is The Ladder of Divine Ascent, which was written in about the 7th century by St. John of the Ladder when he was the Hegumen (Abbot) of Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai. The Ladder is usually read in the trapeza (refectory) during meals, but it may alternatively be read during the Little Hours on weekdays so that everyone can hear. Many of the laity also read The Ladder privately during Great Lent.

When the word akathist is used alone, it most commonly refers to the original hymn by this name, the 6th century Akathist to the Theotokos. This hymn is often split into four parts and sung at the "Salutations to the Theotokos" service on the first four Friday evenings in Great Lent; the entire Akathist is then sung on the fifth Friday evening. Traditionally it is included in the Orthros (Matins) of the Fifth Saturday of Great Lent, which for this reason is known as the "Saturday of the Akathist". In monasteries of Athonite tradition, the whole Akathist is usually inserted nightly at Compline.

On Great Friday, the Royal Hours are chanted. During the Lesser Lenten seasons (Nativity Fast, Apostles' Fast and Dormition Fast) the Little Hours undergo changes similar to those during Great Lent, except the Lenten hymns are usually read instead of chanted, and there are no kathismata. In addition, on weekdays of the Lesser Fasts, an Inter-Hour (Greek: Mesorion) may be read immediately after each Hour (at least on the first day of the Fast).The Inter-Hours may also be read during Great Lent if there is to be no reading from the Ladder of Divine Ascent at the Little Hours.

A dish of kolyva, of the type blessed on Saint Theodore Saturday. The Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic churches which follow the Byzantine Rite, celebrate a miracle attributed to St. Theodore Tyro on the First Saturday of Great Lent. At the end of the Presanctified Liturgy on Friday evening (since, liturgically, the day begins at sunset) a special canon to St. Theodore, composed by St. John of Damascus, is chanted. Then the priest blesses kolyva (boiled wheat with honey and raisins) which is distributed to the faithful in commemoration of the following miracle worked by St. Theodore on the First Saturday of Great Lent: Fifty years after the death of St Theodore, the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363) commanded the governor of Constantinople during the first week of Great Lent to sprinkle all the food provisions in the marketplace with the blood offered to pagan idols, knowing that the people would be hungry after the strict fasting of the first week.

The feast day of Saint Kassiani is celebrated by the Orthodox Church on September 7. She is often depicted on the icon of the Sunday of Orthodoxy (the First Sunday of Great Lent), because of her strong defence of the veneration of icons.

The incorrupt relics of St. Theodora the Empress are kept in the Cathedral of the Most Holy Theotokos Speliotissis in Corfu, Greece. The relics are carried in procession on the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, the first Sunday of Great Lent.

The Inter-Hours may also be read during Great Lent if there is to be no reading from the Ladder of Divine Ascent at the Little Hours. The Inter-Hours follow the same general outline as the Little Hours, except they are shorter.

The First Sunday of Great Lent originally commemorated the Prophets such as Moses, Aaron, and Samuel. The Liturgy's Prokeimenon and alleluia verses as well as the Epistle (Hebrews 11:24-26,32-40) and Gospel () readings appointed for the day continue to reflect this older usage.

In addition to celebrations on fixed days, the Cross may be celebrated during the variable, particularly in Lent and Eastertide. Eastern Christians celebrate an additional Veneration of the Cross on the third Sunday of Great Lent. The services for this day are modeled on the Feast of the Exaltation (September 14), and include bringing the cross to the holy table at little vespers and with solemnity out into the center of church at matins, albeit without the ceremony of the Exaltation of the Cross, for veneration by the faithful. It remains in the centre of the church for nearly a week (the Fourth Week of Great Lent).

On Great Friday, the Royal Hours are chanted. During the Lesser Lenten seasons (Nativity Fast, Apostles' Fast and Dormition Fast) the Little Hours undergo changes similar to those during Great Lent, except the hymns are usually read instead of chanted, and there are no kathismata on weekdays. In addition, on weekdays of the Lesser Fasts, the Inter-Hour (Greek: Mesorion) may be read immediately after the First Hour (at least on the first day of the Fast).The Inter-Hours may also be read during Great Lent if there is to be no reading from the Ladder of Divine Ascent at the Little Hours.

During Great Lent it is not permitted to celebrate the Divine Liturgy on weekdays and, therefore, on certain weekdays thereof and on the first three days of Holy Week, communion is given from Lambs consecrated on the previous Sunday at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.

V, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, p. 130 The Byzantine army was composed of troops of the tagmata, the Hetaireia (i.e. the imperial guard) and the navy. The two armies clashed at Pegae in the fifth week of the Great Lent, between 11 and 18 March 921.

The Crucifixion. Icon by Theophanes the Cretan (16th century, Stavronikita monastery, Mount Athos). The purpose of Great Lent is to prepare the faithful to not only commemorate, but to enter into the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus. The totality of the Byzantine Rite life centers around the Resurrection.

The Theotokos' intercession, asked through veneration and prayer before the icon, was credited with saving Constantinople from the Persians during the reign of Heraclius and later from the Arabs. These miracles are commemorated annually in the Orthodox Church on the Saturday of the Akathist on the Fifth Saturday of Great Lent.

The Raising of Lazarus -- Oil on canvas of Luca Giordano. 1675 c. Naples, from private collection. Italy Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday together hold a unique position in the church year, as days of joy and triumph interposed between the penitence of Great Lent and the mourning of Holy Week.

St. Gregory Palamas died on November 14, 1359; his last words were, "To the heights! To the heights!" He is commemorated on the Second Sunday of Great Lent because Gregory's victory over Barlaam is seen as a continuation of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, i.e., the victory of the Church over heresy.

During Bright Week, this service is replaced with the Lifting of the Artos. In some monasteries, the Ceremony of Forgiveness at the beginning of Great Lent is performed in the trapeza. All food served in the trapeza should be blessed, and for that purpose, holy water is often kept in the kitchen.

Some Eastern Catholics perform the Black Fast on Fridays during Lent, especially on Good Friday. The Black Fast is observed by the by devout Eastern Orthodox Christians or monks throughout Great Lent, as well as the three other fasting periods of the year (the Dormition Fast, Nativity Fast, and the Apostles' Fast).

Then the priest blesses kolyva (boiled wheat with honey and raisins) which is distributed to the faithful in commemoration of the following miracle worked by St. Theodore on the First Saturday of Great Lent. Fifty years after the death of St Theodore, the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363), as a part of his general policy of persecution of Christians, commanded the governor of Constantinople during the first week of Great Lent to sprinkle all the food provisions in the marketplaces with the blood offered to pagan idols, knowing that the people would be hungry after the strict fasting of the first week. St Theodore appeared in a dream to Archbishop Eudoxius, ordering him to inform all the Christians that no one should buy anything at the marketplaces, but rather to eat cooked wheat with honey (kolyva). The First Sunday of Great Lent is the Feast of Orthodoxy, which commemorates the restoration of the veneration of icons after the Iconoclast controversy, which is considered to be the triumph of the Church over the last of the great heresies which troubled her (all later heresies being simply a rehashing of earlier ones).

The Lenten Triodion (the Orthodox service book containing texts for Great Lent and Holy Week) assigns Gospel readings for Saturdays and Sundays, but not for weekdays. The Divine Liturgy is not celebrated on weekdays of Lent, due to the penitential nature of those days. Once Great Lent begins (during the service of Vespers on Forgiveness Sunday), there are no Gospel readings on weekdays; instead, three Old Testament readings are appointed, one each from Genesis, Isaiah, and Proverbs (note: the Lenten services have a different structure so as to allow this arrangement of readings without the Gospel; see Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts). On Saturdays and Sundays, a Gospel is read with a message applicable to what the theme of that Sunday is (e.g.

During great lent and some of the period preceding it, some of the portions from the octoechos and menaion are replaced by hymns from the triodion and during the paschal season with material from the pentecostarion. On Sundays there is also a gospel reading and corresponding hymns from the eleven-part cycle of resurrectional gospels.

Avgolemono can also be used to thicken soups and stews. Yuvarlakia is a Greek meatball soup made with rice and beef meatballs that are cooked in water. Avgolemono is added to the soup to thicken it. Magiritsa soup is a Greek avgolemono soup of lamb offal served to break the fast of Great Lent.

Additionally the stuffing might contain bryndza and fried onions. After stuffing, zhingyalov hats are fried for around 10 minutes on a special griddle called "saj" or "sajin" (), or in a tandoor for a couple of minutes. The finished dish is consumed with beer, doogh, or wine. Zhingyalov hats is especially popular during the Great Lent.

Gospel pericopes (passages) are assigned for every Sunday, weekday (except during Great Lent), and feast day of the liturgical year. There is always at least one Gospel reading any time the Divine Liturgy is celebrated. There may be up to three Gospel readings at the same service. The reading is determined according to the annual liturgical calendar.

In the Eastern Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches, the pyx is the small "church tabernacle" which holds the Lamb (Host) that is reserved for the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts during Great Lent. This pyx may be either kept on the Holy Table (altar) or on the Prothesis (Table of Oblation) on the north side of the sanctuary.

During the season of Great Lent in the Christian calendar, forty prostrations are done daily after the completion of 6th Hour (Sheth sho`in). The Shehimo book is available for purchase on the official LRD website. The book is also accessible online using the free LRD mobile app for the App Store and Google Play Store.

Starting in 1985, Fr. Alexander began publishing "Missionary leaflets" in four languages: Russian, English, Spanish and Portuguese. In 1995, during Great Lent, Fr. Alexander was tonsured into the mantia at the Holy Trinity Monastery with the name Alexander, in honor of Hieromartyr Alexander of Kharkov (before this he was named in honor of St. Alexander Nevsky).

The best known of these writings is the Prayer of Saint Ephrem, which is recited at every service during Great Lent and other fasting periods in Eastern Christianity. There are also works by "Ephrem" in Latin, Slavonic and Arabic. "Ephrem Latinus" is the term given to Latin translations of "Ephrem Graecus". None are by Ephrem the Syrian.

Ephrem is venerated as an example of monastic discipline in Eastern Christianity. In the Eastern Orthodox scheme of hagiography, Ephrem is counted as a Venerable Father (i.e., a sainted monk). His feast day is celebrated on 28 January and on the Saturday of the Venerable Fathers (Cheesefare Saturday), which is the Saturday before the beginning of Great Lent.

During Great Lent a number of changes in the office take place. On Monday through Thursday, after the three fixed psalms, the Reader says a kathisma from the Psalter. The Troparion of the Day is replaced by special Lenten hymns that are chanted with prostrations. Then a portion of the Ladder of Divine Ascent may be read.

At weekday services during Great Lent, the prayer is prescribed for each of the canonical hours and at the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. During the period of the Triodion, the prayer is first recited on Wednesday and Friday only on Cheesefare week and thereafter at every weekday service from vespers on the evening of the Sunday of Forgiveness, the service which begins Great Lent, through Wednesday of Holy Week. The prayer is not said on Saturdays and Sundays (vespers on Sunday evening is of Monday, since the Byzantine liturgical day begins at sunset), because these days are not strict fasting days (oil and wine are always permitted). This means that the weekends retain a festal character, even during the Great Fast, and the Divine Liturgy may be celebrated as usual.

