Moscow (AsiaNews)
- The Orthodox Russians have entered into Holy Week and are preparing to
celebrate Easter on April 15. After
the coincidences of the last two years, when Easter was celebrated by all Catholic
and Orthodox Christians on the same day, this year the holiday falls with the
difference of a week.
The
most intense period of the religious calendar began on April 7 with the feast
of the Annunciation, celebrated by the Russian, Serbian, Macedonian, Georgian Orthodox
and those in Jerusalem. The
day of the Annunciation was a public holiday and there is the custom of
releasing doves into the sky, after the religious services, as a symbol of
peace and the Holy Spirit.
Palm
Sunday is celebrated in Russia on 8 April. This
Sunday is called the Verbena, because branches of this plant are used during
the liturgy, which opens Holy Week.
With
Easter the so-called Great Fast (Russian Lent), which began on February 27 this
year, ends. Saturday,
April 14, the Holy Light arrives from Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem,
from which thousands of candles will be lit for the Easter Vigil in the
Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. During
this function, the officiating priest symbolically removes the shroud from the
tomb and comes with a procession from the church to search for the body of
Christ. After
he has completed a pre-announced path for the faithful he chants:
"Christos voskrès!" (Christ
is Risen!). And
they respond, "Voistinu voskres" ('Truly he is risen'). This
formula is also used in greetings to relatives and friends.
On
Easter Sunday, a great meal is prepared, which brings together all the family
and where some of the dishes are made and blessed the night before in church. The
traditional specialties are kulich - a kind of leavened cake with icing - the
Paskha - a dessert made of cream cheese - and eggs, usually colored.
Although
Easter is the central feast in the Orthodox calendar, only 2% of the Russians participate
in religious celebrations, as revealed by a recent poll by the Levada Center,
one of the most authoritative independent opinion polling institutes in the
country.