Do you want to know more about the procession for Easter in 2019? On the eve of this holiday, which is celebrated by Orthodox believers on April 28, 2019, church services are held in churches.

Divine services are especially solemn on the night from Saturday to Sunday. It goes on all night and is called Vespers.

When and how is the procession for Easter in 2019? What time is the procession for Easter? Let's talk about this in more detail.

This procession got its name because it is usually led by a priest who carries a large cross. Other clergy carry icons and banners.

On Easter, a lantern is carried in front of the procession, followed by an altar cross, the altarpiece of the Mother of God, the Gospel, the icon of the Resurrection. The procession ends with the primate of the temple with a tri-candlestick and a cross.

In Orthodoxy, there are long and short religious processions. The procession on Easter, as a rule, is short-lived.

Where and when does the procession take place on Easter?

Church service on Holy Saturday begins in the evening, at 20.00. And the procession takes place on the night from Saturday to Sunday.

What time is the procession for Easter? This action takes place around midnight. All clergy stand in order at the Throne. Priests and worshipers in the temple light candles. The solemn ringing of bells - the bells - heralds the onset of the great minute of the bright holiday - the resurrection of Christ.

The clergy and the flock go around the temple three times, each time stopping at its door. The first two times the doors are closed, and the third time they open. The doors symbolize the stone that closed the Holy Sepulcher and was thrown away on the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now you know when and how the procession for Easter takes place. After the procession, with the onset of Easter, the priests change into white festive robes and the service continues.

Bright Matins begins, during which joyful exclamations sound: “Christ is Risen!” “Truly Risen!” After the festive liturgy, at about 4 o'clock in the morning, the faithful break their fast with colored eggs, pieces of Easter cake or Easter.

If on the eve, during the days of Passion Week, the bells in the churches were silent, then on Easter week, the good news is heard everywhere. On Easter, it is customary to visit friends and relatives, treat yourself and treat others.

In the old days, these days people organized festivities, danced round dances, swung on a swing. This holiday is widely celebrated in our time.