Great Lent is intended to be a "workshop" where the character of the believer is spiritually uplifted and strengthened; where his life is rededicated to the principles and ideals of the Gospel; where fasting and prayer culminate in deep conviction of life; where apathy and disinterest turn into vigorous activities of faith and good works. Lent is not for the sake of Lent itself, as fasting is not for the sake of fasting. Rather, these are means by which and for which the individual believer prepares himself to reach for, accept and attain the calling of his Savior. Therefore, the significance of Great Lent is highly appraised, not only by the monks who gradually increased the length of time of the Lent, but also by the lay people themselves.

The fast is also lessened, and the faithful are allowed to eat fish (unless it is Good Friday or Holy Saturday). Whereas on other weekdays of Great Lent, no celebration of the Divine Liturgy is permitted, there is a Liturgy (usually the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom) celebrated on Annunciation—even if it falls on Good Friday. When the feast day of the patron saint of the parish church or monastery falls on a weekday of Great Lent, there is no liturgy (other than the Presanctified), but fish is allowed at the meal. In some churches the feast of a patron saint is moved to the nearest Saturday (excluding the Saturday of the Akathist), and in other churches, it is celebrated on the day of the feast itself.

In the Byzantine Rite used by the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, the hymn occurs as the last dismissal hymn of daily Vespers in Great Lent. In Greek practice it is usually sung in Neo-Byzantine chant. In the Armenian Rite, the hymn is sung on the Eve of Theophany and is also used as an acclamation (մաղթանք) in the daily compline service known as the Rest Hour (Հանգստեան Ժամ). A slightly different version of the hymn is appended to the Trisagion when the latter is chanted in the daily Morning (Առաւօտեան) and Evening (Երեկոյեան) Hours of the Daily Office. The Slavonic version of the hymn is also often used outside of Great Lent, with the triple invocation «Пресвѧтаѧ Богородице спаси насъ» ("Most Holy Theotokos, save us") appended.

Since there were more people on "Vostok" than on ""Mirny"", for the period of Great Lent, Bellingshausen transferred to his board a priest who would have to return to Lazarev in Australia. As a result, the vessel lost topsails and staysails. Sailor hammocks were put on shrouds to perform a function of storm sails. Besides, the ship was carried into cohesive ice fields.

A different Alleluia is chanted on memorial Saturdays throughout the year. Most of these occur on Saturdays during Great Lent, but there are several others throughout the year as well. This Alleluia is always chanted in the eighth tone (Greek usage: fourth plagal tone), though it may be chanted to a special funeral melody. :Canonarch: Alleluia in the eighth tone.

On this day, all Orthodox Christians ask each other for forgiveness to begin the Great Lent with a good heart, to focus on the spiritual life, to purify the heart from sin in confession, and to meet Easter - the day of the Resurrection of Jesus with a pure heart. This is the last day before Lent when non-lenten food is eaten.

He then pours a small amount of wine into the chalice which softens the dried particle as he hears the sick person's confession. Then, after saying the Prayers Before Communion, he administers Holy Communion to the sick person. He then says the Prayers of Thanksgiving After Communion. It is forbidden to celebrate the full Divine Liturgy on weekdays during Great Lent.

However, prostrations are forbidden on the Lord's Day (Sunday) and during Paschaltide (Easter season) in honour of the ResurrectionCanon 20 of the 1st Ecumenical Council, Canon 90 of the 6th Ecumenical Council, Canon 91 of St Basil and are traditionally discouraged on Great Feasts of the Lord. During Great Lent, and Holy Week, frequent prostrations are prescribed (see Prayer of St. Ephraim). Orthodox Christian may also make prostrations in front of people (though in this case without the Sign of the Cross, as it is not an act of veneration or divine worship), such as the bishop, one's spiritual father or one another when asking forgiveness (in particular at the Vespers service which begins Great Lent on the afternoon of the Sunday of Forgiveness.) Those who are physically unable to make full prostrations may instead substitute metanias (bows at the waist).

Today the rite is essentially West Syriac in character with some local variations, which sometimes retain elements now archaic in the wider West Syriac tradition. For example, the Malankara Rite includes the observance of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts on weekdays during Great Lent and on the Friday of Passion Week. Since the 20th century, Syriac has largely been replaced as the liturgical language by Malayalam.

There he wanted to see his spiritual children and monasteries, which he founded on plots his students gave him. At Smyrna, he stayed a few days because an angel came to him and announced his death was soon. He immediately returned to Mytilene where he survived the entire Great Lent he even performed the service of Holy Thursday. He understood the end was near.

On the Saturdays, Sundays, and a number of weekdays during Great Lent, the service materials from the Triodion leave no room for the commemoration of the Saint of the day from the Menaion. In order that their services not be completely forgotten, a portion of them (their canon at Matins, and their stichera from "Lord I Have Cried" at Vespers) is chanted at Compline.

Although the forty days of Great Lent end on Lazarus Friday, this day is still observed as a fast day; however, the fast is mitigated to allow consumption of caviar, eggs being a symbol of the resurrection and prominent on Pascha, and fish eggs being a shadow thereof show the raising of Lazarus as a foreshadowing of Christ's Resurrection, as elucidated in the propers of the day.

The annual Paschal cycle is established relative to the varying date of Pascha each year and affects the times for such observances as Pascha itself, Great Lent, Holy Week, and the feasts of Ascension and Pentecost. Lesser cycles also run in tandem with the annual ones. A weekly cycle of days prescribes a specific focus for each day in addition to others that may be observed.

In East Syriac tradition the All Saints Day celebration falls on the first Friday after resurrection Sunday. This is because all departed faithful are saved by the blood of Jesus and they resurrected with the Christ. Normally in east Syriac liturgy the departed souls are remembered on Friday. Church celebrates All souls day on Friday before the beginning of Great lent or Great Fast....

During Great Lent it is not permitted to celebrate the Divine Liturgy on weekdays. However, on Wednesdays and Fridays the faithful may receive Holy Communion from the reserved Mysteries (Sacrament) at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. In order to provide for these services, on the Sunday before, the priest must cut out extra Lambs for each Presanctified Liturgy that there will be during that week.

The canon dates from the 7th century and was either devised or introduced into the Greek language by St. Andrew of Crete, whose penitential Great Canon is still used on certain occasions during Great Lent. It was further developed in the 8th century by Sts. John of Damascus and Cosmas of Jerusalem, and in the 9th century by Sts. Joseph the Hymnographer and Theophanes the Branded.

This general confession is practiced in monasteries at the first service on arising (the Midnight Office) and the last service before retiring to sleep (Compline). Old Believers will perform the rite regularly before the beginning of the Divine Liturgy. The best-known asking of mutual forgiveness occurs at Vespers on the Sunday of Forgiveness, and it is with this act that Great Lent begins.

The monastery was built on the river Votkha in Poshekhonye. Saint Macarius the Metropolitan of Moscow blessed the foundation and gave them a charter to that effect. He ordained Adrian a hieromonk (monastic priest) and elevated him to the rank of hegumen. During Great Lent of 1550, in the evening on March 5, armed robbers burst into the monastery and murdered Adrian after torturing him mercilessly.

During Great Lent a number of changes in the office take place. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, after the three fixed psalms, the Reader says a kathisma from the Psalter. The Troparion of the Day is replaced by special Lenten hymns that are chanted with prostrations. Then the psalm verses that follow the Theotokion, which are normally read, are instead sung by the choir.

On Monday through Friday, after the three fixed psalms, the Reader says a kathisma from the Psalter. The Troparion of the Day is replaced by special Lenten hymns that are chanted with prostrations. Then, a special Troparion of the Prophecy is chanted, which is particular to that specific day of Great Lent. This is followed by a Prokeimenon, a reading from Isaiah and another Prokeimenon.

Fedot Sychkov. Plyaska (Russian folk dance). 1911 Maslenitsa is an Eastern Slavic religious and folk holiday, celebrated during the last week before Great Lent, that is, the eighth week before Eastern Orthodox Pascha (Easter). Maslenitsa corresponds to the Western Christian Carnival, except that Orthodox Lent begins on a Monday instead of a Wednesday, and the Orthodox date of Easter can differ greatly from the Western Christian date.

Spring cleaning persists today in Greece, and other Orthodox nations. It is traditional to clean the house thoroughly either right before or during the first week of Great Lent, which is referred to as Clean Week. This also often corresponds with the Julian New Year, or April 1. In North America and northern Europe, the custom found an especially practical value due to those regions' continental and wet climates.

Many miracles were ascribed to him. He presided over five thousand Nitric monks. Having learned of the extremely strict rule for monastic life observed at the Tabbenesiot Monastery, whose prior was Venerable St. Pachomios the Great (+ 348), St. Macarius disguised himself in secular clothing, and over the course of the entire Quadragesima [the 40-day Great Lent] neither ate bread nor drank water. No one saw him eating or sitting down.

This Vita is traditionally read as a part of the Matins of the Great Canon of Andrew of Crete, on the fifth Thursday of Great Lent. In the Western church this story was taken and used in the late medieval legend of Mary Magdalene, with Zosimas renamed as Maximin, as recounted in the Golden Legend and elsewhere. The fresco illustrated, by Giotto and his workshop in Assisi, shows this version.

During the preceding week the propers in the Lenten Triodion track the sickness and then the death of Lazarus, and Christ's journey from beyond Jordan to Bethany. This week is referred to as the "Week of Palms" or the "Flowery Week."Sergei Bulgakov, Nastolnaya Kniga Dlya Svyaschenno-Tserkovno- Sluzhitelei (Handbook for Church Servers), 2nd edition (Kharkov, Ukraine, 1900), Tr. Fr. Eugene Tarris. The Sixth Week of Great Lent .

The Food and Celebration of the Russians By Josh Wilson, Newsletter, The School of Russian and Asian Studies, 9 March 2005. Maslenitsa has its origins in the pagan tradition. In Slavic mythology, Maslenitsa is a sun-festival, personified by the ancient god Volos, and a celebration of the imminent end of the winter. In the Christian tradition, Maslenitsa is the last week before the onset of Great Lent.

Great Lent consists of eight weeks (55 days), which correspond to the 40 days that Christ fasted on the mountain. With the remaining fifteen days for a week of preparation, the Holy Week which is the last week of fasting, and Lazarus Saturday. It precedes Palm Sunday, and the Holy Week, which precede Easter. The seven days of the Holy Week is also a period of rigorous fasting.

The monastery was completely destroyed and its monks were killed at the hands of Nadir Shah during his campaign in the region in 1743. In 1921, it was rebuilt with the help of the Dominican Order.F. John Fiye, 'Assyrian Christianity', Chapter 2 , p.533. The feast of Mar Oraha is held twice at the monastery: the first Sunday of the Great Lent, and the second Sunday after Easter.

In the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar (most years falling later than the Western Church, usually in March), the start of (Eastern) Lent is called Clean Monday. This is not identical to Shrove Monday, which precedes the start of (Western) Lent by two days. Clean Monday is the first day of "Great Lent", and is traditionally considered the beginning of spring in Greece and Cyprus, where it is a Bank Holiday.bank- holidays.com.

Often Tsiknopempti like celebrations will occur again, generally on a smaller scale, the following Sunday which marks the final day meat can be eaten before the beginning of the Great Lent, the strict fasting season that leads up to Easter. In the Greek Orthodox tradition, fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays is important, therefore Thursday is the best day for Tsiknopempti."Apokries. Carnival in Crete & Greece". Living in Crete.net.

