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16 April 2017, 11:34

Easter services in Grodno's Farny Catholic Church and the Nativity of Mary Convent

Orthodox Christians begin a midnight service on the eve of Easter. The believers go out of the temple and go around it in a sacred procession. When the procession returns to the temple's entrance, the doors must be closed. Right at this moment the doors represents an entrance into the Holy Sepulcher. After a certain amount of prayers the doors are opened and everyone goes inside. The Easter liturgy begins then. A special kind of bread is blessed during the service. The bread is kept till Saturday when it can be handed out to parishioners. During the service the clergymen repeatedly exclaim “Christ has risen!” while everyone else in the church responds by saying “Indeed he is risen!”. The priests also change their apparel through the service by donning differently colored garbs — red, yellow, blue, green, and white ones.

Catholic Christians light bonfires on Saturday's eve in the temple's court. The priest uses this fire to light a large Paschal candle, which represents the light of Christ, the light of evangelical teachings. The priest carries this candle into the temple where the liturgy of light begins. All the parishioners light their own candles from the Paschal one.

Just like Orthodox believers the Catholics arrange a sacred procession but only after the service. The procession is accompanied by exclamations “Christ has risen!” and “Indeed he is risen!”.

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