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Pascha

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Pascha normally falls either one or five weeks later than the feast as observed by Christians who follow the [[Gregorian calendar]]. However, occasionally the two observances coincide, and some years they can be two, four, or six weeks apart (but never three). The reason for the difference is that the older [[Julian Calendar]] uses a different [[paschalion]], the formula for calculating the date of Pascha. This formula was determined by the [[First Ecumenical Council]].
==Celebration of the feast==
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the center of the Orthodox Christian faith. Twelve weeks of preparation precede it. This is made up of prelenten Sundays, [[Great Lent]], and [[Holy Week]]. The faithful try to make this long journey with repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and study. When the feast finally arrives, it is celebrated with a collection of services combined as one.
===Nocturne===
Sometime before midnight, on the [[Holy Saturday|Blessed Sabbath]] the [[Nocturne]] service is chanted. The priest goes to the tomb and removes the winding-sheet and carries it through the [[royal doors]] and places it on the [[altar]] table where it remains for forty days until the day of [[Ascension]].
 
The procession begins near midnight. The people leave the dark church building singing, carrying banners, [[icons]], candles, and the Gospel. The procession circles the outside of the church and returns to the closed front doors. Here the Gospel is read which tells of the empty tomb. Next, the [[Pascha#Hymns|Easter Troparion]] is sung for the first time, together with the verses of [[Psalm]] 68 which will begin all of the Church services during the Easter season.
:''Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered; let those who hate him flee from before his face!''
:''This is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!''
The doors are opened and the faithful re-enter. The church is brightly lit and adorned with flowers. It is the heavenly bride and the symbol of the empty tomb. The celebrants change to white vestments, the bright robes of the resurrection. The Easter icon stands in the center of the church, where the grave just was. It shows Christ destroying the gates of hell and freeing Adam and Eve from the captivity of death. There constant proclamation of the celebrant: Christ is risen! The faithful continually respond: Indeed he is risen! and censing of the icons and the people.
===Matins===
Next is the service of Easter [[Matins]]. It is entirely sung, nothing is just read in the Church services of Easter, everything is joyfully sung. The [[canon]] hymns of Christ's resurrection. ascribed to St [[John of Damascus]], are chanted with the [[Pascha#Hymns|Easter Troparion]] as the constantly recurring refrain.
===Hours===
Next, the Easter [[Hours]] are also sung. At the conclusion, the celebrant solemnly proclaims the famous Paschal [[Sermon]] of St. [[John Chrysostom]]. This sermon is an invitation to all of the faithful to forget their sins and to join fully in the feast of the resurrection of Christ.
===Divine Liturgy===
Next, the Pascha [[Divine Liturgy]] begins with the singing once more of the festal troparion with the verses of Psalm 68. The [[antiphons]] of the liturgy are special psalm verses that praise and glorify the salvation of God. Again, the troparion is repeated over and over. And the [[baptism]]al verse from [[Galatians]]: ''As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ'' (Galatians 3:27) replaces the [[Trisagion|Thrice-Holy Hymn]].
 
The readings take the faithful back again to the beginning, and announces God's creation and re-creation of the world through the living Word of God, his Son Jesus Christ.
The epistle reading is the first nine verses of the [[Book of Acts]]. The gospel reading is the first seventeen verses of the [[Gospel of John]].
 
The Liturgy of St John Chrysostom continues as usual. Holy [[communion]] has again and again the troparion of the Resurrection. It is sung while the faithful.
 
===Day without evening===
To the Orthodox, the celebration of Pascha reveals the mystery of the eighth day. It is not merely an historical reenactment of the event of Christ's Resurrection. It is a way to experience the new creation of the world a taste of the new and unending day of the Kingdom of God.
 
This new day is conveyed to the faithful in the length of the paschal services, in the repetition of the paschal order for all the services of Bright Week, and in the special paschal features retained in the services for the forty days until Ascension. Forty days are, as it were, treated as one day.
 
Foods from which the faithful have been asked to abstain during the lenten journey are blessed and eaten only after the Divine Liturgy.
==The Term ''Easter''==
*[[Paschal Homily]]
*[[Kyriopascha]]
==External link=={{stub}}*[http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsLife.asp?FSID=27 HOLY PASCHA The Resurrection of Our Lord] from [[OCA]] website.
[[Category:Feasts]]