Happy Easter! Christos Voskrese!

picture by Elena Revutskaya

Easter (ПАСХА) is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday (also Resurrection Day or Resurrection Sunday, in Russian 'Sunday' - воскресенье -  means Resurrection).

In Orthodoxy the spiritual preparation for Pascha 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 Pascha itself, and the fast is broken immediately after the Paschal Divine Liturgy.

The Paschal Vigil begins with the Midnight Office, which is the last service of the Lenten Triodion and is timed so that it ends a little before midnight on Holy Saturday night.

What is Easter for the Orthodox people and Russia? You may also read it in the Pascal Message of His Holiness KIRILL, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia: 

The feast of Pascha in Holy Russia has always been great and radiant. And now in recent decades it has again returned to many homes and families.