The eight tones can be found as the Paschal cycle (moveable cycle) of the church year, the so-called Pentecostarion starting with the second Sunday of (the eighth day of) Easter, the first usually changes the echos each day, while the third week started the eight-week cycle with the second echos, each week in just one echos. The same cycle started in the triodion with the Lenten period until Easter,All of Great Lent, the periods of Cheesefare Week and Holy Week which are joined, respectively, to the beginning and end of Great Lent with the Lenten Friday preceding the subsequent Palm Sunday.Each day of Bright Week (Easter Week) uses propers in a different tone, Sunday: Tone One, Monday: Tone Two, skipping the least festive of the tones, the grave (heavy) tone. Each day of the week has a distinct theme for which hymns in each tone are found in the texts of the Octoechos.

During Great Lent, the Little Hours undergo significant changes on weekdays, and are celebrated with greater solemnity than during the rest of the year. On weekdays, in addition to the normal three Psalms, a kathisma from the psalter is read, the choir chants special Lenten hymns in place of the Troparion and Kontakion of the day, and the Sixth Hour has added to it a special Troparion (called the "Troparion of the Prophecy"), Prokeimena, and a reading from the Old Testament (Joel and Zechariah during Cheesefare Week, Isaiah during the Forty Days of Great Lent, Ezekiel during Holy Week).On Great Thursday there is a reading from Jeremiah at the First Hour. (In monasteries, it is traditional to add a reading from the Ladder of Divine Ascent at the Third, Sixth, and Ninth Hours.)According to Nikolsky Ustav if the Ladder is not read at the Little Hours, then the Inter-Hours should be read.

Icon of the Crucifixion, 16th century, by Theophanes the Cretan (Stavronikita Monastery, Mount Athos) Byzantine Christians (Eastern Christians who follow the Rite of Constantinople: Orthodox Christians and Greek- Catholics) call this day "Great and Holy Friday", or simply "Great Friday". Because the sacrifice of Jesus through his crucifixion is recalled on this day, the Divine Liturgy (the sacrifice of bread and wine) is never celebrated on Great Friday, except when this day coincides with the Great Feast of the Annunciation, which falls on the fixed date of 25 March (for those churches which follow the traditional Julian Calendar, 25 March currently falls on 7 April of the modern Gregorian Calendar). Also on Great Friday, the clergy no longer wear the purple or red that is customary throughout Great Lent,There is a wide variety of uses regarding the liturgical colors worn during Great Lent and Holy Week in the Rite of Constantinople. but instead don black vestments.

The Eastern Orthodox Church maintains the traditional Church's teaching on fasting. The rules for lenten fasting are the monastic rules. Fasting in the Orthodox Church is more than simply abstaining from certain foods. During the Great Lent Orthodox Faithful intensify their prayers and spiritual exercises, go to church services more often, study the Scriptures and the works of the Church Fathers in depth, limit their entertainment and spendings and focus on charity and good works.

The Eastern Orthodox Church and Byzantine Catholic Church commemorate Lazarus on Lazarus Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday, which is a moveable feast day. This day, together with Palm Sunday, hold a unique position in the church year, as days of joy and triumph between the penitence of Great Lent and the mourning of Holy Week.Archimandrite Kallistos Ware and Mother Mary, Tr., The Lenten Triodion (St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, South Canaan, Pennsylvania, 2002, ), p. 57.

Magiritsa is eaten to break the fast of the Greek Orthodox Great Lent, the 40 days before Easter. Its role and ingredients result from its association with the roasted lamb traditionally served at the Paschal meal; in its traditional form, magiritsa consists of the offal removed from the lamb before roasting, flavored with seasonings and sauces. Prepared on Holy Saturday along with the next day's lamb, magiritsa is consumed immediately after the midnight Divine Liturgy.

Among the Orthodox, the chanting of Alleluia does not cease during Lent, as it does in the West. This is in accordance with the Orthodox approach to fasting, which is one of sober joy. During the weekdays of Great Lent and certain days during the lesser Lenten seasons (Nativity Fast, Apostles' Fast, and Dormition Fast), the celebration of the Divine Liturgy on weekdays is not permitted. Instead, Alleluia is chanted at Matins.

These idiomela are stichera of which two were written for each weekday of Great Lent. One is chanted at the aposticha of Vespers and one at the aposticha of Matins, each being chanted twice. The idiomela are "exceptionally rich in doctrinal content, summing up the whole theology of the Great Fast". The events of the time are recorded in the writings of Leontius in his book The Life of St. Stephen the Sabaite.

About five years after Euthymius arrived, they went into the desert for Great Lent, and found in a wadi a large cave where they remained praying in solitude for some time. Eventually shepherds from Bethany discovered them, and people from the area began to visit seeking spiritual guidance and bringing food. The monks then built a church. When other monks came seeking instruction, Euthymius and Theoctistus built a lavra over the cave church.

The Kontakion of the Day is replaced by special Lenten troparia. Near the end of the Hour, the Prayer of St. Ephraim is said, with prostrations. During Holy Week, on Great Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, the services are similar to those during Great Lent, except that there is no kathisma, and instead of the normal Lenten hymns which replace the Kontakion, the Kontakion of the day (i.e., that day of Holy Week) is chanted.

Near the end of the Hour, the Prayer of St. Ephraim is said, with prostrations. During Holy Week, on Great Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the services are similar to those during Great Lent (including the reading of a kathisma), but instead of the normal Lenten hymns which replace the Kontakion, the Kontakion of the day (i.e., that day of Holy Week) is chanted. On Great Thursday and Saturday, the Little Hours are more like normal.

In addition, on weekdays of the Lesser Fasts, an Inter-Hour (Greek: Mesorion) may be read immediately after each Hour (at least on the first day of the Fast). The Inter-Hours may also be read during Great Lent if there is to be no reading from the Ladder of Divine Ascent at the Little Hours. The Inter-Hours follow the same general outline as the Little Hours, except they are shorter.

In large parishes, this process will take some time. However, the priest must bless all of the houses of the faithful before the beginning of Great Lent. In monasteries the Hegumen (Superior) will bless the cells of all of the monks. Orthodox Christianity teaches that the Great Blessing of Waters actually changes the nature of the water, and that water so blessed is no longer corruptible, but remains fresh for many years.

The Second Sunday of Great Lent commemorates St. Gregory Palamas, the great defender of the Church's doctrine of Hesychasm against its attack by Barlaam of Calabria. The Epistle is Hebrews 1:10-14; 2:1-3 and the Gospel is Throughout this week, and until the Sixth Friday in Lent, one meal may be taken a day with xerophagy. Until the Sixth Saturday in Lent, Saturday and Sunday fasting remains the same as in the First Week.

Later, Yakov was invited by Fr. Nicholas to serve as choirmaster at Suragadai Kanda. Under the guidance of Bp. Nicholas, Yakov arranged the music for almost all the needed texts used in the Divine Liturgy, major feasts, baptism, funerals, the first week of Great Lent, and Passion Week. As his successor, Victor Pokrovsky under Metr. Sergius needed to do, Yakov found it necessary to change the music to meet the different sense and structure of the Japanese language.

Lagana (, from λάγανον, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus) is a Greek flatbread traditionally baked for Clean Monday, the first day of the Great Lent. Traditionally, it was prepared unleavened (without the yeast), but leavened lagana is nowadays more common. It is typically flat, oval-shaped, with surface decorated by impressing fingertips. Sesame seeds are a common topping, and it may also be topped with other herbs, and seasoned with olive oil.

The Paschal cycle, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the cycle of the moveable feasts built around Pascha (Easter). The cycle consists of approximately ten weeks before and seven weeks after Pascha. The ten weeks before Pascha are known as the period of the Triodion (referring to the liturgical book that contains the services for this liturgical season). This period includes the three weeks preceding Great Lent (the "pre-Lenten period"), the forty days of Lent, and Holy Week.

Everything in the services is sung joyfully rather than read. Thus, for example, while censing the church before the Divine Liturgy, the deacon recites a Paschal hymm in place of Psalm 50. Normally, the entire Psalter is read during the course of a week (and twice a week during Great Lent), but during Bright Week no psalms at all are read. Each of the Little Hours is replaced by a special service known as the Paschal Hours.

The Eastern Orthodox Church does not, in general, observe Ash Wednesday; instead, Orthodox Great Lent begins on Clean Monday. There are, however, a relatively small number of Orthodox Catholics who follow the Western Rite; these do observe Ash Wednesday, although often on a different day from the previously mentioned denominations, as its date is determined from the Orthodox calculation of Pascha, which may be as much as a month later than the Western observance of Easter.

Malyuta Skuratov approaching Metropolitan Philip in order to kill him (painting by Nikolai Nevrev, 1898). After only two years, however, Ivan the Terrible persisted with committing murders under the aegis of Oprichnina. During Great Lent, on the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross, March 2, 1568, when the Tsar came to the cathedral for Divine Liturgy, Philip refused to bless him and publicly rebuked him for the ongoing massacre. The Massacre of Novgorod ensued, and Philip's condemnation followed.

In the Eastern Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches, the office of the Third Hour is normally read by a single Reader and has very little variation in it. Three fixed psalms are read at the Third Hour: Psalms 16, 24, and 50 (LXX). The only variable portions for most of the year are the Troparia (either one or two) and Kontakion of the Day. During Great Lent a number of changes in the office take place.

In the Eastern Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches the office of the Sixth Hour is normally read by a single Reader and has very little variation in it. Three fixed psalms are read at the Third Hour: Psalms 53, 54 and 90 (LXX). The only variable portions for most of the year are the Troparia (either one or two) and Kontakion of the Day. During Great Lent a number of changes in the office take place.

Then there may follow a reading from the Ladder of Divine Ascent. The Kontakion of the Day is replaced by special Lenten troparia. Near the end of the Hour, the Prayer of St. Ephraim is said, with prostrations. During Holy Week, on Great Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the services are similar to those during Great Lent (including the reading of a kathisma), but instead of the normal Lenten hymns which replace the Kontakion, the Kontakion of the day (i.e.

The commemorations on the Paschal Cycle (Moveable Cycle) depend upon the date of Pascha (Easter). The texts for this cycle are found in the Lenten Triodion, the Pentecostarion, the Octoechos and also, because the daily Epistle and Gospel readings are determined by this cycle, the Gospel Book and Apostle Book. The cycle of the Octoechos continues through the following Great Lent, so the variable parts of the lenten services are determined by both the preceding year's and the current year's dates of Easter.

At Pascha (Easter) the priest holds a special Paschal trikirion, and the deacon holds a Paschal candle. The priest will also bless the faithful with a single candle during the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (celebrated only during Great Lent). In the Roman Catholic Church a liturgical candle must be made of at least 51% beeswax, the remainder may be paraffin or some other substance. In the Orthodox Church, the tapers offered should be 100% beeswax, unless poverty makes this impossible.

Kathisma means sitting, since the people normally sit during the reading of the psalms. Each kathisma is divided into three stases, from stasis, to stand, because each stasis ends with Glory to the Father..., at which everyone stands. The reading of the kathismata are so arranged that the entire psalter is read through in the course of a week (during Great Lent it is read through twice in a week). During Bright Week (Easter Week) there is no reading from the Psalms.

Faithful from Washington, New York, and New Jersey gathered at the Skete for the patronal feast day. A festal luncheon was then served for the clergy and faithful. After twenty years, weekly divine services have resumed since February 3, 2016, of this year, and will be held on Saturdays and great feasts (Hours at 9:30 AM, Divine Liturgy at 10:00). During the first week of Great Lent of 2016, Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America & New York visited Holy Protection Skete.

