Holy Friday, Orthodox Easter (Pascha) and Blessings

Perhaps you have seen this blog post by Rita Wilson (actress in her own right, Greek Orthodox and Tom Hanks' wife). It compares some of the differences between Eastern Orthodox Pascha and Easter as celebrated by western churches. I'll leave it to her to explain some of the differences and let you read her blog post there. 

For me, the weekend really begins the week before: Holy Week. It is about more than just Pascha and Christ rising from the Dead. Sort of. It is about the whole process moving from Christ in the Garden to being on the Cross. And we commemorate those events in various ways throughout the process of Lent. 

Last night was Holy Thursday. We read the story of Christ going to the garden to pray, His arrest, and all the way through to the tomb being empty, from each of the four Gospel accounts told of the story - so 12 gospel readings in all; many churches read them in a very dark room, while you kneel. 

Holy Friday, the service starts out by commemorating Christ in the tomb. We sing the Noble Joseph, at the beginning and it really is just a beautiful and moving song. 

 


This is not our church, nor even my favorite rendering of the song, but does give a pretty good view of what the service looks like for many churches.