Every year, around mid-April, the entire baptized world, dressed in joy and joy, solemnly honors the bright holiday of the Resurrection of the Savior Jesus Christ. Bells ring everywhere, religious processions take place, candles and lamps are lit. People go to churches, illuminate Easter cakes and multi-colored colored eggs, kiss Christ with smiles and kisses, greeting each other with exclamations of “Christ is Risen” and answering “In truth He is Risen.” And it doesn’t matter in what language these words are pronounced, they mean the same enthusiastic congratulations and good news. Where did this custom come from, and where did the history of the origin and celebration of Easter actually begin? Let's take a break from the celebration for a while and study this important and interesting issue.

Exodus from slavery

The history of the Easter holiday goes back centuries. And in order to better understand and study it, we will have to turn to the great book of the Bible, namely to its part called “Exodus”. This part tells that the Jewish people, who were enslaved by the Egyptians, suffered great torment and oppression from their masters. But, despite this, they trusted in the mercy of God and remembered the covenant given to them and the Promised Land. Among the Jews there was one man named Moses, whom God chose as his prophet. Having given Moses his brother Aaron to help him, the Lord worked miracles through them and sent various plagues on the Egyptians, numbering 10. The Egyptian pharaoh for a long time did not want to set his slaves free. Then God commanded the Israelites in the evening to slaughter for each family one year-old male lamb without blemish. And apply his blood to the crossbars of the doors of your home. The lamb had to be eaten overnight without breaking its bones. At night, an angel of God walked through Egypt and killed all the Egyptian firstborns, from cattle to man, but did not touch the Jewish dwellings. In fear, Pharaoh drove the Israelites out of the country. But when they approached the shores of the Red Sea, he came to his senses and chased after his slaves. However, God parted the waters of the sea and led the Jews through the sea as if on dry land, and Pharaoh was drowned. In honor of this event, from then to this day, Jews celebrate Passover as liberation from Egyptian captivity.

Sacrifice of Christ

But the story of the origin and emergence of the Easter holiday does not end there. After all, many centuries after the event described above, Jesus Christ, the savior of the world from the slavery of hell over human souls, was born on Israeli soil. According to the Gospel, Christ was born of the Virgin Mary and lived in the house of the carpenter Joseph. When he was 30 years old, he went out to preach, teaching people the commandments of God. Three years later he was crucified on the cross on Mount Golgotha. This happened after the Jewish Passover on Friday. And on Thursday there was the Last Supper, where Christ established the sacrament of the Eucharist, presenting bread and wine as his body and blood. Like the lamb in the Old Testament, Christ was slain for the sins of the world, and his bones were also not broken.

History of Easter from early Christianity to the Middle Ages

According to the testimony of the same Bible, after the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ into heaven, the history of the celebration of Easter developed as follows: after Pentecost, Easter was celebrated every Sunday, gathering for a meal and celebrating the Eucharist. This holiday was especially revered on the day of the death and resurrection of Christ, which initially fell on the day of the Jewish Passover. But already in the 2nd century, Christians came to the conclusion that it was not appropriate to celebrate Christ’s Passover on the same day as the Jews who crucified him, and decided to celebrate it on the next Sunday after the Jewish Passover. This continued until the Middle Ages, when Christian church was not divided into Orthodox and Catholic.

Easter - the history of the holiday today

IN modern life The history of the celebration of Easter was divided into 3 directions - Orthodox Easter, Catholic Easter and Jewish Easter. Each of them has acquired its own traditions and customs. But this did not make the solemnity and joy of the holiday itself any less. It’s just that for every nation and even every person it is purely personal and at the same time general. And may this holiday celebration and celebration of celebrations touch your hearts, dear readers. Happy Easter to you, love and peace!

How to tell children about Easter? Offer the kids something like this interesting story about the holiday with poems.

The sun is shining brighter today,

The wind beats stronger at the window,

And the cry reaches the skies:

“Christ is truly Risen!”

RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

Alyonka and Sasha are very busy today. Mom allowed them to paint Easter eggs. The children work smartly. There will be sun, trees, and waves on the eggs! And my mother and grandmother are baking Easter cakes in the kitchen. The grandmother promised that while the dough was resting, she would tell the story of this holiday.

Listen too...

Easter - Light Christ's Resurrection . This main event in the spiritual life of Christians was called the Feast of Feasts, the King of Days. We prepared for it for 7 weeks - 49 days. And the week before Easter was called Great, or Passionate. Maundy Thursday is a day of spiritual cleansing and receiving the sacrament of communion. Good Friday is a reminder of the suffering of Jesus Christ, a day of sadness. Holy Saturday is a day of waiting; the Gospel of the Resurrection is already being read in church. Easter is the Sunday when we celebrate the Resurrection of the Savior.

The Son of God came into this world to save people. He preached Love and the Kingdom of Heaven, created many miracles, healed and resurrected people. Do you remember the Christmas story? Many rejoiced at the appearance of Christ. But there were also those who did not believe in his holiness. They tried to stop Jesus from talking about the Kingdom of God. Among the leaders of that time there were many who hated Christ and wanted to get rid of Him. Judas, one of the Lord's disciples, decided to hand over Christ to this evil people. He approached his Teacher and kissed Him. It was a sign. Jesus was immediately taken into custody. And Judas received 30 for this silver coins. Thus he sold his Master.

Jesus was interrogated before the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court. The elders and judges were looking for evidence to convict Jesus. They bullied him, but he endured.

In the end He was sentenced to death. It was a terrible event. Jesus was crucified on the cross on Mount Golgotha. When he died, the earth shook and rocks began to disintegrate. This happened on Friday. Now we call this day Good Friday. On this sorrowful day we must pray.

When Saturday passed, at night, on the third day after his suffering, the Lord Jesus Christ came to life and rose from the dead. On Sunday morning, women came with incense to anoint the body of the Savior. But instead of Him they saw an Angel. He announced the Resurrection of the Lord: “Do not be afraid. I know that you are looking for the crucified Jesus. But one should not look for the Living among the dead. He has risen as He promised you. Go and tell Jesus’ disciples that He has risen from the dead and is waiting for them.”

Joy overwhelmed the people. Since then we have been celebrating Easter - the holiday of the Renaissance. The Lord defeated death and showed that for those who believe in Him and live according to His commandments, there is neither death nor hell.

As people prepare for Easter, they are filled with joy and faith. WITH Maundy Thursday The favorite activity begins - coloring and painting eggs. There is a lot of meaning put into simple patterns. The wavy lines are seas-oceans. The circle is a bright sun. According to tradition, ready-made krashanki and pysanky were placed on fresh sprouted greens of oats, wheat, and sometimes on soft green lettuce leaves, which were specially grown for the holiday. Juicy greens and bright colors Easter eggs created a festive mood.

And when mom bakes Easter cakes, the whole house smells of sweet vanilla and raisins - a real holiday!

On the night of the Resurrection of Christ, a festive service takes place (Easter Service of God). Various foods are brought to the church in beautiful baskets - Easter cakes, cheese, butter, which symbolize well-being, pysanky and krashanki. Salt is placed in the basket - a symbol of wisdom. A solemn procession with a singer and a priest blesses the people.

Returning home, people break their fast - eat delicious food after Lent. The rich Easter table is a symbol of heavenly joy and the Lord's Supper. The closest relatives gather for Easter breakfast. The owner approaches the guests with wishes and the words “Christ is risen!”, and then kisses everyone. You should answer like this: “Truly risen!” The sacred egg is cut into as many pieces as there are persons present. A candle burns on the table as a reminder of the brightness of this day. You should definitely start your Easter breakfast with Easter cake. Even crumbs of this bread that fall on the floor should under no circumstances be thrown away.

The holiday lasts throughout Bright Week. There was a custom in the villages: in the evening violinists walked around the villages and played under the windows in honor of Christ.

Poems about Easter for children

Willows

Boys and girls

Candles and willows

They took it home.

The lights are glowing,

Passers-by cross themselves

And it smells like spring.

The breeze is distant,

Rain, little rain,

Don't blow out the fire.

Palm Sunday

Tomorrow I'll be the first to get up

For the holy day.

