When it will be Easter service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior 2018 is not difficult to calculate. After all, the Easter service always begins in the evening, with the beginning of the Easter service. The start takes place at 20.00. The service itself continues almost until midnight, and then the believers, followed by the clergy and church workers, make the procession of the Cross.
But after the procession the service does not end. Moreover, the priests change into white festive clothes, and the festive Easter service begins. It lasts for several more hours and ends late at night. When you come home, you can’t eat, even though Easter has already arrived. You need to go to bed and meet in the morning according to all religious rules: candles, prayers, breaking the fast. Do you know how to cook for Easter?
Cathedral of Christ the Savior
Perhaps the largest mass service on Easter takes place in this Moscow church. And this, of course, is not accidental. After all, the Easter service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior 2018 is even live broadcast. If you can’t get to church, let’s say a person lives in another city, then television and the Internet make it possible to join the Easter night and celebrate the onset of the bright Resurrection of Christ correctly.
So, the service will be held from the night of April 7 to April 8. April 7 is also Holy Saturday and a time of fasting. Half an hour before midnight the procession of the Cross takes place, and after it begins Happy Easter, which means it’s Sunday, April 8th. Easter Matins, as well as the Procession and Divine Liturgy it is in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior that he conducts His Holiness Patriarch Moscow and All Rus' Kirill.
Live broadcast of the service
On various religious sites you can watch the Easter service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior 2018 online, but many Russian TV channels also broadcast this event. In particular, every year the service from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on Easter can be seen on the Channel One, Spas and Russia 1.
Of course, the broadcast cannot convey the entire atmosphere that reigns in the temple that evening. But the words of the priest and the number of people help to fully try to feel the approaching holiday. Many people who come to the very beginning of the service at 20.00 no longer have enough space in the church: they have to stand on the street. But, on the other hand, during the procession of the Cross, it is precisely those people who were on the street who find themselves in the thick of things.
Procession during the service
Of course, during the Easter service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, as in the smallest Russian church, there will be a procession of the Cross. It takes place closer to midnight. Priests and all church servants leave the temple with icons to walk around the temple three times along with the believers. After each circle, the procession stops at the closed doors of the temple - they symbolize the entrance to the cave where Jesus Christ was buried and where it was until the moment when he was resurrected.
But for the third time, the doors of the temple greet the priests and flock open. What does it mean? This means that Easter has come this year, that Christ is Risen and that all those people who gathered for the service are not here by chance. They came to the temple on this holy night in order to prove their faith, their love and their kindness. After
- the oldest Christian holiday, the most important holiday of the liturgical year, established in honor of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a moving holiday - its date in each year is calculated according to the lunisolar calendar.
In 2018 Svetloye Christ's Resurrection Catholics celebrate April 1st.
The word "Passover" comes from the Hebrew "Pesach" and is literally translated as "passing by", meaning deliverance, the transition from death to life. The celebration of Easter among the Jews was established by the prophet Moses in honor of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. Latest evangelical events occur on the days of the Jewish Passover.
In the New Testament church, Easter is celebrated in memory of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Last Supper, suffering and death of Christ took place on the eve of the Resurrection of Christ, and on the first day of the week after the first day of the Jewish Passover, the Lord rose from the dead.
After Pentecost (the Day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles), Christians began to celebrate the first liturgies, similar in form to the Jewish Passover, as well as the sacrament of the Eucharist established by Jesus Christ. Liturgies were performed as the Last Supper - the Passover of suffering associated with the death on the Cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Initially, the death and resurrection of Christ were celebrated weekly: Friday was a day of fasting and mourning in remembrance of his suffering, and Sunday was a day of joy.
In the churches of Asia Minor, especially by Jewish Christians, in the 1st century the holiday was celebrated annually along with the Jewish Passover - the 14th day of the spring month of Nisan, since both Jews and Christians expected the coming of the Messiah on this day. Some churches moved the celebration to the first Sunday after the Jewish Passover, because Jesus Christ was executed on Easter day and resurrected according to the Gospels on the day after Saturday.
In the 2nd century, the holiday was celebrated annually in all churches. From the writings of Christian writers it follows that initially a special fast celebrated the suffering and death of Christ as “Easter of the Cross,” which coincided with the Jewish Passover; the fast continued until Sunday night. After it, the Resurrection of Christ was celebrated as Easter of joy or “Resurrection Easter.”