The commemorations on the Paschal Cycle (Moveable Cycle) depend upon the date of Pascha (Easter). The texts for this cycle are found in the Lenten Triodion, the Pentecostarion, the Octoechos and also, because the daily Epistle and Gospel readings are determined by this cycle, the Gospel Book and Apostle Book. The cycle of the Octoechos continues through the following great lent, so the variable parts of the lenten services are determined by both the preceding year's and the current year's dates of Easter.

East Syriac churches including the Syro Malabar Church and Chaldean Catholic Church commemorates the feast of departed faithful on the last Friday of Epiphany season (which means Friday just before start of Great Lent). The season of Epiphany remembers the revelation of Christ to the world. Each Friday of Epiphany season, the church remembers important evangelistic figures. In East Syriac liturgy, the church remembers departed souls including saints on every Fridays throughout the year since the Christ was crucified and died on Friday.

Those churches (Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic) which follow the Rite of Constantinople, provide an epistle and Gospel reading for most days of the year, to be read at the Divine Liturgy; however, during Great Lent there is no celebration of the liturgy on weekdays (Monday through Friday), so no epistle and Gospel are appointed for those days. As a historical note, the Greek lectionaries are a primary source for the Byzantine text-type used in the scholarly field of textual criticism.

Two paskhas with candles (with a kulich and Easter eggs in the background) Paskha (also spelled pascha, or pasha; ; ; "Easter") is a Slavic festive dish made in Eastern Orthodox countries which consists of food that is forbidden during the fast of Great Lent. It is made during Holy Week and then brought to Church on Great Saturday to be blessed after the Paschal Vigil. The name of the dish comes from Pascha, the Eastern Orthodox celebration of Easter. Besides Russia, Ukraine, etc.

Theotokos is often used in hymns to Mary in the Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholic and Oriental Orthodox churches. The most common is Axion Estin (It is truly meet), which is used in nearly every service. Other examples include Sub tuum praesidium, the Hail Mary in its Eastern form, and All creation rejoices, which replaces Axion Estin at the Divine Liturgy on the Sundays of Great Lent. Bogurodzica is a medieval Polish hymn, possibly composed by Adalbert of Prague (d. 997).

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the parable is read as part of the preparatory period leading up to Great Lent. It provides an example of the humility which should be practised during the Lenten period. The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee begins the three-week pre-Lenten Season and the first use of the liturgical Triodion (although the week following this Sunday is fast-free).Georges Augustin Barrois, Scripture Readings in Orthodox Worship, St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1977, , p. 21.

God alone is the judge of the living and the dead, and up until the moment of death repentance is always possible. The purpose of public anathema is twofold: to warn the one condemned and bring about his repentance, and to warn others away from his error. Everything is done for the purpose of the salvation of souls. On the First Sunday of Great Lent—the "Sunday of Orthodoxy"—the church celebrates the Rite of Orthodoxy, at which anathemas are pronounced against numerous heresies.

Often when a Chalice and Diskos are made, an Asterisk, Spoon, and Spear will be made to match them. Because it touches the Body and Blood of Christ, the liturgical spoon should be made of gold, or at least be gold plated. The Spoon is also used to prepare the Presanctified Gifts at the Sunday Liturgies during Great Lent, and the Reserved Mysteries on Great Thursday of Holy Week. The priest will take up the Lamb in his left hand and hold it over the Chalice.

Icon of Christ Pantokrator (Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai). The Eastern Orthodox Church fully ascribes to the teachings of the Seventh Ecumenical Council and celebrates the restoration of the use of icons after the period of Iconoclasm on the First Sunday of Great Lent. So important are the icons in Orthodox theology that the ceremony celebrating their restoration is known as the Triumph of Orthodoxy. In the traditions of Eastern Christianity, only flat images or bas relief images are used (no more than 3/4 relief).

In the same year, the Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Abded Aloho II asked the two elected monks to reach Jerusalem during the Great Lent for the ordination. The two-week-long journey began on 13 April 1908. The party which also included Kallasseril Punnoose Ramban (later Catholicos Geevarghese II), Karottuveetil Fr. Yuyakkim (later Metropolitan Yuyakkim Mar Ivanios) and Dn. Mathews Paret (later Mathews Mar Ivanios) arrived at Jerusalem on 23 April (Holy Saturday). After some delay, the Patriarch Ignatius Abded Aloho II arrived from Turkey.

Because the divine liturgy is not celebrated on weekdays, the Typica occupies its place in the canonical hours, whether or not a liturgy is celebrated at vespers. On Saturday and Sunday the Divine Liturgy may be celebrated as usual. On Saturdays, the usual Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is celebrated; on Sundays the longer Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is used. The services of the Canonical Hours are much longer during Great Lent and the structure of the services is different on weekdays.

Raising of Lazarus (15th century, Novgorod school). In most icons of death, resurrection and baptism, the gates of hades are visible in the background, as they are here. During the Sixth Week the Lenten services are served as they were during the second and third weeks. Great Lent ends at Vespers on the evening of the Sixth Friday, and the Lenten cycle of Old Testament readings is brought to an end (Genesis ends with the account of the burial of Joseph, who is a type of Christ).

Nowadays there is often a prearranged gift, money, or otherwise, to be given to the coin recipient. Many private or public institutions, such as societies, clubs, workplaces, companies, etc., cut their vasilopita at a convenient time between New Year's Day and the beginning of the Great Lent, in celebrations that range from impromptu potluck gatherings to formal receptions or balls. Saint Basil's Feast Day is observed on January 1, the beginning of the New Year and the Epiphany season known as the Vasilopita Observance.

At simple services on weekdays, especially during Great Lent, the normal exapostilaria are replaced with the Photagogicon (; Slavonic: Светиленъ Svetilen, pl. Светилны, Svyetilniy), "Hymn of Light." The Lenten form of the photagogica are chanted in the Tone of the Week, are of a penitential nature, and are similar in performance to the Triadica (Hymns to the Trinity) that were sung near the beginning of Matins. On Sundays, just before the exapostilarion the Deacon leads the choir in singing “Holy is the Lord our God” three times.

Orthodox psalters usually also contain the Biblical canticles, which are read at the canon of Matins during Great Lent. The established Orthodox tradition of Christian burial has included reading the Psalms in the church throughout the vigil, where the deceased remains the night before the funeral (a reflection of the vigil of Holy Friday). Some Orthodox psalters also contain special prayers for the departed for this purpose. While the full tradition is showing signs of diminishing in practice, the psalter is still sometimes used during a wake.

On weekdays during Great Lent, Theos Kyrios is replaced by Alleluia. In some places this substitution also occurs on certain weekdays during the lesser fasting seasons: Nativity Fast, Dormition Fast and the Apostles' Fast. This substitution takes place on any day when the order of services follows the Lenten format, for which reason such days are referred to as "days with Alleluia". On days with Allelua, the deacon does not normally serve, so the verses are usually chanted by the priest (according to the Typicon, the canonarch).

In 1967, after Great Lent, the future Bishop Alexander was ordained to the priesthood by Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky) and assigned to serve in the Protection of the Holy Virgin Church in Los Angeles, where he served 31 years of his life. He conducted services in both Church Slavonic and in English. The church also had a parish Russian School attended by as many as 110 children. From 1971–1985, Fr. Alexander organized pilgrimages for youth to holy places in Greece and the Holy Land.

The commemorations on the Paschal Cycle ("Movable Cycle") depend upon the date of Pascha (Easter). The texts for this cycle are found in the Lenten Triodion, the Pentecostarion, and the Octoechos, as well as the Gospel Book and Apostle Book because the daily Epistle and Gospel readings are determined by this cycle. The cycle of the Octoechos continues through the following great lent, so the variable parts of the lenten services are determined by both the preceding year's and the current year's dates of Easter.

Preparations for Easter celebration in Ukraine begin weeks before the feast day, with Great Lent being part of it. The Ukrainian Easter eggs include pysanky,About Pysanka krashanky (edible, one-colour dyed eggs), driapanky (a design is scratched on the eggshell) etc. During the Easter Vigil a priest also blesses the parishioners' Easter baskets, which include Easter eggs, paska,Tradition of Paska – Ukrainian Easter Bread butter, cheese, kovbasa, salt and a few other products. With this food, on their return home, people break their fast.

Icon of the Resurrection by an unknown 17th-century Bulgarian artist Eastern Catholics and Byzantine Rite Lutherans have a similar emphasis on Easter in their calendars, and many of their liturgical customs are very similar. Preparation for Easter begins with the season of Great Lent, which begins on Clean Monday. While the end of Lent is Lazarus Saturday, fasting does not end until Easter Sunday. The Orthodox service begins late Saturday evening, observing the Jewish tradition that evening is the start of liturgical holy days.

On Great Thursday and Saturday, the Little Hours are more like normal. On Great Friday, the Royal Hours are chanted. During the Lesser Lenten seasons (Nativity Fast, Apostles' Fast and Dormition Fast) the Little Hours undergo changes similar to those during Great Lent, except the Lenten hymns are usually read instead of chanted, and there are no kathismata. In addition, on weekdays of the Lesser Fasts, an Inter-Hour (Greek: Mesorion) may be read immediately after each Hour (at least on the first day of the Fast).

The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is celebrated on Wednesdays and Fridays during Great Lent and is a Vespers service combined with the distribution of Holy Communion that had been consecrated the previous Sunday. The Little Entrance here is the same entrance of Great Vespers; however, when a Gospel reading is prescribed (during Holy Week or on feast days), the Gospel Book is used instead of the censer. The Great Entrance is performed in absolute silence (rather than the choir singing, as at the normal Divine Liturgy). while all prostrate themselves.

Blinchiki filled with cheese and topped with blackberries Eastern-Slavic cuisines have a long tradition of pancake cooking and include a large variety of pancake types. In Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, pancakes may be breakfast food, appetizer, main course, or dessert. Blini () and mlynci () are thin pancakes, somewhat thicker than crêpes, made from wheat or buckwheat flour, butter, eggs, and milk, with yeast added to the batter. Blini/mlynci cooking dates back to pagan traditions and feasts, which are reflected in today's "pancake week" celebrated in the winter before the Great Lent.

Remains of Faran/Pharan monastery Theoctistus, also spelled Theoktistos, aka the Venerable Theoctistus of Palestine, was an associate of Euthymius. He was an ascetic who lived in a nearby cell at the Pharan lavra."Theoctistus & Euthymius", Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia About five years after Euthymius arrived, they went into the desert for Great Lent, and found in a wadi a large cave where they remained praying in solitude for some time. Eventually shepherds from Bethany discovered them, and people from the area began to visit seeking spiritual guidance and bringing food.

This is the week preceding Easter, which climaxes with the Crucifixion on Good Friday and ends with the joyous Easter. Since they are not related to each other dogmatically, in early Christianity, the Great Lent fast and the Holy Week fast were fasted separately. It was later in Church history that the Fathers of the Church saw it as spiritually beneficial to join them concurrently, and later added the Preparatory week to enable the faithful to prepare themselves spiritually and bodily to experience the benefits of the fasts.