Easter announcement

The blows came

To the blue skies

Quiet Valley

Drives away sleep

Somewhere down the road

Easter. history of the holiday

post card Russian Empire(early 20th century) with a design typical of an Easter card

Easter(Greek . πάσχα , l at. Pascha, Hebrew. פסח ‎ [Pesa ḥ ] - “passing by”), also - Resurrection of Christ - the oldestChristian holiday ; main holiday liturgical year. Installed in honorresurrection of jesus christ . Currently, its date in each specific year is calculated according to lunisolar calendar what makes Easter moving holiday (dates for each church year are different).

history of the holiday

Passover Jews celebrate it in honor of the Exodus from Egypt. In memory of these events in Jerusalem, it was prescribed to perform the ritual slaughter of a one-year-old male lamb, without blemish, which should be baked on fire and eaten completely, without breaking the bones, with unleavened bread (matzo) and bitter herbs in the family circle during the Passover night. After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, ritual slaughter became impossible, so Jews eat only unleavened bread on Passover. The holiday begins on the fourteenth day of the spring month Nissan(in the Jewish calendar, the first month of the biblical year, approximately corresponds to March - April of the Gregorian (modern) calendar and is celebrated for 7 days in Israel and 8 outside Israel.

During the period of early Christianity, Christians began to celebrate the first liturgies, similar in form to the Jewish Passover. The liturgies were celebrated as the Last Supper - the Passover of suffering associated with the Death on the Cross and the resurrection of Christ. Thus, Easter became the first and main Christian holiday, determining both the liturgical charter of the Church and the doctrinal side of Christianity.

Initially, the death and resurrection of Christ were celebrated weekly: Friday was the day of fasting and mourning in memory of suffering Christ, and Sunday is a day of joy. These celebrations became more solemn during the Jewish Passover - the anniversary of the death of Christ.

Already in the 2nd century, the holiday took on the character of an annual event in all Churches. The writings of early Christian writers contain information about the celebration of the annual day death on the cross and the Resurrection of Christ. From their writings it is clear that initially the suffering and death of Christ were celebrated with a special fast as “Easter of the Cross”; it coincided with the Jewish Passover, the fast continued until Sunday night. After it, the Resurrection of Christ itself was celebrated as Easter of joy or “Resurrection Easter.”

Myrrh-bearing women at the empty tomb. Ivory.
British museum. 420-430

Soon the differences in the traditions of the Local Churches became noticeable. An “Easter dispute” arose between Rome and the churches of Asia Minor. The Christians of Asia Minor strictly adhered to the custom of celebrating Easter on the 14th of Nisan. Among them, the name of the Jewish Passover changed to the name of the Christian Passover and subsequently spread. Whereas in the West, which was not influenced Judeo-Christianity, the practice has developed of celebrating Easter on the first Sunday after the Jewish Passover, while calculating the latter as the full moon of the last equinox.

The question of a single day for the celebration of Easter for the entire Christian cumene was raised by Emperor Constantine the Great at a council of bishops convened in Nicaea in 325, later called the First Ecumenical Council. At the council, it was decided to coordinate the day of Easter celebration between communities, and the practice of focusing on the Jewish date that fell before the equinox was condemned. All bishops not only accepted the Creed, but also signed up to celebrate Easter for everyone at the same time. The initial definition of the First Ecumenical Council regarding Easter, that fasts and holidays should be observed simultaneously by everyone in the Church, became the basis for the church charter.It was decided to celebrate Christian Easter as it was celebrated at that time in most churches: “in Rome and Africa, throughout Italy, Egypt, Spain, Gaul, Britain, Libya, in the whole of Hellas, in the eparchies of Asia, Pontus and Cilicia,” namely - strictly after the Jewish Passover - 14 Nisan (full moon) and always on Sunday. The day of Passover was chosen to be the nearest Sunday after the first spring full moon (that is, the first full moon after the day spring equinox) .

Evidence from the 4th century says that Easter on the Cross and Easter on Sunday were already united at that time both in the West and in the East. The celebration of Easter on the Cross preceded the celebration of Easter Sunday, each lasting a week before and after Easter Sunday. Only in the 5th century did the name Easter become generally accepted to designate the actual holiday of the Resurrection of Christ. Subsequently, the day of Easter began to stand out more and more clearly in the liturgical plan, for which it received the name “king of days”, “holidays of the holiday”.

In the 6th century, the Roman Church adopted the Eastern Paschal. The Eastern or Alexandrian Paschal was used throughout the Christian world until the end of the 16th century, for more than 800 years. It is built on four restrictions:

Celebrate Easter after the spring equinox;

Not to be done on the same day as the Jews;

Not just after the equinox, but after the first full moon that occurs after the equinox;

And after the full moon, no other than on the first day of the week according to the Jewish reckoning.

Enamel miniature “Resurrection of Christ”
(scapular of Andrei Bogolyubsky, c. 1170-1180s), Louvre

In 1582, in the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new Paschal, called the Gregorian. Due to the change in Easter, the entire calendar also changed. As a result of the Paschal reform, Catholic Easter is often celebrated earlier than the Jewish one or on the same day and precedes the Orthodox Easter in some years by more than a month.

In 1923, the Patriarch of Constantinople Meletius IV (Metaxakis) held the so-called. " Pan-Orthodox congress" with the participation of representatives of the Greek, Romanian and Serbian Orthodox churches, at which the New Julian calendar was adopted, even more accurate than the Gregorian and coinciding with it until the year 2800.Gradually, the Constantinople, Hellas, and Romanian churches switched to the new style. Today, only the Russian, Jerusalem, Georgian and Serbian Orthodox churches, as well as Athos, fully use the Julian calendar. The Finnish Orthodox Church has completely switched to the Gregorian calendar. The rest of the Churches celebrate Easter and other moving holidays in the old style, and Christmas and other non-moving holidays in the new style.

Gospel aboutevents taking place on Easter days

According to ancient Jewish tradition, Messiah- The King of Israel must appear on Passover in Jerusalem. The people, knowing about the miraculous resurrection of Lazarus, solemnly greeted Jesus as the coming King.

Maundy Thursday - Christ establishes the Sacrament of the Eucharist in the Upper Room of Zion in Jerusalem. Nowadays, the Church remembers and again celebrates the Last Supper of the Lord Jesus Christ with His disciples and apostles. At the Last Supper, Christ established the main sacrament of the Christian faith - the Eucharist (which translated from Greek means “thanksgiving”), during which all the faithful partake of the Body and Blood of Christ Himself. Without Communion, the Church teaches, there is no true Christian life; According to the faith of the Church, in this sacrament the most complete union of man with God occurs, as far as possible on earth. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) describe this day as the day of unleavened bread, that is, the Jewish Passover. Thus, at the Last Supper, the Old Testament Passover - lamb, wine and unleavened bread - is mystically associated with the New Testament - Christ, His Body and Blood.

Good Friday - according to tradition, before Easter, Pontius Pilate wanted to release one prisoner, in the hope that the people would ask for Jesus. However, incited by the high priests, the people demand the release of Barabbas. John emphasizes that the crucifixion occurs on the day of Easter, since the slaughter of the Paschal sacrificial lamb on the Old Testament Passover is a prototype of the New Testament Passover - the slaughter of Christ as the Lamb of God for the sins of the world. Just as the bones of the Passover lamb (firstborn and without blemish) should not be broken, so Christ’s legs are not broken, unlike others executed. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, having asked Pilate to bury the body of Jesus, wrap it in a shroud soaked in incense and place it in the nearest tomb - a cave until the Sabbath rest.

Holy Saturday - the high priests, remembering that Christ spoke about his resurrection on the third day, despite the current holiday and Saturday, turn to Pilate to set a guard for three days so that the disciples do not steal the body, thereby depicting the resurrection of the teacher from the dead.

Resurrection of Christ (the first day after Saturday) - after the Sabbath rest, the Myrrh-Bearing Women go to the tomb. In front of them, an Angel descends to the tomb and rolls away the stone, an earthquake occurs, and the guards are thrown into fear. The angel tells the wives that Christ has risen and will precede them to Galilee.

After 8 days (Anti-Easter, Fomina Week) Christ again appears to the disciples, among whom is Thomas, through a closed door. Jesus tells Thomas to put his fingers into the wounds to verify the reality of the resurrected body. Thomas exclaims “My Lord and my God!”

Over the next forty days Christ appears to the disciples on the Sea of ​​Tiberias (in Galilee) while fishing, where he restores the apostleship of Peter, as well as to more than five hundred other people.

On the fortieth day after the resurrection Jesus ascends to heaven, blessing the apostles.

On the fiftieth day after the resurrection The apostles, according to the promise of the Lord, receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

These events formed the basis of the liturgical calendar.

Titian, London National Gallery
Mary Magdalene was the first to see the resurrected Jesus, at first she mistook him for a gardener, but when she recognized him, she rushed to touch him. Christ did not allow her to do this (“Do not touch Me”), but ordered her to announce his resurrection to the apostles

Easter date calculation

The general rule for calculating the date of Easter is: “Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the spring full moon.” The spring full moon is the first full moon that occurs after the vernal equinox. Both Easter - Alexandria and Gregorian - are based on this principle.