In 325, the First Ecumenical Council of Bishops in Nicaea forbade celebrating Easter “before the spring equinox with the Jews.”
In the 4th century, Easter on the Cross and Easter on Sunday were already united both in the West and in the East. In the 5th century, the name Easter became generally accepted to refer to the actual holiday of the Resurrection of Christ.
In the 8th century, Rome adopted the Eastern Paschal. In 1583, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new Easter into the Roman Catholic Church, called the Gregorian Easter. Due to the change in Easter, the entire calendar also changed. Currently date Catholic Easter determined from the ratio of lunar and solar calendars. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the spring full moon. The spring full moon is the first full moon that occurs after the spring equinox.
Catholic Easter is often celebrated earlier than Jewish Easter or on the same day, and sometimes precedes Orthodox Easter by more than a month.
On Easter, as on the most important holiday church year, a particularly solemn service is performed. It was formed in the first centuries of Christianity as baptismal. Most of the catechumens, after the preparatory fast, were baptized on this special day. Since ancient times, the church has had a tradition of holding Easter services at night.
The Easter fire is of great importance in worship. It symbolizes the Light of God, enlightening all nations after Christ's Resurrection.
In Catholic services, a large bonfire is lit on the church grounds, from which, before the start of the Easter service, Paschal is lit - a special Easter candle, the fire from which is distributed to all believers.
Easter is carried into the dark temple under the ancient hymn Exsultet (“Let them rejoice”). This hymn informs believers about the resurrection of Christ, and believers take turns lighting their candles from Easter.
In the Roman catholic church The procession of the cross takes place during the Easter Eve service after the liturgy.
Starting from Easter night and the next forty days (before Easter is celebrated), it is customary to christen, that is, greet each other with the words: “Christ is risen!” - “Truly he is risen!”, while kissing three times. This custom has been going on since apostolic times.
On the Bright Resurrection of Christ after the solemn Easter Mass, from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the Pope announces the good news of the resurrection of Christ to thousands of believers who came to the square.
Easter is the most important holiday for the Christian church, and preparations for it begin several weeks in advance. After the end of Lent, everyone Orthodox people They are preparing for the Easter service - a large-scale church celebration that lasts all night. What time the Easter service begins and how it takes place is described below.
Rituals before Easter
In many churches, holiday services begin a week before Easter itself. Usually during this period people attend church very actively, and clergy increasingly appear in festive attire. There is also a tradition according to which, a few days before Easter, the church doors stop closing. Even during the priests’ communion, the doors remain open, and anyone can visit the temple at any convenient time. 
Saturday becomes especially festive when it ends Lent. It is on this day that people begin to flock en masse to church to bless the holiday food. Temple servants sprinkle Easter cakes and eggs with holy water, saying traditional prayers. At the same time, you can light several candles in the church for the repose.
The Catholic Church has maintained the tradition of baptizing adults and children on Easter. IN Orthodox tradition The custom of adult baptism during Easter celebrations is also being revived, but occurs quite rarely. Church ministers prefer to perform this ceremony either on Saturday or in the afternoon before the start of the solemn service.
Usually, church representatives themselves are very actively preparing for the upcoming holiday, memorizing lines from the gospel, taking communion and choosing the most festive clothes. Despite all the changes in the lives of modern citizens, Easter continues to enjoy enormous popularity throughout Russia.
Start time of Easter service
In 2017, Easter falls on May 1st. According to a tradition that developed several centuries ago, the Easter service is held exactly at midnight. It will begin on the night of April 30 to May 1.
The largest service takes place in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Traditionally, the patriarch (now Kirill) comes out to the parishioners in his best attire, conducting the entire service from beginning to end. It is broadcast on many television channels, so you can enjoy the service without leaving your home.
In some nations, such services take place in the morning, but almost all Christian churches conduct such an important and solemn service before dawn.
What stages does the Easter service include:
- The removal of the shroud, which takes place half an hour before midnight.
- Procession around the temple.
- The beginning of Bright Matins is marked by the use of a censer and a special cross with a three-candlestick.
- Conducting Easter Matins and taking out specially prepared bread.
- The service ends with the Easter ringing and the exchange of holiday greetings (“Christ is Risen” - “Truly He is Risen”).
