“How do I bury you, my son?”, “Do not mourn, mother, this is done to free Adam and Eve”, is answered from the Third stanza of the Praises and elsewhere, with the certainty of the Resurrection, “I am resurrected and raised in glorify unfailingly as their God in faith and I long for you growing.”
Holy and Great Friday is the day of the passion, the day of the supreme sacrifice, the day of the “extreme humiliation” of the Lord. It is a day of mourning and fasting for all of Christianity, as then the Divine Drama of Christ’s Passion culminates.
There is no Divine Liturgy in the church, due to the mourning nature of the day. In the morning, the service of the Great Hours and the Vespers of the Immobilization take place, when Christ is also immobilized and placed on the Epitaph, which has been prepared since the dawn of the same day. Young girls decorate the Epitaph with spring flowers (violets, roses and menexes) and make wreaths or garlands, while chanting the obituaries of the Virgin Mary.
In the evening, the Service of the Epitaphian Lamentation takes place, i.e. the Orthros of the Great Sabbath, followed by the procession of the Epitaphian, (the funeral and burial, as it were, of Christ) and the so-called Praises of the Epitaphian Lament are sung in three positions (parts) , little tropes very dear to the people, unknown poet. The most well-known are: (“Life in the grave…”, “Ai geneai passai…”, “Axion esti…” and “Oh my sweet Ear…”).
The Cross and the Hexapteryga lead the procession, followed by the priests and the faithful, who hold lighted candles. In the cities they are preceded by musicians, who play mournful paeans.
After the return of the Epitaph to the church, a passage from the Gospel of Matthew is read (kj’ 62-66): Chief priests and Pharisees go to Pontius Pilate and ask him to seal the tomb, because they remember that the Lord in an abhorrence of his words had said that in three days he will rise again. Pilate gives them permission… And the faithful, upon entering the temple, pass under the Epitaph, to be blessed.
Throughout the day the bells ring mournfully throughout Greece and traditionally all work is prohibited and a salt fast is observed. In Crete they are used to boiling snails and drinking their juice, which is like bile. Besides, in many areas of the country, today, an effigy of Judas is made and burned.
Also, on the same day, many believers visit the graves of relatives and friends.
“Life in the grave
rest, Christ,
and angelic soldiers were amazed,
condescendingly glorifying St.
Worthy home
grow in the Creator of all things;
we have your sufferings
apathy, torn by wear and tear.
All the generations
hymn your burial
they offer, my Christ.
oh sweet ear
my sweetest child,
where is your beauty?’
#Good #Friday #Life #grave #climax #Divine #Drama