The date of Easter is determined from the relationship between the lunar and solar calendars (lunisolar calendar).

The complexity of the calculation is due to the mixture of independent astronomical cycles and a number of requirements:

Circulation of the Earth around the Sun (date of vernal equinox);

The revolution of the Moon around the Earth (full moon);

The established day of celebration is Sunday.

If the full moon is earlier than March 21, then the next full moon (+ 30 days) is considered Easter. If the Easter full moon falls on a Sunday, then Easter is celebrated on the following Sunday.

However, the Orthodox and Catholic Church use different Paschals, causing the same rule to result in different dates.

Orthodox Easter is calculated according to the Alexandrian Paschal; the date of the first day of Easter (Easter Week) can fall on any of the days in the period from March 22 until April 25 in the Julian calendar (which in the 20th-21st centuries corresponds to the period from April 4 to May 8 according to the New Style). In the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches, the date of Easter is calculated according to the Gregorian Easter. In the 16th century, the Roman Catholic Church carried out a calendar reform, the purpose of which was to bring the calculated date of Easter into accordance with the observed phenomena in the sky (by this time the old Easter already gave dates for full moons and equinoxes that did not correspond to the real positions of the luminaries.

The discrepancy between the dates of Orthodox Easter and Catholic Easter is caused by the difference in the date of church full moons, and the difference between solar calendars (13 days in the 21st century). Catholic Easter in 30% of cases coincides with Orthodox Easter, in 45% of cases it is ahead of it by a week, in 5% - by 4 weeks, and in 20% - by 5 weeks. There is no difference between 2 and 3 weeks.

Easter Sunday dates 2001-2020
year	Catholic	Orthodox
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020

Regarding Easter, all-moving holidays are celebrated in the sequence of Gospel events:

Lazarev Saturday ;

Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem - a week before Easter;

Holy Week - the week before Easter;

Easter - Holy Resurrection of Christ ;

Easter week (Antipascha in Orthodoxy, Octave of Easter in Catholicism) - the appearance of the risen Christ to the disciples on the 8th day of Easter and the belief of Thomas;

Ascension of the Lord - the fortieth day after Easter;

Pentecost - the fiftieth day after Easter (in Orthodoxy it coincides with Holy Trinity Day ).

Easter of Christ. How many days is it celebrated?

Easter- the most important and solemn Christian holiday. It takes place every year on different time and refers to mobile holidays. Other moving holidays, such as Pentecost and others, also depend on the day of Easter. The celebration of Easter is the longest: 40 days, believers greet each other with the words “ Christ is Risen!» - « He is truly risen! The Day of the Bright Resurrection of Christ for Christians is a time of special celebration and spiritual joy, when believers gather for services to glorify the risen Christ, and the entire Easter week is celebrated “ like one day" The church service throughout the week almost completely repeats the nightly Easter service.

Easter event: excerpt from the Gospel

Christian holiday of Easter- this is a solemn remembrance of the Resurrection of the Lord on the third day after His suffering and death. The moment of the Resurrection itself is not described in the Gospel, because no one saw how it happened. The removal from the Cross and burial of the Lord took place on Friday evening. Since Saturday was a day of rest for the Jews, the women who accompanied the Lord and the disciples from Galilee, who witnessed His suffering and death, came to the Holy Sepulcher only a day later, at dawn of that day, which we now call Sunday. They carried incense, which, according to the custom of that time, was poured on the body of a deceased person.

After the Sabbath had passed, at dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the Angel of the Lord, who came down from heaven, came and rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb and sat on it; his appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow; Frightened by him, those guarding them trembled and became as if they were dead; The angel, turning his speech to the women, said: Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus crucified; He is not here - He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay, and go quickly, tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see Him there. Here, I told you.

And, hastily leaving the tomb, they ran with fear and great joy to tell His disciples. When they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them and said: Rejoice! And they came, grabbed His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus says to them: Do not be afraid; go, tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me” (Matthew 28:1-10).

Celebration of Easter in history. Why is Sunday called Sunday?

The modern name of the day of the week comes from the Christian holiday of Easter - Sunday. Every Sunday of the week throughout the year, Christians especially celebrate with prayer and a solemn service in the temple. Sunday is also called " Little Easter" Sunday is called Sunday in honor of Jesus Christ who was resurrected on the third day after the crucifixion. And although Christians remember the Resurrection of the Lord weekly, this event is especially solemnly celebrated once a year - on Easter.

In the first centuries of Christianity there was a division into Easter of the Cross And Easter Sunday. Mentions of this are contained in the works of the early fathers of the Church: the epistle of St. Irenaeus of Lyons(c. 130–202) to the Roman bishop Victor, « A Word about Easter» saint Meliton of Sardinia(beginning of the 2nd century - ca. 190), the works of the saint Clement of Alexandria(c. 150 - c. 215) and Hippolytus the Pope (c. 170 - c. 235). Easter of the Cross- the memory of the suffering and death of the Savior was celebrated with a special fast and coincided with the Jewish Passover in memory of the fact that the Lord was crucified during this Old Testament holiday. The first Christians prayed and strictly fasted until Easter Sunday - the joyful memory of the Resurrection of Christ.

At present, there is no division between Easter of the Cross and Sunday, although the content has been preserved in the liturgical Charter: the strict and mournful services of Holy Thursday, Friday and Saturday end with the joyful and jubilant Easter service. Actually, the Easter night service itself begins with a mournful midnight office, at which the canon of Great Saturday is read. At this time, in the middle of the temple there is still a lectern with the Shroud - an embroidered or painted icon depicting the position of the Lord in the tomb.

What date is Easter for the Orthodox?

The early Christian communities celebrated Easter at different times. Some together with the Jews, as Blessed Jerome writes, others - on the first Sunday after the Jews since Christ was crucified on the day Passover and rose again the morning after the Sabbath. Gradually, the difference in the Easter traditions of the local Churches became more and more noticeable, and the so-called “ Easter dispute"between the Eastern and Western Christian communities, a threat arose to the unity of the Church. On, convened by the emperor Konstantin in 325 in Nicaea, the issue of a common celebration of Easter was considered. According to a church historian Eusebius of Caesarea, all the bishops not only accepted the Creed, but also agreed to celebrate Easter on the same day:

For the harmonious confession of the Faith, the saving celebration of Easter had to be celebrated by everyone at the same time. Therefore, a general resolution was made and approved by the signature of each of those present. Having completed these affairs, the basileus (Constantine the Great) said that he had now won a second victory over the enemy of the Church, and therefore celebrated a victorious celebration dedicated to God.

Since then everything local churches began to celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. If the Jewish Passover falls on this Sunday, then Christians move the celebration to the next Sunday, since back in, according to the 7th rule, Christians are prohibited from celebrating Easter with Jews.

How to calculate the date of Easter?

To calculate Easter, you need to know not only the solar (equinox), but also moon calendar(full moon). Since the best experts on the lunar and solar calendar lived in Egypt at that time, the honor of calculating the Orthodox Easter was given to Bishop of Alexandria. He was supposed to annually notify all local Churches about the day of Easter. Over time it was created Easter for 532 years. It is based on the periodicity of the Julian calendar, in which the calendar indicators for calculating Easter - the circle of the Sun (28 years) and the circle of the Moon (19 years) - repeat after 532 years. This period is called " great indiction" The beginning of the first “great indiction” coincides with the beginning of the era “ from the creation of the world" The current one, the 15th great indiction, began in 1941. In Rus', Easter tables were included in liturgical books, for example, the Followed Psalter. Several manuscripts from the 17th–17th centuries are also known. entitled " Great Peace Circle" They contain not only the Paschal for 532 years, but also tables for calculating the date of Easter by hand, the so-called Five-Finger Paschal or “ hand of Damascus».

It is worth noting that in the Old Believers, knowledge has been preserved to this day, how to calculate the date of Easter by hand, any mobile holiday, the ability to determine on what day of the week a particular holiday falls, the duration of Peter’s Fast and other important information necessary for performing divine services.

Orthodox Easter service

All Holy Week Before Easter, each day of which is called Great, Orthodox Christians perform services and remember the Passion of Christ, the last days of the Savior’s earthly life, His suffering, crucifixion, death on the Cross, burial, descent into hell and Resurrection. For Christians, this is a particularly revered week, a time of especially strict fasting, preparation for the celebration of the main Christian holiday.

