Wednesday, 07 May 2008
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Holy Saturday Service
Christ is Risen!
I have to tell you, one of my favorite services of the whole liturgical year is the service on Holy Saturday morning. For us it is a joyous occasion and looks forward with anticipation to that night when we celebrate the feast of feasts: Pascha!
On Saturday morning we have our largest baptism group of the year. We have a few throughout the year, but Holy Saturday is our primary day for baptisms, as in the early days of the Church. This year we had 11 people get baptised. It was a wonderful blessing! We also do our color change from dark, somber colors to white on Saturday morning and the priests throw out bay leaves as a symbol of Christ’s victory over death. One other thing that we do, which I understand is a Russian tradition as that the children all hide in the loft with pots & pans and when the priests come out of the Altar they start banging them raucously. This noise symbolizes Christ in Hades breaking down the gates and loosing those in bonds. What a wonderful, joyous noise it is, indeed! After the entire service, including all the newly illumined’s Chrismation and first Communion, we have a "feast" of dried fruit, nuts, bread, & wine in the church. It is the one day out of the year that we are allowed to eat in the church… and I joke with people that this is the BEST meal of fruit & nuts you will EVER have. Never have dried fruits & nuts tasted so good as after having observed a 36-hour strict fast during Good Friday and the morning of Holy Saturday before Communion. What a wonderful day full of joy for the newly illumined and the anticipation of the resurrection of our Lord.
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