In some places, the services on weekdays during the Dormition Fast are similar to the services during Great Lent (with some variations). Many churches and monasteries in the Russian tradition perform the lenten services on at least the first day of the Dormition Fast. In the Greek tradition, during the Fast either the Great Paraklesis (Supplicatory Canon) or the Small Paraklesis is celebrated every evening except Saturday evening and the Eves of the Transfiguration and the Dormition.Outside the Dormition Fast it is always the Small Supplicatory Canon (Paraklesis) which is chanted.

Finally, as at all Lenten services, the Prayer of St. Ephraim is read with everyone making prostrations. During Holy Week, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the services are similar to those during Great Lent (including the reading of Kathismata), except that instead of the normal Lenten hymns which replace the Kontakion, the Kontakion of the day (i.e., that day of Holy Week) is chanted. Also, the four Gospels are read in their entirety (stopping at John 13:32) over the course of these three days at the Third Hour, Sixth Hour, and Ninth Hour.

The time and type of fast is generally uniform for all Orthodox Christians; the times of fasting are part of the ecclesiastical calendar, and the method of fasting is set by canon law and holy tradition. There are four major fasting periods during the year: Nativity Fast, Great Lent, Apostles' Fast, and the Dormition Fast. In addition to these fasting seasons, Orthodox Christians fast on every Wednesday (in commemoration of Christ's betrayal by Judas Iscariot), and Friday (in commemoration of Christ's Crucifixion) throughout the year. Monastics often fast on Mondays.

The Divine Liturgy is not celebrated on weekdays during the preparatory season of Great Lent. Communion is consecrated on Sundays and distributed during the week at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. Services, especially the Divine Liturgy, can only be performed once a day on any particular altar. The Serbian Orthodox Church is characterized by monotheistic Trinitarianism, a belief in the Incarnation of the Logos (Son of God), a balancing of cataphatic theology with apophatic theology, a hermeneutic defined by Sacred Tradition, a concrete ecclesiology, a robust theology of the person, and a therapeutic soteriology.

A bishop, priest, or deacon will confess at the Holy Table (Altar) where the Gospel Book and blessing cross are normally kept. He confesses in the same manner as a layman, except that when a priest hears a bishop's confession, the priest kneels. There are many different practices regarding how often Orthodox Christians should go to confession. Some Patriarchates advise confession before each reception of Holy Communion, others advise confessing during each of the four fasting periods (Great Lent, Nativity Fast, Apostles' Fast and Dormition Fast), and there are many additional variants.

Saint and Holy Martyr Theodore of Komogovo"HOLY SERBS (Dates of Feast days according to the new – Gregorian – calendar)." Serbian Church in History (,СРБИ СВЕТИТЕЉИ Teodor Komogovinski; 18th century) is a Serbian Orthodox saint (holy martyr), who served as a monk in the monasteries of Komogovina and Moštanica. When the Ottomans burned Moštanica, they killed many monks, including Teodor whom they burnt alive in 1788 after he refused to renounce his Christian faith, as well as many Serbs from surrounding villages. He is remembered on Theodore's Saturday (on the first Saturday of Great Lent).

A number of auxiliary chapels were dedicated to the Forty, and there are several instances when an entire temple (church building) is dedicated to them: for example Xeropotamou Monastery on Mount Athos and the 13th-century Holy Forty Martyrs Church, in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria. Anna Komnene speaks of a Church of the 40 saints located in Constantinople, in the Alexiad. In Syria, the Armenian Cathedral of Aleppo and the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Homs are dedicated to the Forty Martyrs. The feast day of the Forty Martyrs falls on March 9, and is intentionally placed that it will fall during Great Lent.

There is an intentional play on the number forty being both the number of martyrs and the days in the fast. Their feast also falls during Great Lent so that the endurance of the martyrs will serve as an example to the faithful to persevere to the end (i.e., throughout the forty days of the fast) in order to attain heavenly reward (participation in Pascha, the Resurrection of Jesus). There is a pious custom of baking “skylarks” (pastries shaped like skylarks) on this day, because people believed that birds sing at this time to announce the arrival of spring.

At the end of the service, the priest blesses cheese, eggs, flesh meats, and other items that the faithful have been abstaining from for the duration of Great Lent. Lenten traditions and liturgical practices are less common, less binding, and sometimes non-existent among some liberal and progressive Christians. A greater emphasis on anticipation of Easter Sunday is often encouraged more than the penitence of Lent or Holy Week. Some Christians as well as secular groups also interpret the Lenten fast in a positive tone, not as renunciation but as contributing to causes such as environmental stewardship and improvement of health.

During requiem services (, Slavonic: Panikhida, Romanian: parastas), the family or friends of the departed will often prepare a koliva which is placed in front of the memorial table before which the service is chanted. Memorial services are held on the third, ninth, and fortieth days after the repose of an Orthodox Christian, as well as on the one-year anniversary. In addition, there are several Soul Saturdays during the church year (mostly during Great Lent), as well as Radonitsa (on the second Tuesday after Pascha), on each of which general commemorations are made for all the departed.

Clean Monday (), also known as Pure Monday, Ash Monday, Monday of Lent or Green Monday, is the first day of Great Lent throughout Eastern Christianity and is a moveable feast, falling on the 7th Monday before Pascha (Easter). The common term for this day, "Clean Monday", refers to the leaving behind of sinful attitudes and non-fasting foods. It is sometimes called "Ash Monday", by analogy with Ash Wednesday (the day when the Western Churches begin Lent). The term is often a misnomer, as only a small subset of Eastern Catholic Churches practice the Imposition of Ashes.

All of the remaining days of the ecclesiastical year, until the preparation for the next Great Lent, are named for the day after Pentecost on which they occur (for example, the 13th Tuesday After Pentecost). The Second Monday after Pentecost is the beginning of the Apostles' Fast (which continues until the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul on June 29). Theologically, Orthodox do not consider Pentecost to be the "birthday" of the Church; they see the Church as having existed before the creation of the world (cf. The Shepherd of Hermas)Patrologia Graecae, 35:1108–9.

In the 19th century, Russian Orthodox Christians held Easter as the most important day of the year. Following a strict fast throughout all of Great Lent, Easter was a day of celebration of Christ's resurrection. To celebrate this holiday, Tsar Alexander III's brother, the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich ordered Peter Fabergé to create an Easter surprise for the Tsarina. Correspondence between the Tsar and his brother dated March 21, 1885 indicates the Grand Duke relayed the Tsar's desires and instructions for the gift to Fabergé rather than the Tsar himself supervising the crafting of the egg.

It commemorates the three days that the people of Nineveh fasted in repentance after Jonah's call for them to repent. For Christians, these three days are a direct parallel of and a prophecy about the three days that Christ spent in the tomb, just like the three days Jonah spent in the belly of the fish. The fast of Nineveh begins on a Monday, two weeks before the Monday that marks the beginning of Great Lent. This fast was borrowed from Syriac Christianity, as one of the Patriarchs of Alexandria of Syriac descent decided to adapt it for the Church of Alexandria.

This heralded the restoration of Catholic orthodoxy, and became a holiday in the Byzantine Church, celebrated every year on the First Sunday of Great Lent, and known as the "Triumph of Orthodoxy". Throughout his short patriarchate, Methodios tried to pursue a moderate line of accommodation with members of the clergy who were formerly Iconoclasts. This policy was opposed by extremists, primarily the monks of the Stoudios monastery, who demanded that the former Iconoclasts be punished severely as heretics. To rein in the extremists, Methodios was forced to excommunicate and arrest some of the more persevering monks.

This established the tradition of Pancake Day being celebrated on Shrove Tuesday. This day, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday when Lent begins, is also known as Mardi Gras, a French phrase which translates as "Fat Tuesday" to mark the last consumption of eggs and dairy before Lent begins. In the Orthodox Church, Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, rather than Wednesday, so the household's dairy products would be used up in the preceding week, called Cheesefare Week. During Lent, since chickens would not stop producing eggs during this time, a larger than usual store might be available at the end of the fast.

Normally, the Prayer of Saint Ephrem is said once, with three prostrations; but on the first day of Great Lent (Clean Monday) it is said twice, with four prostrations and twelve bows. # Second Part--"O come, let us worship..." and Psalms 120 and 133, followed by the Trisagion, Troparia of Repentance, an intercession and a blessing by the priest. # Conclusion--Next follows a mutual asking of forgiveness between the priest and all the brethren. Then the priest says a litany during which everyone slowly and quietly chants "Lord, have mercy," concluding with a final blessing by the Priest.

The Eastern Orthodox Church traditionally reads this story on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, which in their liturgical year is the Sunday before Meatfare Sunday and about two weeks before the beginning of Great Lent. One common kontakion hymn of the occasion reads: > I have recklessly forgotten Your glory, O Father; And among sinners I have > scattered the riches which You gave to me. And now I cry to You as the > Prodigal: > I have sinned before You, O merciful Father; Receive me as a penitent and > make me as one of Your hired servants.

The Ukrainian Lutheran Church uses the Julian calendar for the liturgical year and thus observes feast days and liturgical seasons, such as Great Lent, in a fashion similar to Orthodox customs. Posture during worship, such as bowing, is identical to that in other parts of Eastern Christianity. The calendar of saints used by the Ukrainian Lutheran Church includes persons esteemed in Eastern Christianity, such as John Chrysostom and Nestor the Chronicler, as well as those specific to the Lutheran Church, such as Lucas Cranach the Elder and Martin Luther. The ULC teaches that the Bible is the only authoritative source for doctrine.

The term Carnival is traditionally used in areas with a large Catholic presence, as well as in Greece. In historically Evangelical Lutheran countries, the celebration is known as Fastelavn, and in areas with a high concentration of Anglicans (Church of England/US Episcopal Church), Methodists, and other Protestants, pre-Lenten celebrations, along with penitential observances, occur on Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. In Slavic Eastern Orthodox nations, Maslenitsa is celebrated during the last week before Great Lent. In German-speaking Europe and the Netherlands, the Carnival season traditionally opens on 11/11 (often at 11:11 am).

In Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Churches of Slavic tradition, the Gospel account of Zacchaeus is read on the last Sunday preceding the liturgical preparation for Great Lent, for which reason that Sunday is known as "Zacchaeus Sunday." It is the very first commemoration of a new Paschal cycle. The account was chosen to open the Lenten season because of two exegetical aspects: Jesus's call to Zacchaeus to come down from the tree (symbolizing the divine call to humility), and Zacchaeus's subsequent repentance. In the Eastern churches of Greek/Byzantine tradition, Zacchaeus Sunday may fall earlier than the Sunday before the Pre-Lenten season.

There is also an episcopal mantle which is not worn with the other episcopal vestments while celebrating the Divine Liturgy, but when the bishop formally enters the church beforehand, or when a bishop is formally attending (i.e., presiding over) a service in which he is not serving. Among the Greeks, it is common for all bishops regardless of rank, to wear a red mantle; however, many also use purple during Great Lent. In the Slavic tradition, a more complex color scheme has developed, and hierarchs wear different-colored mantles according to their rank: violet for bishops; plum for archbishops; blue for metropolitans; and green for patriarchs in the Russian tradition.

The Russian Orthodox Church commemorates the Placing of the Honorable Robe of the Lord at Moscow on July 10 (July 25 N.S.). At Moscow annually on that day, the robe is solemnly brought out of the chapel of the Apostles Peter and Paul at the Dormition cathedral, and it is placed on a stand for veneration by the faithful during the divine services. After the Divine Liturgy the robe is returned to its former place. Traditionally, on this day the propers chanted are of "the Life-Creating Cross", since the day on which the relic was actually placed was the Sunday of the Cross, during Great Lent of 1625.