Before the start of the festive service, the Acts of the Apostles are read in the church. Easter service, as in ancient times, takes place at night. The service begins two hours before midnight with the Sunday Midnight Office, during which the canon of Holy Saturday is read “ Wave of the sea" On the 9th song of the canon, when the Irmos is sung “ Don't cry for me, Mati", after censing, the Shroud is taken to the altar. Among the Old Believers-bezpopovtsy, after the third song of the canon and sedalna, the word is read Epiphany of Cyprus « What is this silence?».

After the Midnight Office, preparations for the Procession of the Cross begin. Priests in shiny robes, with a cross, the Gospel and icons leave the temple, followed by those praying with burning candles; They walk around the temple three times in the sun (in the direction of the sun, clockwise) while singing the stichera: “ Thy Resurrection, O Christ the Saviour, the angels sing in heaven, and grant us on earth with pure hearts to glorify Thee" This procession of the cross is reminiscent of the procession of the myrrh-bearers in the deep morning to the tomb to anoint the Body of Jesus Christ. The procession stops at the western doors, which are closed: this again reminds us of the myrrh-bearers who received the first news of the resurrection of the Lord at the door of the tomb. “Who will roll away the stone from our tomb?” - they are perplexed.

Procession of the Cross on Easter among the Old Believers

The priest, having shown the icons and those present, begins the bright matins with the exclamation: “Glory to the Holy, and Consubstantial, and Life-Giving, and Indivisible Trinity.” The temple is illuminated by many lamps. Priests and clergy sing three times troparion holiday:

X rt0s risen and 3 from the dead, upon death came 2 and 3 grave gifts of life.

After this, the troparion is repeated many times by the singers while the priest recites the verses: “May God rise again” and others. Then the clergyman with a cross in his hands, depicting an Angel who rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb, opens the closed doors of the temple and all believers enter the temple. Further, after the great litany, the Easter canon is sung in a solemn and jubilant tune: “ Resurrection day", compiled St. John of Damascus. The troparia of the Easter canon are not read, but are sung with the refrain: “Christ is risen from the dead.” During the singing of the canon, the priest, holding a cross in his hands, censes the holy icons and people at each song, greeting him with a joyful exclamation: “ Christ is Risen" The people answer: “ He is truly risen" The repeated appearance of the priest with censing and the greeting “Christ is risen” depicts the repeated appearances of the Lord to his disciples and their joy at the sight of Him. After each song of the canon, a small litany is said. At the end of the canon, the following morning luminary is sung:

Pl0tіyu ўsnyv ћkw dead, tsRь i3 gDy, three-day sunrise, and3 Gdama raised up and3з8 tli2, and3 ўcelebrated death. Easter is imperishable, the world is saved.

Translation

King and Lord! Having fallen asleep in the flesh like a dead man, You rose again for three days, raising Adam from destruction and destroying death; You are the Easter of immortality, the salvation of the world.

Then psalms of praise are read and stichera on praises are sung. They are joined by the stichera of Easter with the refrain: “May God rise again and let His enemies be scattered.” After this, while singing the troparion “Christ is risen,” the believers give each other a fraternal kiss, i.e. “they worship Christ”, with a joyful greeting: “Christ is risen” - “Truly he is risen.” After the singing of the Easter stichera there is a reading of the word of St. John Chrysostom: " If anyone is pious and God-loving" Then the litanies are pronounced and the dismissal of Matins follows, which the priest performs with a cross in his hand, exclaiming: “Christ is risen.” Next, the Easter hours are sung, which consist of Easter chants. At the end of the Easter hours, the Easter liturgy is celebrated. Instead of the Trisagion, at the Easter liturgy it is sung: “Those who were baptized into Christ, put on Christ. Alleluia." The Apostle reads from the Acts of St. apostles (Acts 1:1-8), the Gospel is read from John (1:1-17), which speaks of the incarnation of the Son of God Jesus Christ, called in the Gospel “the Word”. In some parishes of Old Believers-priests there is an interesting custom - at the Easter Liturgy, the Gospel is read simultaneously by several clergy and even in several languages ​​(repeating each verse of the Gospel several times). Thus, in some Lipovan parishes they read in Church Slavonic and Romanian, in Russia - in Church Slavonic and Greek. Some parishioners recall that Bishop (Lakomkin) read the Gospel in Greek on Easter.

A distinctive feature of the Easter service: it is all sung. At this time, churches are brightly lit with candles, which worshipers hold in their hands and place in front of the icons. The blessing after the liturgy is “brashen”, i.e. cheese, meat and eggs, the believers are given permission from fasting.

In the evening, Easter Vespers is celebrated. Its peculiarity is the following. The abbot puts on everything sacred robes and after the evening entrance with the Gospel, he reads the Gospel on the throne, which tells about the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Apostles in the evening on the day of His resurrection from the dead (John XX, 19-23). Divine service on the first day of St. Easter is repeated throughout the entire Easter week, with the exception of the reading of the Gospel at Vespers. For 40 days, before the holiday, Easter troparia, stichera and canons are sung during the service. The prayer to the Holy Spirit: “To the Heavenly King” is not read or sung until the holiday.

Kontakion for the holiday

Ѓ yet3 in0 the coffin came down without death, but with the power of destruction, and3 ћkw the victor of xrte b9e was resurrected. Having given joy to the wives of the world, and given their gifts to the world, and to those who have fallen, given the Resurrection.

(Translation: Although You, the Immortal, descended into the grave, you destroyed the power of hell and, as the Victor, rose again, O Christ God, saying to the myrrh-bearing women: “Rejoice.” You taught peace to your apostles, and give resurrection to the fallen).

In arrival and departure bows instead “Worthy to eat”(until the celebration of Easter) the irmos of the ninth song of the Easter canon is read:

With veti1sz sveti1sz new їєrli1me, glory be to you. liky nn7e and3 ves1sz sіHne, the same thing is beautiful, њ the rise of your joy2 (bow to the ground).

(Translation: Light up, light up (with joy) the new Jerusalem; for the glory of the Lord has risen upon you; rejoice now and rejoice Zion: and You, Mother of God, rejoice in the resurrection of the One born of You).

Traditions of celebrating Easter among the Old Believers

Old Believers of all types - both priests and non-priests - have many common traditions of celebrating the Holy Resurrection of Christ. Old Believers begin breaking their fast on Holy Easter at a meal with their family after the temple service. Many communities also have a common church meal, at which many believers gather. On the day of the Resurrection of Christ, special dishes are placed on the table, which are prepared only once a year: Easter cake, cottage cheese Easter, painted eggs. In addition to special Easter dishes, many traditional delicacies of Russian cuisine are prepared. At the beginning of the Easter meal, it is customary to eat food consecrated in the temple, then all other dishes.

Easter holiday dishes that are prepared once a year

On Easter, it is customary to christen yourself - to congratulate each other on the great holiday and exchange colored eggs, as a symbol of life, kissing each other three times.

Painted in red onion skins eggs used to be called krashenka, painted eggs were called pysanka, and wooden eggs Easter eggs- eggs. The red egg signifies rebirth for people through the blood of Christ.

Other colors and patterns used to decorate eggs are an innovation that in many non-priest communities not welcome, as well as thermal stickers with the image of the face of Christ, the Virgin Mary, images of temples and inscriptions. All this “printing” is usually widely presented on store shelves in the weeks leading up to Easter, but few people think about future fate such a thermal sticker - after it is removed from the Easter egg, it is together with the image of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary goes straight to the trash bin.

Within the priestless agreements, there are a number of differences in the celebration of Easter. Thus, in some non-priest communities in Siberia, Easter cakes are not baked at all and, accordingly, are not consecrated, considering this a Jewish custom. In other communities there is no changing of clothes, changing from dark clothes and scarves to light ones; parishioners remain in the same Christian clothes that they came to the service. What is common in the Easter traditions of Old Believers of all agreements is, of course, the attitude towards work during Bright Week. On the eve of a holiday or resurrection, Christians work only until half the day preceding the holiday, and It is a great sin for Old Believers to work throughout Easter week.. This is a time of spiritual joy, a time of solemn prayer and glorification of the risen Christ. Unlike the Old Believers-priests, in some non-priest concords there is no custom of a mentor going around the houses of parishioners with the Glorification of Christ, however, each parishioner, if desired, can certainly invite a mentor to sing Easter stichera and have a festive meal.

Holiday Happy Easter - my favorite holiday since childhood, it is always joyful, especially warm and solemn! It especially brings a lot of joy to children, and every believer tries to serve an Easter egg, Easter cake or sweets, first of all, to the child.

