PART FIVE · 6 ENTRIES
The Week and the Year
- 1Vespers, Vigil, and the Daily RoundThe Church's day begins at sunset with Vespers; on Saturday nights and the eves of feasts it grows into the Vigil, and the Hours and Compline fill in the rest of the day.
- 2Other Services You'll MeetBesides the Liturgy, Vespers and Matins, parishes serve the Presanctified Liturgy on Lenten weekdays, the Akathist and the Paraklesis to the Theotokos, the moleben for particular needs, and the litiya on the eves of feasts.
- 3The Church Year: Feasts, Fasts, and Pascha Every SundayThe Orthodox year turns on Pascha, with twelve Great Feasts, four fasting seasons, a weekly cycle in which every Sunday is a feast of the Resurrection, and a liturgical new year on September 1.
- 4Why Is Orthodox Easter on a Different Date?East and West use the same basic rule for Easter but different calendars and moon tables, so Orthodox Pascha usually falls later, sometimes on the same Sunday; separately, some Orthodox churches keep the fixed feasts on the Julian calendar, thirteen days behind.
- 5Holy Week and PaschaHoly Week walks day by day from Palm Sunday through the Cross and the tomb to the midnight Resurrection service of Pascha, the oldest and largest feast of the Christian year.
- 6Why Orthodox Music Sounds Like ThatOrthodox services are sung almost entirely, by unaccompanied voices, in a system of eight tones that changes week by week; the Byzantine and Slavic traditions sound different but do the same job.