PROCESSION
a solemn procession with a cross, banners and icons, accompanied by prayers for the mercy of God on this or that occasion. The reasons for the processions were both certain constant holidays, the days of saints and miraculous icons, and specific circumstances that each time required the appointment of a date - the beginning and end of agricultural work, the first cattle pasture, drought, continuous rains, epidemics and epizootics, the need to consecrate certain places (crossroads, wells, etc.).
During a drought, for example, in Bobrovsky district. Voronezh province. The procession to the fields took place as follows. “On the appointed day, everyone gathers in church and, having stood for matins and liturgy, they raise icons and banners and go around the whole field. They walk ahead with icons, behind them - a priest, dressed in a phelonion and stole, carries a cross; the accompanying clergy sing the voices of the Mother of God and various spiritual songs; the clergy are followed by people of different sex and age. In five places, chosen in advance, the whole process stops, and prayers with blessing of water are served. The first prayer service was dedicated to the Savior; at the end of the prayer service, everyone venerated the cross and the priest sprinkled each with holy water; the remaining water was poured onto the arable land. The second prayer service was dedicated to the Mother of God; the third is St. Nicholas; the fourth - the prophet. Ilya. The fifth was a prayer service for lack of rain.
In other places, a prayer service for rain during a drought was built in a slightly different way: they stopped not at predetermined places, but as St. water. This variant was described in detail in 1856 according to the Zaraisk region. Ryazan province. It all started with conversations between peasants, concerned about the state of the bread. The religious basis of this preliminary discussion is evident from the notes of a contemporary of the event: “Bad; God does not give rain,” says one. “It is evident that the Lord God was angered,” notes another, “I recently went to the field: it hurts badly, and I would not look. The oats have not even risen a quarter from the ground, and they are already brushing, along the mounds they have completely turned yellow, burned down. - “It’s time to raise the image,” says the third, “out, the third day the Mukhins raised it.” - “And in Rudnev they raised it yesterday,” the fifth remarks, and the example of the neighbors finally decides the issue.
The day for raising the images was most often chosen as a holiday. They turned to the priest in the evening - "here, they say, they want to raise the image." In the morning all the peasants and women free from households and children went to church. “After listening to the matins, they take banners, all the images worn on Easter, the image of Elijah the prophet and, preceded by the priest, while singing the clergy, go to the village.” This procession was given such importance that, as we see from the above evidence, the composition of the icons was the same as for Easter. The image of Elijah the Prophet, who, as you know, was always addressed with prayers for rain, is especially stipulated.
The first stop, after all, in this version was made in a certain place - on a pasture, near the chapel. There they served a prayer service for rain with blessing of water and kneeling. After the prayer service, the procession went either around “the whole dacha, along the general boundaries” (that is, they went around all the land belonging to this community), or they walked only around the fields currently under the bread. The priest sprinkled the fields of St. water, which was accompanied by the singing of prayers. Having traveled a considerable distance, the procession stopped, as St. water. They refilled the water-blessing bowl from a nearby reservoir and again served a prayer service with water blessing, after which the passage moved on. When they went around the whole dacha, they served three or five prayers, and sometimes more.
If there was a crossroads or a crossroads near the dacha of a village, then permanent chapels were set up there (in this case, a column with a small icon under the roof), near which the processions stopped when they went around the fields. Everyone could carry the image during the procession; there were many of them, so they often changed; but those who carried the icon under a vow did not give it to anyone. The priest was paid for this service by the whole world, making the layout in the courtyards of the community.
Similar religious processions with prayers were also performed in connection with other causes of crop failures. They could include the consecration of wells, bypassing the village itself and going out into the field, making water blessings at crossroads. Sometimes, after the prayer service, lunch was made in the field.