Egg rolling - ancient Russian Easter fun for kids

On Happy week In some non-priest communities, an ancient fun for children is still preserved, which adults also join in with undisguised joy - rolling painted (unconsecrated) eggs. The essence of the game is this: each player rolls his egg along a special wooden path - a chute, and if the rolled egg hits someone else's egg, then the player takes it for himself as a prize. Gifts and souvenirs are usually laid out not far from the chute. In the old days, such competitions could last for several hours! And the “lucky ones” returned home with a rich “harvest” of eggs.

Rolling eggs on Easter at the Moscow Old Believer Prayer House (DPCL)

For all Old Believers, regardless of agreement, Easter is Feast of Holidays and Celebration of Celebrations, this is the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, this is a great triumph, an eternal holiday for angels and archangels, immortal life for the whole world, incorruptible heavenly bliss for people. The atoning sacrifice of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, the blood He shed on the Honest Cross, delivered man from the terrible power of sin and death. Let it be " Easter is new, holy, Easter is mysterious", glorified in festive chants, will continue in our hearts all the days of our lives!

Resurrection of Christ. Icons

In Old Believer iconography there is no icon of the Resurrection of Christ, because not only people, but even angels did not see the moment of the resurrection of Jesus. This emphasizes the incomprehensibility of the mystery of Christ. The familiar image of Christ, in snow-white robes, coming from the tomb with a banner in his hand, is a later Catholic version, which only appeared in the churches of the Russian Orthodox Church in the post-Petrine era.

In Orthodox iconography, the icon of the Resurrection of Christ depicts the moment of the Savior’s descent into hell and the removal from hell of the souls of the Old Testament righteous. The plot of “The Resurrection of Christ - the Descent into Hell” is one of the most common iconographic plots.

Descent into Hell

The general idea of ​​the Easter image of Christ in hell is consonant with the theme of the Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt. Just as Moses once freed the Jews from slavery, so Christ goes into the underworld and frees the souls languishing there. And not only frees them, but transfers them to the kingdom of Truth and Light.

Descent into hell. Andrey Rublev, 1408-1410

Churches of the Resurrection of Christ

The most famous Church of the Resurrection of Christ is Church of the Holy Sepulcher(Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection of Christ).

Since it was erected on the site of the real historical events of the Crucifixion, Burial and Resurrection of Christ, then, according to Christians, it could not be repeated in other places. The Churches of the Resurrection of Christ in Rus' were built in the name of the Resurrection of the Word, or Renewal, that is, the consecration after the restoration of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which took place in 355 under St. Equal to the Apostles Constantine Great.

Several churches in honor of this holiday have been preserved in Moscow, one of them is Church of the Resurrection of the Word on Uspensky Vrazhek. The first mention of the temple dates back to 1548. It was a wooden church that burned down in the great Moscow fire on April 10, 1629. In its place by 1634 the existing stone temple was built. For almost two centuries the temple stood unchanged; in 1816-1820 the refectory and bell tower were rebuilt.

One of the oldest churches in Kolomna was consecrated in honor of the Resurrection of the Word. On January 18, 1366, the holy noble prince Dmitry Donskoy and the holy princess Evdokia (monastically Euphrosyne) of Moscow were married in this church. The temple was rebuilt several times. In the 1990s. it was returned to the parish of the Assumption Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church.

During the time of the Golden Horde, a building was erected in Kolomenskoye Posad, mentioned in the scribe books of 1577-1578. At the beginning of the 18th century, a temple was built in its place with a main altar in honor of the Resurrection of the Word and a side church in the name of St. Nicholas. In the early 1990s, the administration transferred this one of the oldest and most beautiful churches in the city of Kolomna to the community of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church. The main temple holiday is now celebrated on December 19, in honor of St. St. Nicholas “winter”, and among the people many people still know this temple as the Church of the Resurrection of Christ.

Old Believer Churches of the Resurrection of Christ

On February 1, 2015, the church-bell tower of the Rogozhskoe cemetery took place in Rogozhskaya Sloboda. Thus, he had a historical name. It was in the name of the Resurrection of Christ that this temple was consecrated on August 18, 1913, after it was erected at the expense of benefactors in honor of granting freedom of religion to the Old Believers. In 1949 the temple was consecrated in the name of the Dormition Mother of God, remained in this position until January 31, 2014. The initiative to return the temple to its historical name was put forward by the head of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church at the Consecrated Council in 2014.

The Old Orthodox Pomeranian Church belongs to the current one (Moscow). This is the first Old Believer church of the Pomor community (2nd Moscow community of Pomor marriage consent), erected after the manifesto on religious tolerance of 1905 in Moscow. The history of this temple is very long-suffering. Currently, the restoration of the temple is ongoing at the expense of community members, and services are being held.

Also in Lithuania, in the city of Visaginas, there is the Church of the Resurrection of Christ of the Ancient Orthodox Pomeranian Church.

Christian Easter and Passover among the Jews (Jewish Passover)

In 2017, Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter on April 16, and the Jewish holiday of Pesach (Jewish Passover) falls on April 11–17 this year. Thus, many thoughtful Christians wonder: “ Why in 2017 Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter together with Jews?. This question comes from the 7th canon of saints, which literally reads like this:

If anyone, a bishop, or a presbyter, or a deacon, celebrates the holy day of Easter before the spring equinox with the Jews, let him be expelled from the sacred rank.

It turns out that allegedly this year all Orthodox Christians will violate the 7th Apostolic Canon? In the minds of some Christians, a whole “ ecumenical tangle”, when in 2017 Orthodox, Catholics and Jews celebrate Easter on the same day. How to be?

To resolve this issue, you should know that disputes about calculating the day of Easter V Orthodox Church, in fact, ended with the approval of the Orthodox Easter on First Ecumenical Council. Easter Tables make it possible to calculate the day of Easter calendar-wise, that is, without looking at the sky, but using calendar tables that cyclically repeat every 532 years. These tables have been compiled so that Easter satisfied two apostolic rules about Easter:

• Celebrate Easter after the first spring full moon (that is, after the first full moon that occurs after the vernal equinox);
• not to celebrate Passover with the Jews.

Since these two rules do not unambiguously define the day of Easter, two more auxiliary rules were added to them, which, together with the apostolic (main) rules, made it possible to determine Easter unambiguously and compile calendar tables of the Orthodox Easter. The auxiliary rules are not as important as the apostolic ones, and moreover, one of them began to be violated over time, since the calendar method of calculating the first spring full moon, embedded in Paschal, gave a small error - 1 day in 300 years. This was noticed and discussed in detail, for example, in the Collection of Patristic Rules Matthew Vlastar. However, since this error did not affect the observance of the apostolic rules, but only strengthened them, shifting the day of Easter celebration a little forward according to the dates of the calendar, the Orthodox Church decided not to change the Paschal, approved by the fathers of the Ecumenical Council. In the Catholic Church, Paschal was changed in 1582 in such a way that the auxiliary rule, which had lost force, began to be fulfilled again, but the apostolic rule about not celebrating with the Jews began to be violated. As a result, Orthodox and Catholic Easter diverged in time, although sometimes they can coincide.

If you look at the two apostolic rules given above, it is striking that one of them - about non-celebration with the Jews - is not set out entirely strictly and requires interpretation. The fact is that Jewish Passover celebration lasts 7 days. Orthodox Easter, in fact, is also celebrated for 7 days, throughout Bright Week. The question arises: what does “ not to celebrate with the Jews"? Should Easter Sunday not coincide with the first day of the Jewish Passover? Or should we take a more strict approach and not allow Easter Sunday to be imposed on any of the 7 days of the Jewish holiday?

In fact, carefully studying Paschal, one can suspect that before the First Ecumenical Council, Christians used both the first (weak) and second (strong) interpretation of the apostolic rule. However, the fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, when compiling Paschal, most definitely settled on the first interpretation: Bright Resurrection should not coincide only with the first, main day of the Jewish Passover, but it can coincide with the subsequent 6 days of the Jewish holiday. This was the opinion of the First Ecumenical Council, clearly expressed in Paschal, which the Orthodox Church still follows. Thus, in 2017, the Orthodox do not violate the 7th rule of the saints about celebrating Easter with the Jews, because Christian Easter does not coincide with the first day of Jewish Passover, and on other days such “ overlays“are not prohibited, especially since similar cases have occurred before.

