Holy Week

Between the forty days of Great Lent and Great Week stand two festival days that belong to neither. Lazarus Saturday celebrates Christ raising His friend from the dead after four days (John 11) — a deliberate preview of Pascha, sung with resurrection hymns on a Saturday, and anciently a great day for baptisms, which is why the baptismal hymn "As many as have been baptized into Christ" replaces the usual Trisagion hymn at its Liturgy. Palm Sunday follows at once: Christ enters Jerusalem to shouts of Hosanna, and the faithful hold palms or pussy-willows as the week of the Passion opens. That same evening the mood turns, and Holy Week proper begins.

One practical key unlocks the whole week's schedule: most Holy Week services are served by anticipation, roughly half a day early. The Matins (morning service) of Great Monday is sung on Palm Sunday evening; the Matins of Great Friday on Thursday evening; and so on. Parish schedules vary, but the evening-before pattern is nearly universal.

The first three evenings belong to the Bridegroom services, named for their troparion: Christ comes "at midnight," and blessed is the servant found watching. The icon carried out is Christ the Bridegroom — crowned with thorns, robed in mockery — the King who comes to His wedding through suffering. Great Monday remembers Joseph, sold by his brothers as a figure of Christ, and the barren fig tree; Great Tuesday, the parable of the ten virgins with their lamps; Great Wednesday, the sinful woman who anointed Christ's feet — set against Judas, who that same week sold Him. Tuesday evening's service includes the Hymn of Kassiani, among the most celebrated single hymns of the year. On these days the Presanctified Liturgy is served for the last times, and on Wednesday many parishes — Greek practice especially — offer Holy Unction, the anointing of the sick, to all.

Great Thursday morning (a Vespers joined to the Liturgy of St. Basil) celebrates the Mystical Supper, the institution of the Eucharist. That evening comes the longest service of the year: the Matins of Great Friday, called the Twelve Gospels, in which the entire Passion is read in twelve portions from all four evangelists. Between the fifth and sixth readings the priest carries the cross with the figure of the Crucified in procession from the sanctuary, and it is set in the middle of the church for veneration.

Great Friday itself is the year's most austere day: no Liturgy of any kind is served — not even the Presanctified — and it is the strictest fasting day of all. The Royal Hours are read in the morning; in the afternoon and evening follow the Vespers of the taking-down from the Cross and the Lamentations at the tomb — the burial services treated fully in their own entry.

Saturday morning's Vespers-Liturgy of St. Basil is the ancient Paschal baptismal vigil, and it already leans hard toward the Resurrection. Old Testament readings — fifteen in the full older cycle, a selection in many parishes today — retell the history of salvation — among them the entire book of Jonah, three days in the belly of the fish — culminating in the three youths in the furnace and their song of deliverance (Daniel 3). Then, at the singing of "Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations," the dark vestments and hangings are exchanged for white, and in Greek custom the priest scatters laurel and bay leaves through the church: victory in the underworld, announced before the tomb is opened. Then the Church waits in stillness until the midnight service of Pascha — which has its own entry, as does the Agape Vespers of Pascha afternoon.