A prayer service in the fields for an end to the drought, preceded by a memorial service at the cemetery, was described in his memoirs by Met. Veniamin (Fedchenkov). He came from serfs and, being a student of the Theological Academy (the first years of the 20th century), came to his native village in Kirsanovsky district. Tambov province. There he sang in the kliros. And then one day, in a dry summer, a group of peasants approached the kliroshans and asked them to convey to the priest a request: to perform a prayer service in the fields for rain. The priest agreed. “Men and women took the cross, gonfalons, icons and went to the ringing of bells ... where to? To our common cemetery ... And there we first served a memorial service for all the dead. It turned out, as the priest explained to me along the way, this custom was practiced from time immemorial: the living prayed for the dead, so that they would pray to God there for the needs of their living descendants and loved ones ... A wise and touching custom of Holy Russia ... At this time, our dear women - the pilgrims rushed to different ends of the cemetery, to their native graves, and in some places a plaintive cry was heard ... Then we went singing prayers through the fields. What fervent prayers they were! Even now I can't help but cry of pity and tenderness for these God's children... And more than once in the fields such thoughts came to me: “Lord! You cannot but hear these poor children of Yours! For their faith, for their tears, You will give them what they need! Give it! Give!” my heart almost demanded a miracle.
And it happened... On that day or the next, it started to rain... And I don’t remember a case in my life when such prayers were generally left unfulfilled.”
In other reports from the field, according to the programs of scientific societies, “processions of the cross in the field for prayer” were singled out for three reasons: due to drought, for greenery (that is, for the consecration of young seedlings of grain) and during sowing. In the latter case, the priest, after a prayer service with the blessing of water, himself threw the first handful of seed grain onto the arable land, taking it from the seeder, where the harvested grain was mixed - from each yard. Then he walked along the edge of the field across all lanes, accompanied by a deacon with a water-blessing bowl and sprinkled. And immediately behind him moved the peasant, chosen at the gathering for the sowing initiative.
Informants from Mosalsky and Zhizdrinsky districts. Kaluga province. emphasized as reasons for prayers in the field - plowing, sowing and reaping. At the same time, they wrote that they were serving “before the icons”, that is, the prayer service was also preceded by a procession here. Prayer in the field, associated with sowing, could be before the sowing of bread, during it and at the end. For example, in the village of Pochaevo and the villages related to it (Tarussky district of the Kaluga province), after the spring sowing of bread, public prayers were served, that is, ordered by the community. They didn't work that day.
Prayers from natural disasters were performed in places not only when trouble had already visited the given area, but they were served annually on certain days established by tradition, regardless of the weather. So, in the village of Meshkov (Orlovsky district of the province of the same name), there were annual prayer services in the field on the last Sunday before the Ascension - from the drought; on Kazanskaya (July 8) - from hail.
Regarding the prayers that the peasants asked for, both in prosperous and in unfavorable times, T. Uspensky explained in 1859: “The processions to the fields are made according to ancient custom, mainly during droughts, unexpected and untimely cold, etc. .; prayers are made propitiatory. But the passages are not postponed even when everything favors the growth of grain plants and promises abundant fruits; but then prayers are thanksgiving.”
If religious processions and prayers associated with the beginning or end of certain stages of agricultural work were appointed mainly according to circumstances, then a prayer service on the occasion of the first pasture of cattle was universally customary to coincide with the day of St. George (Yuriev, or Yegoriev's Day) - April 23 (May 6, n.s.). So, in Bryansk Oryol province. on this day, according to the correspondent of the Tenishevsky bureau, all the peasants drove all the cattle into the field and served a prayer service.
A special place in the annual system of processions and prayers was occupied by services dedicated to specific saints, as well as those associated with holy springs or wells and chapels. The passages to local shrines could be addressed to a particular saint, but they might not have such a connection. Consider some options for such moves with prayers.
In the parish with Korotska (Valdai district, Novgorod province) “on the day of the martyr Friday, there is a procession from the church to the chapel, 14 miles away and arranged near the swamp on the Key. The chapel was built in ancient times on the following occasion, as the legend says. Here appeared the icon of the military center. Paraskeva; the icon was transferred three times from the chapel to the church, but returned back there until copies were made of it and placed in the chapel. On this day, pilgrims, especially women, according to vows or faith in the healing waters, consider it an indispensable duty to bathe in the springs that beat near the chapel. Such a variant was a widespread expression of popular piety: a religious procession to a chapel dedicated to a particular saint and having an icon of that saint. Most often, local legend about the appearance of an icon or about the construction of a chapel was also preserved. Such a move was timed, of course, to the day of this saint.
In the same parish on the day of St. Tikhon, a religious procession was made from the church to the grave of his parents (St. Tikhon of Zadonsk was born in the village of Korotsko) to serve lithium. It was established from August 13, 1861, that is, from the day of the glorification of the saint.