New Paschalists and their teaching

In our time, in 2010, several members of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church doubted the patristic interpretation of the apostolic rule on Easter and decided to reconsider this issue. Actually, only one was involved in the revision A. Yu. Ryabtsev, and the rest simply took him at his word. A.Yu. Ryabtsev, in particular, wrote (we quote his words partially, omitting obvious speculation):

... Often our Easter coincides with last days Jewish Passover, which is celebrated for seven days, and the first main rule for calculating Passover is violated... In modern practice, we sometimes find ourselves on the last days of Passover.

A.Yu. Ryabtsev proposed to prohibit the coincidence of Easter Sunday with all 7 days of the Jewish holiday of Passover and to celebrate Orthodox Easter according to new rules he himself proposed. The supporters of this doctrine began to be called “ New Paschalists" or " new Easter eggs" On May 1, 2011, they celebrated Easter for the first time according to the new rules in an ancient cave temple on Mount Tepe-Kermen in Crimea. After the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2011, which condemned the celebration of Easter according to new calculations, the New Paschalists became a separate religious group that still exists today. It only includes a few people. Apparently there is some connection between this group and G. Sterligov, who also expressed the idea of ​​changing the day of celebrating Orthodox Easter.

“If in this life only we hope in Christ,
then we are the most pitiful of all people! (1 Cor. 15:19).

It would seem that the meaning of Easter - as we usually call our main holiday - is quite transparent. Alas! Experience tells a different story. I will give only two of the most typical examples.
A lesson in one “Orthodox gymnasium”. Wanting to identify the level of knowledge of the children, I ask: “How did Christ and the apostles celebrate Easter?” – A reasonable answer follows: “They ate Easter cakes and colored eggs”! There is nothing to object to this! What about the adults?

Easter night breaking of fasts in one church. Indeed, we eat eggs and Easter cakes (and not only). “Suddenly” an important thought occurs to one already middle-aged singer, and he turns in confusion to the priest (with a theological education). “Father! So we sing and sing "Christ is Risen!", and we call the holiday “Easter”! So, after all, Jews celebrate Easter, but do not believe in Christ at all! Why is that?!"
This is no exception: then What Since childhood, we perceive it at the everyday level as some kind of beautiful ritual, it seems to us self-evident and does not require study.
Let’s give ourselves an “Easter lesson” and ask: what associations does the Easter greeting “Christ is Risen!” give rise to in our minds? - “Truly he is risen!”
A night religious procession with candles, everyone will immediately answer, joyful singing and mutual kisses. Dishes familiar from childhood appear on the home table - red and painted eggs, rosy Easter cakes, vanilla-scented Easter cottage cheese.
Yes, but this is only the external attributes of the holiday, a thoughtful Christian will object. – And I want to know why our holiday of the Resurrection of Christ is usually called the Hebrew word “Easter”? What is the connection between Jewish and Christian Passover? Why is the Savior of the world, from whose birthday humanity counts New era, had to certainly die and be resurrected? Couldn't the all-good God have established New Union(Covenant) with people differently? What is the symbolism of our Easter services and holiday rituals?

The historical and symbolic basis of the Jewish Passover is the epic events of the book of Exodus. It tells about the four-century period of Egyptian slavery, in which the Jewish people were oppressed by the pharaohs, and the wonderful drama of their liberation. Nine punishments (“plagues of Egypt”) were brought down on the country by the prophet Moses, but only the tenth made the cruel heart of the pharaoh soften, who did not want to lose the slaves who were building new cities for him. It was the defeat of the Egyptian firstborns, which was followed by the “exodus” from the House of Slavery. At night, while waiting for the exodus to begin, the Israelites eat their first Passover meal. The head of each family, having slaughtered a one-year-old lamb (lamb or kid), anoints the doorposts with its blood (Ex. 12:11), and the animal itself, baked on the fire, is eaten, but so that its bones are not broken.
“Eat it this way: let your loins be girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staffs in your hands, and eat it with haste: this is the Passover of the Lord. And this very night I will walk through the land of Egypt and will strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from man to beast, and will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. And your blood will be a sign on the houses where you are; and I will see the blood and pass by you, and there will be no destructive plague among you when I strike the land of Egypt” (Ex. 12:11-13).
So on the night of the first spring full moon (from the 14/15th month of Abib, or Nisan) in the 2nd half of the 13th century before the birth of Christ, the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt took place, which became the most important event Old Testament history. And Easter, which coincided with deliverance, became an annual holiday - a remembrance of the exodus. The very name “Easter” (Heb. P e sah- “passage”, “mercy”) indicates that dramatic moment (“tenth plague”) when the angel of the Lord, striking Egypt, seeing the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts of Jewish houses, passed by And spared the firstborn of Israel (Ex. 12:13).
Subsequently, the historical character of Easter began to be expressed by special prayers and a story about its events, as well as a ritual meal consisting of lamb meat, bitter herbs and sweet salad, which symbolizes the bitterness of Egyptian slavery and the sweetness of newfound freedom. Unleavened bread reminds us of hasty preparations. Four cups of wine accompany the Easter meal at home.

The night of the exodus became the second birth of the Israeli people, the beginning of its independent history. The final salvation of the world and victory over the “spiritual slavery of Egypt” will be accomplished in the future by God’s Anointed One from the line of King David - the Messiah, or, in Greek, Christ. This is how all the biblical kings were called at first, but the question of who would be the last in their ranks remained open. Therefore, every Passover night the Israelites waited for the appearance of the Messiah.

Performance: “Heavenly Easter”

“With all my heart I wished to eat this Passover with you
before My suffering! I’m telling you, I won’t eat it anymore,
until it is accomplished in the Kingdom of God" (Luke 22:15-16)

The Messiah-Christ, who came to deliver all people from the spiritual “slavery of Egypt,” takes part in the Jewish “Passover of expectation.” He completes it by fulfilling the Divine plan inherent in it, and thereby abolishes it. At the same time, the nature of the relationship between God and man changes radically: having fulfilled his destiny temporary Union God bless one the people become “old” (“obsolete”), and Christ replaces them New - And eternal! –Union-Covenant with everyone humanity. During His last Passover at the Last Supper, Jesus Christ utters words and performs actions that change the meaning of the holiday. He Himself takes the place of the Passover sacrifice, and the old Passover becomes the Passover of the new Lamb, slain for the purification of people once and for all. Christ institutes a new Easter meal - the sacrament of the Eucharist - and tells the disciples about His near death as about the Passover sacrifice, in which He is the New Lamb, slain “from the foundation of the world.” Soon He will descend into gloomy Sheol (Hades) and, together with all the people waiting for Him there, will accomplish a great Exodus from the kingdom of death to the shining Kingdom of His Father. It is not surprising that the main prototypes of the Calvary sacrifice are found in the ritual of the Old Testament Easter.

The Passover lamb (lamb) of the Jews was “male, without blemish” and was sacrificed on the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan. It was at this time that the Savior died on the cross. Those executed had to be buried before dark, so the Roman soldiers, in order to speed up their death, broke the legs of two robbers who were crucified with the Lord. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that He was already dead, and they did not break His legs<...>. For this happened in fulfillment of the Scripture: “Let not His bone be broken” (John 19:33, 36). Moreover, the very preparation of the Paschal lamb was a prototype of the Savior’s death on the cross: the animal was “crucified” on two cross-shaped stakes, one of which ran along the ridge, and the front legs were tied to the other.
This deepest relationship between the old and new Easter, their concentration (the abolition of one and the beginning of the other) in the person of Jesus Christ explains why His holiday Resurrection retains the Old Testament name Easter. “Our Passover is Christ sacrificed,” says the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 5:7). Thus, in the new Easter, the final completion of the Divine plan for the restoration of fallen (“old”) man to his original, “paradise” dignity took place—his salvation. “The Old Passover is celebrated because of the salvation of the short-lived life of the firstborn of the Jews, and the new Passover is celebrated because of the gift of eternal life to all people,” this is how Saint John Chrysostom succinctly defines the relationship between these two celebrations of the Old and New Testaments.