Here the Ladder of Divine Ascent was written by Saint John Climacus (c.600), a work of such importance that many Orthodox monasteries to this day read it publicly either during the Divine Services or in Trapeza during Great Lent. At the height of the East Roman Empire, numerous great monasteries were established by the emperors, including the twenty "sovereign monasteries" on the Holy Mountain,Both Mount Sinai and Mount Athos are referred to as "the Holy Mountain" in Orthodox literature, an actual "monastic republic" wherein the entire country is devoted to bringing souls closer to God. In this milieu, the Philokalia was compiled.

Koliva, also spelled kollyva, kollyba or colivă, is a dish based on boiled wheat that is used liturgically in the Eastern Orthodox Church for commemorations of the dead. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, koliva is blessed during funerals, as well as during the memorial service (mnemosyno) that is performed at various intervals after a person's death and on special occasions, such as the Saturday of Souls (ψυχοσάββατο). It may also be used on the first Friday of Great Lent, at Slavas, or at mnemosyna in the Christmas meal. In some countries, though not in Greece and Romania, it is consumed on nonreligious occasions as well.

Saint Gregory Dialogus, who is credited with compiling the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. Great Lent is unique in that, liturgically, the weeks do not run from Sunday to Saturday, but rather begin on Monday and end on Sunday, and most weeks are named for the lesson from the Gospel which will be read at the Divine Liturgy on its concluding Sunday. This is to illustrate that the entire season is anticipatory, leading up to the greatest Sunday of all: Pascha. During the Great Fast, a special service book is used, known as the Lenten Triodion, which contains the Lenten texts for the Daily Office (Canonical Hours) and Liturgies.

Zacchaeus being called down from the tree (1908, William Hole). In the Slavic liturgical traditions, Zacchaeus Sunday occurs on the fifth Sunday before the beginning of Great Lent (which starts on a Monday). Though there are no materials provided in the Lenten Triodion for this day, it is the very first day that is affected by the date of the upcoming Pascha (all the preceding days having been affected by the previous Pascha). This day has one sole Pre- Lenten feature: the Gospel reading is always the account of Zacchaeus from , for which reason this Sunday is referred to as "Zacchaeus Sunday" (though the week before is not called "Zacchaeus week").

On Great Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the Little Hours are more like normal, except that a Troparion of the Prophecy, prokeimena, and a reading from Jeremiah are chanted at the First Hour on Great Thursday. On Great Friday, the Royal Hours are chanted (see below). During the Lesser Lenten seasons (Nativity Fast, Apostles' Fast and Dormition Fast) the Little Hours undergo changes similar to those during Great Lent, except the hymns are usually read instead of chanted, and there are no additional Kathismata on weekdays.In some traditions, these Lenten changes to the services are only observed on the first day of each of the Lesser Fasts.

Of great importance to the development of monasticism is the Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai. The Ladder of Divine Ascent was written there by John Climacus (c.600), a work of such importance that many Orthodox monasteries to this day read it publicly either during the Divine Services or in Trapeza during Great Lent. At the height of the Byzantine Empire, numerous great monasteries were established by the emperors, including the twenty "sovereign monasteries" on Mount Athos,Both Mount Sinai and Mount Athos are referred to as "the Holy Mountain" in Orthodox literature, an actual "monastic republic" wherein the entire country is devoted to bringing souls closer to God.

The Octoechos contains hymns on these themes, arranged in an eight-week cycle, that are chanted on Saturdays throughout the year. At the end of services on Saturday, the dismissal begins with the words: "May Christ our True God, through the intercessions of his most-pure Mother, of the holy, glorious and right victorious Martyrs, of our reverend and God-bearing Fathers…". For the Orthodox, Saturday — with the sole exception of Holy Saturday — is never a strict fast day. When a Saturday falls during one of the fasting seasons (Great Lent, Nativity Fast, Apostles' Fast, Dormition Fast) the fasting rules are always lessened to an extent.

"standings", sing. στάσις, stasis), so-called because the faithful stand at the end of each stasis for the Glory to the Father .... At Vespers and Matins, different kathismata are read at different times of the liturgical year and on different days of the week, according to the Church's calendar, so that all 150 psalms (20 kathismata) are read in the course of a week. During Great Lent, the number of kathismata is increased so that the entire Psalter is read twice a week. In the twentieth century, some lay Christians have adopted a continuous reading of the Psalms on weekdays, praying the whole book in four weeks.

The Sequences supply for all the Acolouths of the Daily Cycle the material required for a particular Remembrance — that is to say, the material proper to a particular day of the week, a particular date of the year, a particular day in the liturgical seasons (for instance, during Great Lent or the period between Pascha (Easter) and Pentecost). These sequences can be referred to as cycles. The fundamental element of the Sequence is the troparion, which is a short hymn, or one of the stanzas of a hymn. The kontakion is a troparion which explains briefly the character of the feast celebrated in the day's Office.

The tradition of blessing and eating koliva at the end of the first week of Great Lent is connected with an event in the reign of Julian the Apostate. The tradition states that the Emperor knew that the Christians would be hungry after the first week of strict fasting, and would go to the marketplaces of Constantinople on Saturday to buy food. So he ordered that blood from pagan sacrifices be sprinkled over all the food that was sold there. This made the food unsuitable as Lenten fare (since the Christians could not eat meat products during Lent), and in general as food for Christians, who are forbidden to eat food from such sacrifices.

The Orthodox lenten rules are the monastic rules. These rules exist not as a Pharisaic law, “burdens grievous to be borne” , but as an ideal to be striven for; not as an end in themselves, but as a means to the purification of heart, the enlightening of mind, the liberation of soul and body from sin, and the spiritual perfection crowned in the virtue of love towards God and man. In the Byzantine Rite, asceticism is not exclusively for the "professional" religious, but for each layperson as well, according to their strength. As such, Great Lent is a sacred Institute of the Church to serve the individual believer in participating as a member of the Mystical Body of Christ.

Observance of Great Lent is characterized by fasting and abstinence from certain foods, intensified private and public prayer, self-examination, confession, personal improvement, repentance and restitution for sins committed, and almsgiving. The foods abstained from are meat, fish, eggs and dairy products, wine, and oil. According to some traditions, only olive oil is abstained from; in others, all vegetable oils. While wine and oil are permitted on Saturdays, Sundays, and a few feast days, and fish is permitted on Palm Sunday as well as the Annunciation when it falls before Palm Sunday, and caviar is permitted on Lazarus Saturday, meat and dairy are prohibited entirely until the fast is broken on Easter.

Yea, my king > and Lord, grant me to see my own failings and refrain from judging others: > For blessed art Thou unto ages of ages. Amen. The public reading of Scripture is increased during Great Lent. The Psalter (Book of Psalms), which is normally read through once a week, is read through twice each week for the six weeks prior to Holy Week. Readings from the Old Testament are also increased, with the Books of Genesis, Proverbs and Isaiah being read through almost in their entirety at the Sixth Hour and Vespers (during Cheesefare Week, the readings at these services are taken from Joel and Zechariah, while during Holy Week they are from Exodus, Ezekiel and Job).

He is best known for his encounter with Mary of Egypt (commemorated on April 1). It was the custom of that monastery for all of the brethren to go out into the desert for the forty days of Great Lent, spending the time in fasting and prayer, and not returning until Palm Sunday. While wandering in the desert he met Mary, who told him her life story and asked him to meet her the next year on Holy Thursday on the banks of the Jordan, in order to bring her Holy Communion. He did so, and the third year came to her again in the desert, but he found that she had died and he buried her.

In 726 Emperor Leo III ordered all images removed from all churches; in 730 a council forbade veneration of images, citing the Second Commandment; in 787 the Seventh Ecumenical Council reversed the preceding rulings, condemning iconoclasm and sanctioning the veneration of images; in 815 Leo V called yet another council, which reinstated iconoclasm; in 843 Empress Theodora again reinstated veneration of icons. This mostly settled the matter until the Reformation, when John Calvin declared that the ruling of the Seventh Ecumenical Council "emanated from Satan". Protestant iconoclasts at this time destroyed statues, pictures, stained glass, and artistic masterpieces. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates Theodora's restoration of the icons every year on the First Sunday of Great Lent.

Eastern Lutherans use the Julian calendar for the calendar and thus observe feast days and liturgical seasons, such as Great Lent, in a fashion similar to Orthodox customs. As such, many Byzantine Lutheran holy days are shared with those of the Eastern Orthodox Church; in addition, Eastern Lutheran churches are constructed in accordance with Byzantine architecture. Posture during worship, such as bowing, is identical to that in other parts of Eastern Christianity. Within Byzantine Rite Lutheranism, the calendar of saints includes persons esteemed in Eastern Christianity, such as John Chrysostom and Nestor the Chronicler, as well as those specific to the Lutheran Church, such as Lucas Cranach the Elder and Martin Luther.

Well-known Russian author Alexander Kuprin, described Velvet season in his 1914 short story "The Wine Barrel" (Винная Бочка): > This is the golden days for Yalta, and, perhaps, for all of the Crimean > coast. It lasts not more than a month and usually coincides with the last > week of Great Lent, Easter and St. Thomas' Sunday. Some people come to get > rid of sad necessity to do visits; others, as a newlywed, making their > wedding trip; and the third, the majority, because in Yalta at this time > gathers everything noble and rich, it is possible to express themselves with > dress and beauty, strike up favorable acquaintances. The nature, of course, > noticed by no one.

Maslenitsa (, , ; also known as Butter Lady, Butter Week, Crepe week, or Cheesefare Week) is an Eastern Slavic religious and folk holiday, which has retained a number of elements of Slavic mythology in its ritual, celebrated during the last week before Great Lent, that is, the eighth week before Eastern Orthodox Pascha. The date of Maslenitsa changes every year depending on the date of the celebration of Easter. It corresponds to the Western Christian Carnival, except that Orthodox Lent begins on a Monday instead of a Wednesday, and the Orthodox date of Easter can differ greatly from the Western Christian date. The traditional attributes of the Maslenitsa celebration are the scarecrow of Maslenitsa, sleigh rides, festivities.

Singing is used in place of chanting on important occasions thus some things which are chanted at minor services are sung at more important services. Singing is as varied and multi-faceted in its forms as chanting and vestments, it changes with the Church 'seasons' of commemoration thus singing during Great Lent is always somber and during Holy Week nearly becomes a sorrowful dirge while during Pascha (Easter) and the Paschal season the notes are high and quick and as joyful as they were sad during Lent. The power of music is not lost on the Orthodox and it is used to its full effect to bring about spiritual renewal in the listeners.

A complete three-day fast at the beginning and end of a fasting period is not unusual, and some fast for even longer periods, though this is usually practised only in monasteries. In general, fasting means abstaining from meat and meat products, dairy (eggs and cheese) and dairy products, fish, olive oil, and wine. Wine and oil—and, less frequently, fish—are allowed on certain feast days when they happen to fall on a day of fasting; but animal products and dairy are forbidden on fast days, with the exception of "Cheese Fare" week which precedes Great Lent, during which dairy products are allowed. Wine and oil are usually also allowed on Saturdays and Sundays during periods of fast.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches, Gregory is credited as the primary influence in constructing the more penitential Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, a fully separate form of the Divine Liturgy in the Byzantine Rite adapted to the needs of the season of Great Lent. Its Roman Rite equivalent is the Mass of the Presanctified used only on Good Friday. The Syriac Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts continues to be used in the Malankara Rite, a variant of the West Syrian Rite historically practiced in the Malankara Church of India, and now practiced by the several churches that descended from it and at some occasions in the Assyrian Church of the East.Chupungco, Anscar J. (1997).

