When was Easter 2015? Type that into Google and you will receive the answer April 5, 2015.But for Orthodox Christians, this year Easter was on April 12.Why two dates for the most important day of the Christian year? Well, it's complicated. Both Churches celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after the first full Moon after or on the spring equinox. But the Orthodox and Western Churches have different definitions for "full Moon" and "spring equinox" (Western Church says it's always March 21, Eastern Church goes with the astronomical equinox), and so they usually celebrate Easter on separate Sundays. Of course, like basically all differences between Western (especially Catholic) and Orthodox Christianity, the date of Easter is of little theological importance, yet great practical and political importance.
Since Easter was a week later for my Orthodox friends, I made it to both Western and Eastern Easter Vigil celebrations. As I love the rich traditions found in the Catholic Easter Vigil Mass, I was interested to see the Orthodox take on my favorite liturgy.
I arrived at St. Mary's at 10:30 pm, yes 10:30 at night. I was handed a candle as I entered the church and proceeded to find a seat in the quiet sanctuary. The church remained quiet for about 30 minutes until a man began reciting the vespers, the evening prayer. Vespers took about 30 minutes, and consisted of a series of chants that recalled the events between Jesus' death and resurrection, in other words, his rescuing of the just from the grave. After vespers was finished, the lights within the church (already very dim) were turned off and the choir led us in a procession out of the church.
There we gathered as the priest lit an Easter candle, and the light from the Easter Candle was passed from candle to candle until everyone held a bit of the light of God. We stood outside with our candles as the Priest read prayers and the story of the women encountering the empty tomb, we sang glory to God, and sang "Christ is risen from the dead/Trampling down death by death/And upon those in the tombs/Bestowing life!" which we sang about 100 times throughout the service.
We processed back inside the church (some folks made a lap of the outside of the church which apparently is a tradition? but most just followed the priest back inside). Once gathered back inside, the priest joyously processed around the church, energetically swinging an incensor (it was an Orthodox church after all), and shouting "Christ is Risen! Christos Anesti!," to which the faithful responded loudly "truly He is risen! Alithos Anesti!"
After this burst of Easter Joy, (keep in mind it's now past midnight so it's technically Easter), we settled down for a good old Orthodox Divine Liturgy. This liturgy was a typical liturgy of St. John Chrysostom with the addition of everyone holding a lit candle.
At the end of the liturgy, about 2am, the priest blessed baskets of hard boiled eggs which had been dyed red to symbolize the blood of Christ spilled for us. On their way out of the church, everyone passed by to pick up their blessed egg, myself included. It was a good reminder of how the Easter egg can have both secular and religious meaning for a single holiday.
Considering how much more intricate the Roman Catholic Easter Vigil liturgy service is compared to a usual Sunday Mass, and considering how much more intricate the usual Orthodox liturgy is compared to a typical Roman Catholic liturgy, I was expecting the Easter Vigil liturgy at an Orthodox church to be especially intricate. While it was a bit more involved than the previous time I visited this church, it was not overpoweringly involved as I had expected. Overall things were kept simple, beautiful, yet simple. The emphasis was not so much on celebrating the end of a Lenten journey as a community or celebrating the history of God's saving grace as it has been in the Catholic churches I'm familiar with. Instead the focus was on reverently, gratefully, and joyously remembering God's single greatest act of salvation. And by the end of the liturgy, you couldn't forget what that act was, after all we sang it many, many times throughout the liturgy: "Christ is risen from the dead/Trampling down death by death/And upon those in the tombs/Bestowing life!"
Since Easter was a week later for my Orthodox friends, I made it to both Western and Eastern Easter Vigil celebrations. As I love the rich traditions found in the Catholic Easter Vigil Mass, I was interested to see the Orthodox take on my favorite liturgy.
I arrived at St. Mary's at 10:30 pm, yes 10:30 at night. I was handed a candle as I entered the church and proceeded to find a seat in the quiet sanctuary. The church remained quiet for about 30 minutes until a man began reciting the vespers, the evening prayer. Vespers took about 30 minutes, and consisted of a series of chants that recalled the events between Jesus' death and resurrection, in other words, his rescuing of the just from the grave. After vespers was finished, the lights within the church (already very dim) were turned off and the choir led us in a procession out of the church.
There we gathered as the priest lit an Easter candle, and the light from the Easter Candle was passed from candle to candle until everyone held a bit of the light of God. We stood outside with our candles as the Priest read prayers and the story of the women encountering the empty tomb, we sang glory to God, and sang "Christ is risen from the dead/Trampling down death by death/And upon those in the tombs/Bestowing life!" which we sang about 100 times throughout the service.
We processed back inside the church (some folks made a lap of the outside of the church which apparently is a tradition? but most just followed the priest back inside). Once gathered back inside, the priest joyously processed around the church, energetically swinging an incensor (it was an Orthodox church after all), and shouting "Christ is Risen! Christos Anesti!," to which the faithful responded loudly "truly He is risen! Alithos Anesti!"
After this burst of Easter Joy, (keep in mind it's now past midnight so it's technically Easter), we settled down for a good old Orthodox Divine Liturgy. This liturgy was a typical liturgy of St. John Chrysostom with the addition of everyone holding a lit candle.
At the end of the liturgy, about 2am, the priest blessed baskets of hard boiled eggs which had been dyed red to symbolize the blood of Christ spilled for us. On their way out of the church, everyone passed by to pick up their blessed egg, myself included. It was a good reminder of how the Easter egg can have both secular and religious meaning for a single holiday.
Considering how much more intricate the Roman Catholic Easter Vigil liturgy service is compared to a usual Sunday Mass, and considering how much more intricate the usual Orthodox liturgy is compared to a typical Roman Catholic liturgy, I was expecting the Easter Vigil liturgy at an Orthodox church to be especially intricate. While it was a bit more involved than the previous time I visited this church, it was not overpoweringly involved as I had expected. Overall things were kept simple, beautiful, yet simple. The emphasis was not so much on celebrating the end of a Lenten journey as a community or celebrating the history of God's saving grace as it has been in the Catholic churches I'm familiar with. Instead the focus was on reverently, gratefully, and joyously remembering God's single greatest act of salvation. And by the end of the liturgy, you couldn't forget what that act was, after all we sang it many, many times throughout the liturgy: "Christ is risen from the dead/Trampling down death by death/And upon those in the tombs/Bestowing life!"
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