Easter is a forty-day holiday

The Day of the Bright Resurrection of Christ - as “a holiday and a triumph of celebrations” (Easter chant) - requires special preparation from Christians and is therefore preceded by Great Lent. The modern Orthodox Easter (night) service begins with the Lenten Midnight Office in the church, which then turns into a solemn procession of the cross, symbolizing the myrrh-bearing women who walked to the Savior’s Tomb in the pre-dawn darkness (Luke 24:1; John 20:1) and were informed of His resurrection in front of the entrance to the tomb cave. Therefore, the festive Easter Matins begins in front of the closed doors of the church, and the bishop or priest leading the service symbolizes the angel who rolled away the stone from the doors of the Tomb.
Joyful Easter greetings end for many on the third day or with the end Easter week. At the same time, people perceive Easter greetings with surprise and embarrassedly clarify: “Happy belated Easter?” This is a common misconception among non-church people.
It should be remembered that Bright Week does not end the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ. The celebration of this greatest event for us in world history continues for forty days (in memory of the forty-day stay on earth of the Risen Lord) and ends with the “Giving of Easter” - a solemn Easter service on the eve of the Ascension. Here is another indication of the superiority of Easter over other Christian celebrations, none of which are celebrated by the Church for more than fourteen days. “Easter rises above other holidays, like the Sun above the stars,” St. Gregory the Theologian reminds us (Conversation 19).
"Christ is Risen!" - “Truly he is risen!” - we greet each other for forty days.

Lit.:Men A., prot. Son of Man. M., 1991 (Part III, Chapter 15: “Easter of the New Testament”); Ruban Yu. Easter (Bright Resurrection of Christ). L., 1991; Ruban Yu. Easter. Bright Resurrection of Christ (History, worship, traditions) / Scientific. ed. prof. Archimandrite Iannuariy (Ivliev). Ed. 2nd, corrected and supplemented. SPb.: Publishing house. Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” on Shpalernaya Street, 2014.
Yu. Ruban

Questions about Easter

What does the word "Easter" mean?

The word “Passover” (Pesach) literally translated from Hebrew means: “passing by”, “transition”.

During times Old Testament this name was associated with the exodus of the sons from Egypt. Since the ruling pharaoh opposed God’s plan to leave Egypt, God, admonishing him, began to successively bring down a series of disasters on the country of the pyramids (later these disasters were called “plagues of Egypt”).

The last, most terrifying disaster, according to God's plan, was to break the stubbornness of Pharaoh, finally suppress resistance, and induce him to finally submit to the Divine will.

The essence of this last execution was that all the first-born among the Egyptians had to die, starting from the first-born of cattle and ending with the first-born of the ruler himself ().

A special angel had to carry out this execution. In order to prevent it from striking the firstborn along with the Egyptians and Israelites, the Jews had to anoint the doorposts and lintels of their homes with the blood of a sacrificial lamb (). That's what they did. The angel, seeing houses marked with sacrificial blood, walked around them, “passed by.” Hence the name of the event: Easter (Pesach) - passing by.

In a broader interpretation, the holiday of Passover is associated with the Exodus in general. This event was preceded by the offering and consumption of Passover sacrificial lambs by the entire community of Israel (at the rate of one lamb per family; if a particular family was small, it had to unite with its neighbors ()).

The Old Testament Passover lamb prefigured the New Testament, Christ. Saint John the Baptist called Christ the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. The Apostles also called the Lamb, by Whose Blood we were redeemed ().

After the Resurrection of Christ, Easter, among Christianity, began to be called a Holiday dedicated to this event. In this case, the philological meaning of the word “Easter” (transition, passage) received a different interpretation: the transition from death to life (and if we extend it to Christians, then as a transition from sin to holiness, from life outside of God to life in the Lord).

Little Easter is sometimes called Sunday.

In addition, the Lord Himself is also called Easter ().

Why do they celebrate Easter if Easter was celebrated before the birth of Jesus Christ?

During the Old Testament, the Jews, following Divine will (), celebrated Easter in memory of their exit from Egypt. Egyptian slavery became one of the darkest pages in the history of the chosen people. Celebrating Passover, the Jews thanked the Lord for the great mercies and blessings He had shown associated with the events of the Exodus period ().

Christians, celebrating Easter, remember and glorify the Resurrection, which crushed, trampled death, and gave all people the hope of a future resurrection into eternal blissful life.

Despite the fact that the content of the Jewish Passover holiday is different from the content of Christ's Passover, the similarity in names is not the only thing that connects and unites them. As you know, many things, events, and persons of the Old Testament served as prototypes of New Testament things, events, and persons. The Old Testament Passover lamb served as a prototype of the New Testament Lamb, Christ (), and the Old Testament Passover served as a prototype of Christ's Passover.

We can say that the symbolism of the Jewish Passover was realized at the Passover of Christ. The most important features of this educational connection are the following: just as through the blood of the Passover lamb the Jews were saved from the destructive action of the destroying angel (), so we are saved by the Blood (); just as the Old Testament Passover contributed to the liberation of the Jews from captivity and slavery to Pharaoh (), so the Sacrifice of the Cross of the New Testament Lamb contributed to the liberation of man from slavery to demons, from the captivity of sin; just as the blood of the Old Testament lamb contributed to the closest unification of the Jews (), so the Communion of the Blood and Body of Christ contributes to the unity of believers into one Body of the Lord (); just as the consumption of the ancient lamb was accompanied by the eating of bitter herbs (), so Christian life is filled with the bitterness of hardship, suffering, and deprivation.

How is the date of Easter calculated? Why is it celebrated on different days?

According to Jewish religious tradition, during the Old Testament, the Lord's Passover was celebrated annually on the 14th of the month of Nissan (). On this day the slaughter of the Easter sacrificial lambs took place ().

From the Gospel narrative it convincingly follows that the date of the Passion of the Cross and death chronologically corresponded to the time of the onset of the Jewish Passover ().

From then until the Lord Jesus Christ, all people, dying, descended in souls into. The path to the Kingdom of Heaven was closed to man.

From the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, it is known that there was a special area in hell - Abraham's bosom (). The souls of those Old Testament people who especially pleased the Lord and... fell into this area. How contrasting the difference between their state and the state of sinners was, we see from the content of the same parable ().

Sometimes the concept of “Abraham’s bosom” is also referred to the Kingdom of Heaven. And, for example, in iconography Last Judgment the image of the “womb...” is used as one of the most common and significant symbols of Paradise dwellings.

But this, of course, does not mean that even before the Savior’s crushing, the righteous were in Paradise (Christ’s victory over hell took place after His Passion on the Cross and death, when He, being body in the tomb, descended in Soul to the underworld of the earth ()).

Although the righteous did not experience the severe suffering and torment that the fierce villains experienced, they were not involved in the indescribable bliss that they began to experience upon their liberation from hell and elevation to the Glorious Heavenly Villages.

We can say that in a sense, Abraham's womb served as a prototype of Paradise. Hence the tradition of using this image in relation to the Heavenly Paradise opened by Christ. Now everyone who seeks can inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.

At what point in the service on Saturday does Holy Day end and Easter begin?

On Saturday evening, usually an hour or half an hour before midnight, as the abbot decides, a feast day is celebrated in churches. Despite the fact that in separate manuals the sequence of this service is printed together with the celebration of Holy Pascha, according to the Charter, it also refers to the Lenten Triodion.

The vigil before Easter emphasizes the importance and significance of the expectations of the coming Triumph. At the same time, it recalls the vigil of the people of God (sons) on the night before their exit from Egypt (we emphasize that the Old Testament Easter, which prefigured the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, was connected with this event).

In continuation of the Midnight Office, incense is performed around, after which the priest, lifting it on the head, takes it away (Face to the East) into (through the Royal Doors). The shroud is placed on, after which incense is performed around it.

At the end of this service, it happens (to commemorate how they walked, with aromas, to the Tomb of the Savior), and then Easter is celebrated.

At the end Procession of the Cross believers stop with reverence before the gates of the temple, as if before the Holy Sepulcher.

Here the rector begins Matins: “Glory to the Saints...”. After this, the air is filled with the sounds of the festive troparion: “Christ is risen from the dead”...

In the Orthodox community, there is an opinion that if a person died on Easter day, then his ordeal is easier. Is this a popular belief or church practice, tradition?

We believe that in various cases such a “coincidence” can have different interpretations.

On the one hand, we understand well that God is always open to His () and (); the only important thing is that the person himself strives for unity with God and the Church.

On the other hand, we cannot deny that on the days of the Main Holidays of the Church, and, of course, during the Easter Celebrations, the unity of believers with God is manifested in a special way. Let us note that on such days the churches are (often) filled even with those Christians who are very far from regularly participating in church services.

We think that sometimes death on Easter can indicate special mercy towards a person (for example, if a saint of God dies on this day); however, considerations of this kind cannot be elevated to the rank of an unconditional rule (this can lead to superstition).

Why is it customary to paint eggs at Easter? What colors are acceptable? Is it possible to decorate Easter eggs with stickers with icons? What is the correct way to deal with shells from blessed eggs?

The custom of believers to greet each other with the words “Christ is risen!” and giving each other colored eggs goes back to ancient times.

