Христос Воскресе! Χριστός Ανέστη! Christ is Risen!
This was my first Orthodox Pascha (Easter). It was (mostly) wonderful. Instead of paragraphs, i'll just do some bullet points. :)
I'm sure i'm missing details, but the night was a little hazy for me. I got extremely car sick (ugh) on the way down (and on the way home) and wasn't feeling too hot so i spent a lot of time near the door for some cold air. Even through the sickness, it was wonderful! We got there sometime between 11 and 11:30 and i didn't get home until after 5am! Easter/Pascha has always been my favorite holiday and experiencing it through Orthodoxy has only made me love it 100x more. I already can't wait until next year! (And i will definitely be taking more precautions against my car sickness next year.) I will have to post some of the Pascha hymns in another post.
- Candles. Lots of sweet smelling beeswax candles. I have my candle sitting in the living room (for now) and i still get whiffs of honey. You can tell these aren't processed candles. ;) At midnight, everyone's candles get lit from a single candle from the Priest. Well, not all from the priest..it's like a wave effect. One person lights theirs from the Priests then someone lights their candle from that and on and on. It's quite beautiful.
- After, we go outside and circle the church 3 times while hymns are sung and church bells rang. (Candles still lit, if the wind didn't blow them out ;) ) Icons are carried in the procession around the church. When we get back to the front of the church, more hymns are sung along with shouts of Христос Воскресе! and Christ is Risen!
- When we go back inside, the priest(s) (we had 3 that night) go around the church one by one with incense and chants of Христос Воскресе! Christ is Risen! and Χριστός Ανέστη! I forget how many times this was done, but i think is lasted around 30 minutes.
- Then the liturgy and communion. At the end, i kissed the Cross held by the priest and got a blessed red egg. :)
- When that is all done, we go to the parish hall where all of the Easter baskets are blessed. Then FEASTING! :)
I'm sure i'm missing details, but the night was a little hazy for me. I got extremely car sick (ugh) on the way down (and on the way home) and wasn't feeling too hot so i spent a lot of time near the door for some cold air. Even through the sickness, it was wonderful! We got there sometime between 11 and 11:30 and i didn't get home until after 5am! Easter/Pascha has always been my favorite holiday and experiencing it through Orthodoxy has only made me love it 100x more. I already can't wait until next year! (And i will definitely be taking more precautions against my car sickness next year.) I will have to post some of the Pascha hymns in another post.