In with. Kuzhenkino of the same county took place annually "on the heel before Ivanov's day, otherwise on Ivanovo Friday" a religious procession to St. a spring, "remarkable for its clean and pleasant water." No legend has been preserved about the time and reasons for the establishment of this passage in the village already in the 1860s. The Friday before the day of John the Baptist was one of the twelve Fridays of the year especially revered by the people. It can be assumed that some time ago, according to the prayers addressed to John the Baptist, some event occurred related to this spring.
In other cases, the collective memory of such events persisted into the end of the 19th century. (and sometimes keeps to this day) even the details of the life of the saint, related to this shrine. In the village of Pogorelov (on the river Uyatom) Poshekhonsky district. Yaroslavl province. it was known that the well, the water of which was considered holy and, accordingly, healing, was dug by St. Cornelius. A religious procession was made to the well every year. In the same county in Pokrovsky (on the river Keshtom) was a well dug with his own hands by St. Leonid, an associate of the martyr. Hegumen Adrian, Wonderworker of Poshekhonsk. The stone chapel, to which the procession was held annually, was built, according to legend, on the spot where St. Leonid. The chapel even preserved a stone that served as a headboard for the saint.
There were many such religious processions dedicated to a particular shrine, which gathered thousands of pilgrims from different places. This was usually in cases where the shrine had a long-standing wide popularity, and the move itself counted hundreds of years from its foundation. Such was the case, for example, in the 19th century. move from Vyatka to the village. Velikoretskoye with the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. “Who does not know how religious processions are made in Russia? - writes A. Voznesensky, author of a study on the veneration of St. Nicholas of Myra in Russia, who described, in particular, this move. - At this time, dedicated to the special honoring of the shrine, each of the local and visiting pilgrims considers it their duty not only to bow to the shrine, but also to give praise to it and ask for mercy from the Lord and His saints through it in a special prayer singing. So, in two days, for this purpose, huge masses begin to arrive, both the surrounding and most distant inhabitants of the Vyatka land for the procession. On May 21, after the liturgy, the entire mass of many thousands of pilgrims-newcomers with the townspeople, with the bishops, the clergy of the city and the images of all the churches at the head, with church singing and the sounds of military music (“How glorious is our Lord”), is directed along the gentle descent from the cathedral to the river embankment Vyatka. Here a prayer service is performed to the Pleasant in front of his miraculous icon: the city, as it were, says goodbye for a while to its shrine-treasure, and then the image on a special beautiful boat, under a blue canopy, is transported to the other side of the river in order to proceed through the villages lying on the road: Makaryevskoye, Bobinskoye , Zagorskoye, Monastyrskoye and Gorokhovskoye, further to the village of Velikoretskoye.
For a long time, this procession, like some other Vyatka processions, was made by water on plows or rafts - along the Vyatka and Velikaya rivers; from 1778, by special decision, they began to make it overland, with the exception of crossings, of course. In the end of the XIX century. the crossing of people with the icon through Vyatka was accompanied by church singing and the ringing of bells, the banks were strewn with pilgrims. Most of them continued to participate in the procession to the river. Great; in with. Two prayer services served in Velikoretsky: in the ancient church of the Transfiguration, where the image of the Saint remained from May 24 to 26, and in the newer church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which had its own local venerated icon of him, called "Inhabitant".
On May 24, after the liturgy, the procession went to a vast stone chapel located in the forest, in a clearing, directly at the place where the icon was found. In the middle of the chapel is a well over a spring, which, according to legend, came from under the roots of the pine tree on which the image was once found. Then the pilgrims went to serve memorial services at a cemetery located not far from the chapel, where there was a wooden church of the 17th century.
The procession with the icon of St. Nikolai Ugodnik from the village of Velikoretsky (left on May 26) to Vyatka in a different way - through the village. Medyanskoe. Seven miles from Vyatka, he was solemnly greeted at the chapel of St. Fileyki, where the images remained the next day. On May 28, the passage entered Vyatka, where a liturgy took place with a bishop's service and a prayer service. After that, the miraculous image began to move with other locally venerated icons - the Kura Archangel Michael and the Tikhvin Mother of God - through the homes of those townspeople who wanted to serve a prayer service.
This multi-day and multi-stage procession, which, in essence, was a system of processions with prayers, was itself part of a large system of processions with a particularly revered image of the Saint of Myra in the Vyatka province. On June 1, all three of the above-mentioned icons set off on a new religious procession, called Kurinsky - through the villages and villages of the three counties closest to Vyatka, from which they returned to the center of the diocese only on July 16, visiting 1 city and 47 villages. Then the images were taken by other cities and villages of the region: the Vyatka Grassroots procession included in the end of the 19th century. 6 cities, 1 settlement and 87 villages; and Verkhovoy (Sarapuls) - 3 cities, 8 factories and 102 villages. The tradition of religious processions with the Velikoretsk miraculous image of St. Nicholas the Pleasant in other cities of the Vyatka region had deep historical roots: in 1569, miracles from this icon were noted in the city of Kotelnich, and in 1572 - in Slobodsky, etc.