Tradition firmly connects this tradition with the name of Equal-to-the-Apostles Marina Magdalene, who, according to , went to Rome, where, having met Emperor Tiberius, she began her mission with the words “Christ is Risen!”, giving him, at the same time, a red egg.

Why did she give the egg? The egg is a symbol of life. Just as from under a seemingly dead shell life is born, which is hidden until time, so from the tomb, a symbol of decay and death, Christ the Giver of Life rose, and one day all the dead will rise.

Why was the egg given to the emperor by Marina Magdalene red? On the one hand, the color red symbolizes joy and triumph. On the other hand, red is a symbol of blood. We are all redeemed from a vain life by the Blood of the Savior shed on the Cross ().

Thus, by giving eggs to each other and greeting each other with the words “Christ is risen!”, Orthodox Christians profess faith in the Crucified and Risen One, in the triumph of Life over death, the victory of Truth over evil.

It is assumed that in addition to the above reason, the first Christians painted eggs the color of blood not without the intention of imitating the Old Testament Easter ritual of the Jews, who smeared the doorposts and crossbars of the doors of their houses with the blood of sacrificial lambs (doing this according to the word of God, in order to avoid the defeat of the firstborn from the Destroying Angel) () .

Over time, other colors became established in the practice of coloring Easter eggs, for example, blue (blue), reminiscent of, or green, symbolizing rebirth to eternal blissful life (spiritual spring).

Nowadays, the color for dyeing eggs is often chosen not based on its symbolic meaning, but on the basis of personal aesthetic preferences and personal imagination. Hence it is so a large number of colors, even unpredictable.

It is important to remember here: the color of Easter eggs should not be mournful or gloomy (after all, Easter is a great Holiday); in addition, it should not be too provocative or pretentious.

It happens that Easter eggs are decorated with stickers with icons. Is such a “tradition” appropriate? In order to answer this question, it is necessary to take into account: an icon is not a picture; this is a Christian shrine. And it should be treated exactly like a shrine.

It is customary to pray to God and His saints in front of icons. However, if the sacred image is applied to eggshells, which will be cleaned off and then, perhaps, thrown into a garbage pit, then it is obvious that the “icon” may end up in the trash along with the shell. It seems that it won’t be long before blasphemy and sacrilege.

True, some, fearing to anger God, try not to throw the shells of consecrated eggs into the trash: they either burn them or bury them in the ground. This practice is acceptable, but how appropriate is it to burn or bury the faces of saints?

How and for how long is Easter celebrated?

Easter holiday is the oldest church holiday. It was established back in . Thus, Paul, inspiring his brothers in faith to a worthy, reverent celebration of the Day of the Resurrection of Christ, said: “Cleanse out the old leaven, so that you may be a new dough, since you are unleavened, for our Passover, Christ, was sacrificed for us” ().

It is known that the early Christian one united under the name Easter two weeks adjacent to each other: the one preceding the day of the Resurrection of the Lord and the following. Moreover, the first of the designated weeks corresponded to the name “Easter of Suffering” (“Easter of the Cross”), while the second corresponded to the name “Easter of the Resurrection.”

After the First Ecumenical Council(held in 325, in Nicaea), these names were forced out of church use. The week preceding the day of the Resurrection of the Lord was given the name “Passionate”, and the week following it – “Bright”. The name “Easter” was established after the Day of the Resurrection of the Redeemer.

Divine services during Bright Week are filled with special solemnity. Sometimes the entire week is referred to as one Bright Feast of Easter.

In this Christian tradition one can see a connection with the Old Testament, according to which the holiday of the (Jewish) Passover was connected with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasted from the 15th to the 21st of the month of Nisan (on the one hand, this holiday, celebrated annually, was supposed to remind the sons of the events of the exodus of their people from Egypt; on the other hand, on the other hand, it was associated with the beginning of the harvest).

In the continuation of Bright Week, worship is carried out with the doors wide open - in commemoration of the fact that, through the Resurrection, victory over death, the gates of Heaven were opened to people.

Easter is celebrated on Wednesday of the 6th week, in accordance with the fact that before His Day, the Lord who rose from the Tomb, walking on the earth, showed himself to people, testifying to His Resurrection.

There are six weeks in total until the day of Easter: the first is Easter; second - Fomina; the third - the holy myrrh-bearing women; the fourth is about the paralytic; the fifth is about the Samaritan woman; the sixth is about a blind man.

During this period, the Divine dignity of Christ is especially glorified, the miracles He performed are remembered (see: ), confirming that He is not just a Righteous Man, but God Incarnate, Who Resurrected Himself, trampling death, crushing the gates of the kingdom of death - for our sake .

Is it possible to congratulate people of other faiths on Easter?

Easter of Christ is the most solemn and great Holiday Universal Church(according to the metaphorical statement of the holy fathers, he is just as superior to all others Church Holidays how much the radiance of the sun exceeds the radiance of the stars).

So, Mary Equal to the Apostles Magdalene, visiting Rome, greeted the pagan emperor Tiberius with precisely this proclamation. “Christ is risen!” she told him, and presented him with a red egg as a gift.

Another thing is that not every non-religious (or atheist) is ready to react to Easter greetings (if not with joy, then at least) calmly. In some cases, this kind of greeting can provoke irritation, rage, violence and anger.

Therefore, sometimes, instead of an Easter greeting to this or that person, it is appropriate to literally fulfill the words of Jesus Christ: “Do not give what is holy to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces” ().

Here it is good to take into account the experience of the Apostle Paul, who, by his own admission, preaching the faith of Christ, tried to adapt to the circumstances and psychological state of people, being for the Jews - like a Jew, for the sake of gaining the Jews; for those under the law - as under the law, for the sake of acquiring those under the law; for those who are strangers to the law - as a stranger to the law (without being, however, himself a stranger to God's law) - in order to win those who are strangers to the law; for the weak - as the weak, for the sake of gaining the weak. He became everything to everyone in order to save at least some of them ().

Is it possible to work and clean on Easter days?

It is customary to prepare for Easter in advance. This means that the work that can be done in advance is better done in advance. It is better to postpone work that is not related to the Holiday and does not require immediate completion (for the duration of the Holiday).

So, for example, the ancient Christian monument “Apostolic Constitutions” gives a firm instruction that neither in Holy Week, nor in the following Easter (Bright) Week, “let not slaves work” (Apostolic Constitutions. Book 8, Chapter 33)

However, there is no unconditional, unrelated to circumstances, ban on any kind of work at all during the Easter period.

Suppose there are many types of professional, official and social activities that require the indispensable participation of one or another person, regardless of his desire and from.

This type of activity includes: law enforcement, military, medical, transport, fire fighting, etc. Sometimes, in relation to this type of work on the Feast Day, it is not superfluous to remember the words of Christ: “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and God's God» ().

On the other hand, exceptions regarding work can occur even when it comes to such everyday work as cleaning the house or washing dishes.

In fact, is it really possible that if during the Easter holiday the table is filled with dirty plates, spoons, cups, forks, food waste, and the floor suddenly, inopportunely, gets flooded with some kind of drink, will all this need to be left as is until the end of the Easter celebrations?

What is the tradition of consecrating bread - artos?

On the Bright Day of Easter, at the end of the Divine (after the prayer behind the pulpit), a solemn consecration of a special - a (literally translated from Greek “artos” means “bread”; in accordance with the meaning of the name Easter (Pesach - transition) is performed as a transition from death to life , in accordance with the consequence of the Resurrection as the Victory of Christ over death, the Cross crowned with thorns, a sign of victory over death, or an image, is imprinted on the artos.

As a rule, the artos is placed opposite the icon of the Savior, where it then remains during Bright Week.

On Bright Saturday, that is, on Friday evening, the artos is fragmented; at the end of the Liturgy, on Saturday, it is distributed for consumption by the faithful.

As in the sequel Happy Holidays Believers eat Easter in their homes, so on the days of Bright Week this consecrated bread is presented in the houses of God - the temples of the Lord.

In a symbolic sense, artos is compared with the Old Testament unleavened bread, which the people of Israel were to eat during the Passover week, after their liberation by the right hand of God from Egyptian slavery ().

In addition, the practice of consecrating and keeping the artos serves as a reminder of the apostolic practice. Accustomed to eating bread with the Savior during His earthly ministry, they, according to Him, gave Him part of the bread and laid it at the meal. This symbolized the presence of Christ among them.

This symbolic line can be strengthened: serving as an image of the Bread of Heaven, that is, Christ (), artos serves as a reminder to all believers that the Risen One, despite the Ascension on, is constantly present in, in accordance with the promise: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age " ().