Tradition and Holidays

Easter in Orthodox Countries

Christ's Resurrection is the beginning of new, eternal life on the earth, and the revival of all substance. Because of that, Christians continuously celebrate the Easter (the Resurrection), specially during the Holly Liturgy, when the Church represents the resurrected Christ's Body


By IVANA BARTULOVIC
from Belgrade, SERBIA


Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter according to the ancient calendar, that derives from the period of Julius Cesar, in contrast to western Christians (Roman-Catholics and Protestants), who celebrate that holyday according to the new Gregorian calendar, which was introduced by Pope Gregorius in middle ages.

The main events in Christ's life are His passion and Resurrection. Those events are the basis of Christians religion, because in those the Lord Jesus Christ had relieved the fallen humankind from the chains of death and promised them the eternal life. St. Maxim Confessor believed that in sacrament of Holly Cross and the Resurrection of Christ the whole "destiny" of the world and the mankind is hidden.

The Holly Cross is percepted as the means of the victory over the death, and the Christ as the Emperor of Glory. Jesus goes by His will to be crucified and celebrated, and His Holly Cross to become the spring of new and eternal life. Christ's Passion goes together with His Resurrection. By His three days staying in the grave, the new life started to shine. That's why the way of presenting Resurrection on the icons is as Christ's descent to underworld, and liberation from the chains of death, for all those that expected tender news about the Resurrection.

Christ's death became the payment for the people's sins, and that's why the song called "Tropar", sung for the Easter, goes like this: "Christ resurrected from the dead, destroyed death with death, and to those who were in the graves conferred life." The Saver won the death, but not without going throw it Himself; He won it by His own death. He made our passions His, and His resurrection ours. He won our death as well ("The last enemy will be abolished-the death", 15,26), which is, on the icon of Resurrection, presented with betaking from the grave of our greatparents Adam and Ewe.

The holyday of Resurrection (The Easter) for Orthodox Christians represents the sanctification of the time. In the middle of liturgical life, in the middle of the period that we define as one calendar year, is the holyday of Christ's Resurrection, and that's Orthodox experience that derives from the time of Apostles. Resurrection is the appearance of the life that will be endless, in this world led with time, and at the same time, with death. The one resurrected from the dead, can not die any more. In this, our world, Somebody who stands beyond the death, but still inside of our time, showed up. This sense of Christ's Resurrection, this great joy is the central theme of Christianity, preserved in its fullness in the liturgy of Orthodox church. So, the central point of the whole Orthodox experience, the criterion for all other events in it, is the Christ's Resurrection. We can't understand in a right way the structure of the churching service during the year, if we don't have on mind, that its central point is, the Day that gives the sense to all the other days, and to the whole time, that yearly celebration of Christ's Resurrection. "Pasha"(the Passover) is always the beginning and the end. We live after the Pasha as well, but always going again for Pasha. All the spirit and the sense of liturgical life is contained in Pasha, together with the period of the next 50 days, that culminate in the holyday of the Descent of Holly Spirit on Apostles. This celebration of Pasha is repeated every week in Christian's Sunday, the day that Russians call "Voskresenije" (the Resurrection). This means that the Orthodox people believe that every Sunday is a small Easter.

The liturgical assembly is the communion of the people who's life got the new sense that emanates directly from Christ's Resurrection. That is visible in peoples believe that they don't live anymore in the time without its goal and sense. The new meaning of life is not the only gift for Christians. The death received the different sense as well. In "Tropar" mentioned before, we sing about Christ as the One Who "destroyed death with death". We don't say that He destroyed the death with Resurrection, then exactly with death. In spite of the fact that Christians still have the death as the life fact, looking like every other man in that, the death has completely new meaning for them. It means the entrance in Lords Pasha, in Lord Jesus Christ's Passover from the old to the new life. That's the key for understanding the liturgical church's year. Christianity is, first of all, the denouncement of Christ's Resurrection to/on this world. Orthodox spirituality is made of resurrection and Pasha in its structure, and the true structure of Christians life is-the joy.

Christ's Resurrection is the beginning of new, eternal life on the earth, and the revival of all substance. Because of that, Christians continuously celebrate the Easter (the Resurrection), specially during the Holly Liturgy, when the Church represents the resurrected Christ's Body. St. Apostle Paul says: "If Christ wasn't resurrected, our testament and faith would be for nothing" (15,14).


(Published: 10.04.2008.)

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