Each step of the procedure is very important and should never be ignored. The fact is that all singing and religious processions are directly related to the history of the resurrection of Christ, and the traditions themselves have been formed over centuries, so the clergy honor them with special reverence.
Easter services are held in almost all Orthodox churches. It is interesting that the date of the holiday is always determined according to the lunisolar calendar and falls on different days. Moreover, the date of Easter may differ between Catholics and Orthodox Christians. So, in 2017, this bright day fell on May 1st.
The Easter service traditionally begins at midnight, but you should arrive at the church at least an hour in advance. The fact is that the holiday causes great excitement among believers, and therefore, by 23:00, queues of people wishing to attend the service gather near the churches. In small churches there are few parishioners, but getting to services in the main shrines of the country (for example, the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood) can be extremely difficult. Despite this, all believers try to behave calmly and do not push each other apart.
Easter cakes, painted eggs and other holiday food should be blessed in advance, on Saturday morning, since there will be too many people at the Easter service, and such an opportunity will most likely not arise.
The first stages of the Easter service
Church services on Easter are a very important event for clergy, so every priest on this day is dressed in ceremonial attire. Half an hour before midnight, the shroud is brought into the church through the royal doors, and the service is considered officially open. People present at the service light candles, which creates a truly magical atmosphere in the temple.
The initial stages of church worship have the following features:
- throughout the service, bells ring, announcing the beginning of the holiday;
- the singing of the stichera occurs three times, and each time the clergy raise their voices by a tone;
- during the singing of the third stichera, the clergy move from the altar to the middle of the temple;
- parishioners also sing along with the church ministers, after which the ringing begins, and people go out into the street to perform a religious procession around the temple.
With the beginning of the religious procession, all parishioners move around the church to the ringing singing of the clergy. Usually they walk around the church three times, after which they stop at the western gate, blessing it with a cross. At this stage, the singing subsides, after which the clergyman begins to bless the parishioners and the church itself with a censer, marking the image of a cross on the western gate of the temple.
Easter Matins
The beginning of the Easter service is more like a sacrament and has a certain mystery, while Matins consists of joyful chants and reading of the canon. At the beginning of Matins, all parishioners return to the church, the doors remain open.
- singing of the canon and stichera;
- solemn reading of the gospel;
- reading the prayer behind the pulpit.
The service on Easter night does not end with the reading of the prayer behind the pulpit, because after this the sacred bread, which in Greek is called artos, is brought to a special altar in front of the icon with the image of the risen Christ. It is prepared according to a special recipe and consecrated by church ministers. Artos remains on the altar for several days.
Actually, this is where the Easter liturgy ends, and the festive bell ringing. Now believers have the opportunity to approach the cross, pray and congratulate each other on the coming of Easter.
Duration of the celebration and proper preparation for it
How long the Easter service lasts is very often of interest to people who have never been to this festive service. The standard duration of such a service is 5 hours. 
The long duration is due to the importance of the festive event and the abundance of various traditions. As mentioned above, the service begins at 00:00, but usually all believers try to arrive at the church by 23:00, taking their places in the temple and praying before the sacred service.
The order of the Easter service is quite strict, so when going to church, you should choose comfortable and closed clothes. Women should cover their heads with a scarf, hiding their hair.
This festive event ends around four o'clock in the morning, after which believers can go home. IN Orthodox Church it is very important to defend the entire service from beginning to end, since in this way a person confirms his faith.
It is also interesting that before the start of the service, every believer must properly prepare for the approaching celebration. Typically, such preparation begins 7 weeks before the holiday, because this is when Lent begins. During this entire time, the believer limits himself to the consumption of food. 
IN Maundy Thursday(it falls on last week fast) a person needs to spend general cleaning in my house. Lent ends on Saturday, just before Easter. On this day, it is necessary to prepare holiday treats such as Easter cakes and eggs. All these dishes should be put in a basket and taken to church in order to consecrate them.
Before entering the church you must cross yourself three times. A cross is drawn every time certain church phrases are used (for example, “In the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit”).
A few more important points of church worship
Everyone who has attended it at least once in their life knows the course of the Easter service. It is important not only to fully defend the service, but also to behave correctly in the process. What standards of behavior in the temple should be remembered:
Happy ending holiday prayers Easter is not over. Before leaving the church, a person must cross himself three times in a bow, going home.