Late 14th century icon illustrating the "Triumph of Orthodoxy" under the Byzantine Empress Theodora and her son Michael III over iconoclasm in 843. (National Icon Collection 18, British Museum) The Icon of the Triumph of Orthodoxy (also known as the Icon of the Sunday of Orthodoxy) is the festal icon for the first Sunday of Great Lent, a celebration that commemorated the end of Byzantine Iconoclasm and restoration of icons to the church in 843 (the eponymous "Triumph of Orthodoxy"), and which remains a church feast in Orthodoxy. It is the earliest known depiction of this subject, and thought to have been painted in Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. It was purchased by the British Museum in 1988.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite, the Songs of Degrees (Greek: anabathmoi) make up the Eighteenth Kathisma (division of the Psalter), and are read on Friday evenings at Vespers throughout the liturgical year. The Kathisma is divided into three sections (called stases) of five psalms each. During Great Lent the Eighteenth Kathisma is read every weekday (Monday through Friday evening) at Vespers, and on Monday through Wednesday of Holy Week. In the Slavic usage this Kathisma is also read from the apodosis of the Exaltation of the Cross up to the forefeast of the Nativity of Christ, and from the apodosis of Theophany up to the Sunday of the Prodigal Son.

Since it is considered especially important to receive the Holy Mysteries (Holy Communion) during this season, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts—also called the Liturgy of St. Gregory the Dialogist— may be celebrated on weekdays. This service commences with Vespers during which a portion of the Body and Blood of Christ, which was reserved the previous Sunday, is brought to the prothesis table. This is followed by a solemn great entrance where the Holy Mysteries are brought to the altar table, and then, skipping the anaphora (eucharistic prayer), the outline of remainder of the divine liturgy is followed, including holy communion. Most parishes and monasteries celebrate this liturgy only on Wednesdays, Fridays and feast days, but it may be celebrated on any weekday of Great Lent.

One of the earliest known depictions of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus (Rabbula Gospel illuminated manuscript, 6th century) The celebration of Easter Day is not fixed and is a movable observance. Easter Day, also known as Resurrection Sunday, marks the high point of the Christian year. It is a festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial after his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary 30 AD. It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance. In the United Kingdom, both Good Friday and Easter Monday are bank holidays.

In Russia, the use of the Lukan Jump vanished; however in recent decades, the Russian Church has begun the process of returning to the use of the Lukan Jump. Similarly to the Gospel Cycle, Epistle readings follow this plan although some exceptions vary: #Book of Acts of Apostles #:read from Pascha until Pentecost Sunday #Letter to the Romans, 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians #:From Pentecost to Elevation of the Holy Cross #Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Hebrews #:From Elevation of the Holy Cross to the Circumcision of Christ, 1st of Janunary #James, Hebrews, 1 Peter and 2 Peter #:read from the Circumcision of Christ to the Clean Monday, first weekday of Great Lent.

In the Oriental Orthodox Church, a variety of anaphoras are used, but all are similar in structure to those of the Constantinopolitan Rite, in which the Anaphora of Saint John Chrysostom is used most days of the year; Saint Basil's is offered on the Sundays of Great Lent, the eves of Christmas and Theophany, Holy Thursday, Holy Saturday, and upon his feast day (1 January). At the conclusion of the Anaphora the bread and wine are held to be the Body and Blood of Christ. Unlike the Latin Church, the Byzantine Rite uses leavened bread, with the leaven symbolizing the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Armenian Apostolic Church, like the Latin Church, uses unleavened bread, whereas the Greek Orthodox Church utilizes leavened bread in their celebration.

If, however, the Great Feast of the Annunciation falls on that particular Thursday, the reading of the Great Canon will be moved to Tuesday and, as a result, a kathisma will be read on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. During Holy Week, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the services are similar to those during Great Lent except there is no reading of Kathismata, and instead of the normal Lenten hymns which replace the Kontakion, the Kontakion of the day (i.e., that day of Holy Week) is chanted. On Great Thursday and Saturday, the Little Hours are more like normal, except that a Troparion of the Prophecy, prokeimena, and a reading from Jeremiah are chanted at the First Hour on Great Thursday.

This Mission is a part of the World Association of Prison Ministry. Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has defined the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, which every year falls up to date two weeks before the Great Lent, as a Day of special attention to prison ministry. The Gospel Reading on this Sunday (Luke 15:11-32) lays out one of the most important themes of the Lenten season: the history of falling into a sin, realization of one's sinfulness, the road to repentance, and finally reconciliation, each of which is illustrated in the course of the parable. The UGCC Synod invokes to remember in prayers workers of the Penitentiary system of Ukraine, who perform difficult tasks, because every day they are near of broken human destinies.

The second folio (between 58 and 59) with the continuation of the notated prooimion and the text of the first three oikoi is missing. Since the 14th century the Akathist moved from the menaion to the moveable cycle of the triodion, and the custom established that the whole hymn was sung in four sections throughout Lent. As such it became part of the service of the Salutations to the Theotokos (used in the Byzantine tradition during Great Lent). Another particular characteristic feature of the Akathist is the extraordinary length of the refrain or ephymnion which conists of a great number of verses beginning with χαῖρε (“Rejoice”) which are called in Greek Chairetismoi (Χαιρετισμοί, "Rejoicings") or in Arabic Madayeh, respectively; in the Slavic tradition it is known as Akafist.

Gregory is venerated since 1368 as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church; some Byzantine Catholic Churches, which form part of the communion of the Catholic Church, also venerate him. (He has also been called a saint, and repeatedly cited as a great theological writer, by Pope John Paul II.Pope John Paul II, Homily at Ephesus, 30 November 1979, General Audience, 14 November 1990, General Audience, 12 November 1997, General Audience, 19 November 1997, Jubilee of Scientists) Some of his writings are collected in the Philokalia, and since the Ottoman period, the second Sunday of Great Lent is dedicated to the memory Gregory Palamas in the Orthodox Church. The Byzantine Synodikon of Orthodoxy also celebrates his memory and theology while condemning his opponents, including some anti- Palamites who flourished after Gregory's death.

During Lent some Christian communities, such as Orthodox Christians in the Middle East, undertake partial fasting eating only one light meal per day. For strict Greek Orthodox Christians and Copts, all meals during this 40-day period are prepared without animal products and are essentially vegan. Unlike veganism, however, abstaining from animal products during Lent is intended to be only temporary and not a permanent way of life. Eastern Orthodox laity traditionally abstains from animal products on Wednesdays (because, according to Christian tradition, Judas betrayed Jesus on the Wednesday prior to the Crucifixion of Jesus) and Fridays (because Jesus is thought to have been crucified on the subsequent Friday), as well as during the four major fasting periods of the year: Great Lent, the Apostles' Fast, the Dormition Fast and the Nativity Fast.

The computation of the day of Pascha (Easter) is, however, always computed according to a lunar calendar based on the Julian Calendar, even by those churches which observe the Revised Calendar. There are four fasting seasons during the year: The most important fast is Great Lent which is an intense time of fasting, almsgiving and prayer, extending for forty days prior to Palm Sunday and Holy Week, as a preparation for Pascha. The Nativity Fast (Winter Lent) is a time of preparation for the Feast of the Nativity of Christ (Christmas), but whereas Advent in the West lasts only four weeks, Nativity Fast lasts a full forty days. The Apostles' Fast is variable in length, lasting anywhere from eight days to six weeks, in preparation for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29).

In both Christianity and Islam, amongst others, pre-marital sex is prohibited. Catholics abstain from food and drink for an hour prior to taking Holy Communion, and from meat on Ash Wednesday and on Fridays except solemnities. In the Anglican Communion, the Book of Common Prayer prescribes certain days as days for fasting and abstinence, "consisting of the 40 days of Lent, the ember days, the three rogation days (the Monday to Wednesday following the Sunday after Ascension Day), and all Fridays in the year (except Christmas, if it falls on a Friday)". Orthodox Christians abstain from food and drink from midnight on the day they receive Holy Communion, and abstain from meat and dairy on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, as well as during Great Lent.

Eastern Orthodox practice with regard to the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts has varied historically and geographically. At this Liturgy, which is customarily used only on weekdays of Great Lent, no prayers of consecration take place but communion is distributed with bread with wine poured into it that were consecrated and reserved at the Divine Liturgy the Sunday before. Wine is placed in the chalice at the Presanctified Liturgy, and the presanctified Eucharist is placed into the wine. In the Greek and ancient Russian practice, this is understood as a "second consecration" in which the wine then becomes consecrated by contact with the consecrated bread that has had the consecrated wine poured into it on the previous Sunday In modern Russian practice, however, it is not considered consecrated.

In both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the term "Mass of the Presanctified" is not used in the Missal and other liturgical books, the ceremony having been retitled Solemn Afternoon Liturgy of the Passion and Death of the Lord (Solemnis actio liturgica postmeridiana in Passione et Morte Domini) in the 1955 revisions of Pope Pius XII. It is also called the Solemn Commemoration of the Lord's Passion. The Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite only on the weekdays (Monday through Friday) of Great Lent, and on Monday through Wednesday of Holy Week. At each of these Presanctified Liturgies, the Sacred Mysteries (Blessed Sacrament) would have been consecrated the previous Sunday.

November 8, 2012, Hieromonk Roman (Krassovsky), accompanied Archbishop Mark (Arndt) of Berlin and Germany, Overseer of the REM, arrived to Jerusalem. Archbishop Mark introduced Fr Roman to Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem and All Palestine, who blessed Fr Roman's new obedience. The Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia has confirmed Fr Roman as the Chief of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem and On April 20, 2013, Akathistos Saturday, Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany elevated Hieromonk Roman (Krassovsky) to the rank of hegumen in Holy Ascension Convent on the Mount of Olives. On April 21, the Fifth Sunday of Great Lent, Archbishop Mark officiated at Divine Liturgy at St Mary Magdalene Convent in Gethsemane; and During the minor entrance he elevated Fr. Roman to the rank of archimandrite.

On Great and Holy Saturday, the Midnight Office takes a very particular form in which it is celebrated on only this one night of the year. Holy Saturday is often the only time that the Midnight Office will be read in parishes. It is the last office found in the liturgical book that contains the services of Great Lent, the Lenten Triodion. The Office is read around the epitaphios, a shroud embroidered with the image of Christ prepared for burial in the Tomb, which has been placed on a catafalque in the center of the church. After the Opening and Psalm 50, the Canon of Great Saturday is chanted (repeated from the Matins service the night before) as a reflection upon the meaning of Christ’s death and His Harrowing of Hell.

It is the last day before Great Lent, and the family is busy eating, knowing they'll have to spend the next seven weeks on lean diet. Pavel Vasilyevich is summoned by his wife Pelageya Ivanovna to help out his son Styopa, a high-school boy in the second class, who sits in the nursery, crying over the textbook, having trouble understanding division of fractions, apparently as a result of having eaten too much pancakes. Rather dazed himself after heavy lunch, the father makes a poor job of it and, having totally lost the plot, starts relating his own stories about his school. Pelageya Ivanovna calls them to the table for tea, where they join her in the company of two aunts (one of whom is mostly silent, another is deaf and dumb) and a midwife.