The festive night Easter service started in the main Orthodox Cathedral Russia - Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The solemn service was led by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus'. Present in the temple are Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, capital mayor Sergei Sobyanin and other public and political figures. The presence of the country's leaders at festive services has become a tradition since 2001, when the first Easter service was held in the restored Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
“I wish each of you to feel the special joy of contact with the risen Christ this night,” said the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church before the start of the service. The Patriarch noted that people visiting the temple on this night “know that there is a special state in the heart.” According to him, the point is not in the pomp of the service or the soulfulness of the choir’s singing: “We know that even in the simplest churches, where there is no such celebration as in cathedrals, people receive special joy in their hearts and live with this joy" (quote from Interfax).
The Patriarch called on believers in difficult moments of life to remember the Easter joy and the grace of the resurrection of Christ. “May his grace, his power, Christ who conquered death, strengthen us in our faith and help us walk along life path", said the First Hierarch.
Several thousand believers gathered in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. According to eyewitnesses, this year there were especially many young people among those gathered.
The Holy Fire was delivered to Moscow from Jerusalem
On Saturday, a plane with a delegation from the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation landed at Vnukovo International Airport, which delivered the Holy Fire from Jerusalem to Moscow. The shrine from the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher was brought on special flights, RIA Novosti reports.
The fire was delivered in special lamps, similar to those used to transport the Olympic flame.
The Holy Fire symbolizes the miraculous light of the Resurrection of Christ, which the Apostle Peter spoke about. The fire is lit annually in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on the eve of Easter through the prayers of the Patriarch of Jerusalem and other representatives of the Orthodox clergy and tens of thousands of pilgrims.
In Moscow, the delegation of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation was met by hundreds of believers who will be able to receive particles Holy Fire to bring the shrine to their homes and temples.
Around midnight in the main cathedral of Russia, as well as in all Orthodox churches countries and abroad, a procession of the cross takes place: to the ringing of bells, the clergy and parishioners with lighted candles, glorifying the Lord, leave the temple, as if to meet the Savior. Walking around the temple, they stop in front of closed doors, as before the entrance to the Cave of the Holy Sepulcher. To the singing of the troparion “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and giving life to those in the tombs!” - the doors open, worshipers enter the church and the singing of the Easter canon begins.
From this moment until the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, which is celebrated on the fortieth day after Easter, believers greet each other with the words: “Christ is Risen! - Truly Risen!”
Although Easter is celebrated for 40 days, the most solemn week is the first week of the holiday, Bright Week. Throughout this week, divine services of extraordinary beauty are held, which exactly repeat the service of Easter night with procession of the cross, and the doors of the altars of all church altars are open as a symbol of the open gates of heaven. In addition, everyone can ring the bells to express the joy of the holiday - this opportunity is provided in almost all temples. But visiting cemeteries, contrary to the prevailing Soviet time traditions, it is not accepted for Easter - this can be done on Radonitsa on April 21. This day is sometimes called the Passover of the Dead.
history of the holiday
The celebration of Easter - the victory of Jesus Christ over death, his “rising from the dead” - was established in apostolic times. In the first centuries, Christian communities celebrated Easter at different times. In the East, in the Churches of Asia Minor, it was celebrated simultaneously with the Jewish Passover - the 14th of Nisan according to the Jewish calendar, regardless of what day of the week the holiday fell on.
The Western Church celebrated Easter on the first Sunday after the spring equinox. The first attempt to establish a single rule for the celebration of Easter for all Churches was made by St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, in the middle of the 2nd century. But the final decision on a single celebration of Easter was made only on the First Ecumenical Council, held in the city of Nicaea (modern Iznik, Türkiye) in 325. The Council decided that Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the vernal equinox and the full moon, provided that it never coincided with the Jewish Passover.
Thus, Easter is a moving holiday, falling every year on a different date from March 22 to April 25. These numbers are determined by a special table, Paschalia, which indicates the dates of Easter celebrations for many years in advance.
The Easter service is particularly solemn. Before it begins, all the lamps in the temples are lit and all those present stand with candles as a sign of special spiritual joy. Since the time of the apostles, the Easter service has been celebrated at night. Like the ancient chosen people, who were awake on the night of their deliverance from Egyptian slavery, Christians are also awake on the sacred night of the Resurrection of Christ.
The main Easter celebrations continue throughout the following week, called Bright Week, and end on the eighth day - Sunday (the second Sunday after Easter).