The Triodion begins during the Pre-Lenten period to supplement or replace portions of the regular services. This replacement begins gradually, initially affecting only the Epistle and Gospel readings, and gradually increases until Holy Week when it entirely replaces all other liturgical material (during the Triduum even the Psalter is eliminated, and all texts are taken exclusively from the Triodion). The Triodion is used until the lights are extinguished before midnight at the Paschal Vigil, at which time it is replaced by the Pentecostarion, which begins by replacing the normal services entirely (during Bright Week) and gradually diminishes until the normal services resume following the Afterfeast of Pentecost. On the weekdays of Great Lent, the full Divine Liturgy is not celebrated, because the joy of the Eucharist (literally "Thanksgiving") is contrary to the attitude of repentance which predominates on these days.

Before the forty days of Great Lent commence, there is a three-week Pre-Lenten season, to prepare the faithful for the spiritual work they are to accomplish during the Great Fast. During this period many of the themes which will be developed in the liturgical texts of the forty days are introduced. Each week runs from Monday to Sunday and is named for the Gospel theme of the Sunday which concludes it. In the Slavic tradition, with the addition of Zacchaeus Sunday, some regard the pre-Lenten period as lasting four weeks, but there are no liturgical indications that the week following the fifth Sunday before Lent (whether preceded by Zacchaeus Sunday or otherwise) is in any way Lenten, because Zacchaeus Sunday falls outside the Triodion, the liturgical book which governs the pre-Lenten period and Lent itself.

It provides each person an annual opportunity for self-examination and improving the standards of faith and morals in his Christian life. The deep intent of the believer during Great Lent is encapsulated in the words of Saint Paul: "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (). Through spending more time than usual in prayer and meditation on the Holy Scripture and the Holy Traditions of the Church, the believer in Christ becomes through the grace of God more godlike. The attitude towards this period is very positive, it is not so much a period of repentance, as the "West" think of it, as an attempt to recapture our true state as it was for Adam and Eve before the fall - to live pure lives.

Joseph Bates, vegetarian and one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Within Eastern Christianity, vegetarianism is practiced as part of fasting during the Great Lent (although shellfish and other non-vertebrate products are generally considered acceptable during some periods of this time); vegan fasting is particularly common in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodox Churches, such as the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, which generally fasts 210 days out of the year. This tradition greatly influenced the cuisine of Ethiopia. Some Christian groups, such as Seventh-day Adventists, the Christian Vegetarian Association and Christian anarchists, take a literal interpretation of the Biblical prophecies of universal veg(etari)anism[, , ] and encourage veg(etari)anism as preferred lifestyles or as a tool to reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, although some of them say it is not required.

When read in place of the Liturgy's celebration, the Typica is read after the Sixth HourIn the usage of the Old Believers, the Typica is read after the Ninth hour, that is said jointly to the Third and Sixth hours and during the reading of the Typica, in the place where the Liturgy would be celebrated; otherwise it is read after the Ninth Hour. When replacing the Liturgy, the propers of the Liturgy are used, e.g., the troparia inserted between the verses of the Beatitudes, the troparia and kontakia before the Trisagion, and the scriptural readings with their corresponding prokimena. on the weekdays of Great Lent the Psalms are omitted and between the verses of the Beatitudes is inserted "Remember us, O Lord, when Thou comest into Thy kingdom" with prostrations, there are no readings, and, as is typical of Lenten services, the Prayer of St. Ephraim is used.

The First Council of Nicaea's decree "that prayer be made to God standing" from Pascha (Easter) through Pentecost, and on all Sundays throughout the year, in honour of the ResurrectionCanon 20 of the 1st Ecumenical Council, Canon 90 of the 6th Ecumenical Council, Canon 91 of St Basil is strictly observed, excepting only for prostrating before the Cross on the Third Sunday of Great Lent and on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, if it falls on a Sunday, as well as for a few sacramental services, e.g., ordinations. However, the Russian Old Rite, which reflects the praxis of the Russian church prior to the 17th-century reforms, which brought it in line with Greek practice as it stood at the time, itself the result of revision over the centuries, explicitly requires prostrations to be made at certain points during the services regardless of whether it is a Sunday, including at the end of Shine, Shine throughout the paschal season.

The entire first week of Great Lent is often referred to as "Clean Week", and it is customary to go to Confession during this week, and to clean the house thoroughly. The theme of Clean Monday is set by the Old Testament reading appointed to be read at the Sixth Hour on this day (), which says, in part: Leavened lagana with sesame seeds Clean Monday is a public holiday in Greece and Cyprus, where it is celebrated with outdoor excursions, the consumption of shellfish and other fasting food,Strictly observant Orthodox hold this day (and also Clean Tuesday and Wednesday) as a strict fast day, on which no solid food at all is eaten. Others will eat only in the evening, and then only xerophagy (lit. "dry eating"; a type of fasting that includes eating only raw or simply prepared foods, especially foods prepared with no oils, such as bread and honey, fruit, nuts, halva, etc).

The Typica (Slavonic: изобразительныхъ', Izobrazítel'nykhə) is a part of the Divine Office of Eastern Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches that is appointed to be read on any day the Liturgy is celebrated with vespers, or the Typicon does not permit the celebration of the Liturgy (as occurs, for example, on weekdays during Great Lent),During the lesser Fasts also, on weekdays on which there is only a simple commemoration in the Menaion, or may be celebrated but is not either because no priest is present, or because no priest for whatever reason celebrates the Liturgy.This may occur for any number of reasons. Married priests, because of the requirement for abstinence before serving, can not serve the Liturgy daily; however, it is rare for any priest to serve daily. Also, an emergency beyond his control may have prevented him from preparing according to the Rule for Holy Communion, he may have suffered an injury which would not permit him to enter the Sanctuary, etc.

Accessed 2007-04-02. The position of Lazarus Saturday is summed up in the first sticheron chanted at vespers on Friday:The Orthodox Church follows the Jewish tradition of beginning the day at sunset; thus, Lazarus Saturday begins at Friday vespers. Having completed the forty days that bring profit to our soul, we beseech Thee in Thy love for man: Grant us also to behold the Holy Week of Thy Passion, that in it we may glorify Thy mighty acts and Thine ineffable dispensation for our sakes, singing with one mind: O Lord, glory to Thee. During Friday vespers the reading of Genesis (which began on the first day of Great Lent) is concluded with the description of the death, burial and mourning of Jacob () and on Friday night, at compline, a Canon on the Raising of Lazarus by Saint Andrew of Crete is sung; this is a rare full canon, having all nine canticles.

Similar parades take place in all major Russian cities and cities with the status Hero city or City of Military Glory. Popular non-public holidays include Old New Year (the New Year according to the Julian Calendar on 14 January), Tatiana Day (students holiday on 25 January), Maslenitsa (a pre-Christian spring holiday a week before the Great Lent), Cosmonautics Day (in tribute to the first human trip into space), Ivan Kupala Day (another pre-Christian holiday on 7 July) and Peter and Fevronia Day (which takes place on 8 July and is the Russian analogue of Valentine's Day, focusing, however, on family love and fidelity). A Matryoshka doll taken apart State symbols of Russia include the Byzantine double-headed eagle, combined with St. George of Moscow in the Russian coat of arms. The Russian flag dates from the late Tsardom of Russia period and has been widely used since the time of the Russian Empire.

Similar parades are organized in all major Russian cities and the cities with the status Hero city or City of Military Glory. Other popular holidays, which are not public, include Old New Year (New Year according to Julian Calendar on 1 January), Tatiana Day (day of Russian students on 25 January), Maslenitsa (an old pagan holiday a week before the Great Lent), Cosmonautics Day (a day of Yury Gagarin's first ever human trip into space on 12 April), Ivan Kupala Day (another pagan Slavic holiday on 7 July) and Peter and Fevronia Day (taking place on 8 July and being the Russian analogue of Valentine's Day, which focuses, however, on the family love and fidelity). On different days in June there are major celebrations of the end of the school year, when graduates from schools and universities traditionally swim in the city fountains; the local varieties of these public events include Scarlet Sails tradition in Saint Petersburg.

Therefore, the prayer asks in the second line for a restoration to Christian wholeness and integrity, foreshadowing the petition of the third line that the supplicant might have the temptation to judge others removed from them (cf. Matt. 7:1–5).See Alexander Schmemann's article The Lenten Prayer of St Ephrem the Syrian and his book Great Lent (Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1969)See also, Olivier Clément, Three Prayers: The Lord's Prayer, O Heavenly King, Prayer of St. Ephrem, translated by Michael Breck (Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2000. It is possible that the choice to translate σωφροσύνης as 'chastity' reflects both the affection for the Cranmerian prose of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer present in some anglophone Orthodox (which frequently leads to an ambiguity of meaning in liturgical and scriptural texts, as exemplified here) and also the presupposition that a concern for sexual purity is predominant in the Orthodox tradition. Sometimes the phrase "idle talk" is substituted by the Latinate word , which carries about the same meaning.

100 and 118 as part of the liturgical reforms of Pope Paul VI. St. Gregory the Great window at Church of the Good Shepherd (Rosemont, Pennsylvania) The Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite continue to commemorate Saint Gregory on 12 March which is during Great Lent, the only time when the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, which names Saint Gregory as its author, is used. Other churches also honour Saint Gregory: the Church of England and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod on 3 September, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada on 12 March. A traditional procession is held in Żejtun, Malta, in honour of Saint Gregory (San Girgor) on Easter Wednesday, which most often falls in April, the range of possible dates being 25 March to 28 April. The feast day of Saint Gregory also serves as a commemorative day for the former pupils of Downside School, called Old Gregorians.

On Sundays, in place of the eklogarion, a hymn called the Evlogitaria is chanted in honor of the Resurrection, commemorating the journey of the Myrrhbearers on their way to the Tomb of Christ and the announcement of the Resurrection of Jesus. If a feast day with megalynarion falls on a Sunday, only the refrain of the megalynarion is chanted, once, after which the evlogitaria are chanted. (If, however, a Great Feast of the Lord falls on a Sunday, nothing of the ordinary Sunday service is chanted, but everything is chanted for the Great Feast, and the order follows that of weekdays.) On the three Sundays before the beginning of Great Lent, Psalm 136 (KJV: ), "By the waters of Babylon", is added to the Polyeleos. This psalm recounts the sorrow of the Jews during the Babylonian captivity, and their yearning for Jerusalem; and is prescribed by the Church at this time to bring forth in the faithful sorrow over their captivity to sin and yearning for the Heavenly Jerusalem.

Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the Book of Common Prayer; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher (The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4) and Samuel Pepys (The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Volume 2) and just the word "Easter", as in books printed in 1575, 1584, 1586 also called Pascha (Greek, Latin) or Resurrection Sunday, is a festival and holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day after his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary 30 AD. It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance. Most Christians refer to the week before Easter as "Holy Week", which contains the days of the Easter Triduum, including Maundy Thursday, commemorating the Maundy and Last Supper, as well as Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus. In Western Christianity, Eastertide, or the Easter Season, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts seven weeks, ending with the coming of the 50th day, Pentecost Sunday.