The Vyatka system of religious processions with a specific image was no exception. Similar phenomena of folk spiritual life occurred in other regions. Processions with the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God from the Iversky Valdai Monastery covered numerous cities and villages of the Novgorod and Tver provinces - the entire system of these passages took almost half a year.
If the revered image was carried over long distances in a carriage, then all the same, its movement was accompanied by many oncoming moves. Such were, for example, trips with the Kaluga Icon of the Mother of God through the Kaluga and Tula provinces. One of the indispensable participants in these trips in the middle. 19th century - the clerk P.P. Shansky (the future schemamonk Peter) described them in detail in letters to his daughter. We will give here his story about a visit with the miraculous icon to the city of Aleksin and its environs. “We went there (from Aleksin to Myshinka. - M.G.) in a carriage, at the ringing in all churches. It is terrible to say how many people took to the streets, believing that the icon had completely disappeared. Above the river (Oka. - M.G.), facing the Mouse, the mountain presented a solemn spectacle: it was literally all dotted with people in festive attire. The people stood until we arrived at Myshinka. The next day we returned back to the city. The icon was again greeted by ringing in all the churches. The people came out to meet the whole - from small to large. From behind the bridge they took the icon and carried it as if through the air. Everyone fixed their eyes on the face of the Most Pure Mother of God. After bringing the icon, we should have served prayers on the embankment, but for their celebration we went outside the city, to the last street. And it is impossible to describe this solemn procession without tears. And in the first house where we served, no flowers were sent, but, to our surprise, the fragrance was inexpressible. After the service of the prayer service, the townspeople dispersed to their homes, only those who came from the villages did not leave; for them, through every 5 houses, we served prayers in the street. The leader of the nobles wanted to ask the Priest. Synod about permission to visit 40 volosts, but there is still no answer. The disease (cholera. - M.G.) in the city stopped from the 1st day.
Regarding the spiritual impressions received by P.P. Shansky on these trips, in his biography, the following assessment is given, concerning not so much the clerk himself, but the state of the people's faith: “How much he saw indisputable evidence of the triumph of our faith and hope! For forty years he was a constant witness of people's love, reverence and worship of the Great God and His Most Pure Mother; for forty years he was a witness of the inexpressible mercy of the Queen of Heaven to this people, so sensitive to the trends of Divine grace.
Above, the movement of religious processions, meeting the traveling shrine, was noted. There was also a different structure of complex processions, formed from many simple processions: from several settlements - the centers of parishes scattered over a vast territory, independent religious processions moved on a certain day to one point where there was a shrine or several shrines. Such a center of the simultaneous movement of many religious processions, as if along radial routes, could be a monastery. For example, in the Belogorsk St. Nicholas Monastery (Osinsky district of the Perm province), located on one of the spurs of the Ural Mountains, on the day of All Saints there were religious processions from neighboring villages and factories. A solemn prayer service was served at the Royal Cross, built from huge mast trees and consecrated in memory of the salvation of the imp. Nicholas II from an assassination attempt. Here, the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God, a copy of the Athos Icon, was especially revered.
Let us also note the features of the annual religious processions with the relics of saints, which were preserved throughout the 19th century. in many monasteries and separate temples that possessed such shrines. Usually these were passages around a temple or a monastery, but some of them acquired complex routes with stops for prayers, consecrating a large space and attracting huge crowds of people from the surrounding villages and outside pilgrims from other counties and provinces. According to the observations of a pilgrim published in the 1840s, in Novgorod on April 30, the day the relics of St. Nikita, Bishop of Novgorod, in the morning, when the bells of the St. Sophia Cathedral (which by this time had eight centuries of existence) rang out, the people rushed from the trade and St. Sophia side to the Kremlin Square and filled it. Clergy from forty churches of the city itself and fourteen neighboring monasteries converged on the cathedral. The bishop, dressed in the 700-year-old vestments of St. Nikita, who were found along with the incorruptible relics, bowed before the reliquary, and the archimandrites raised the relics of the saint to the upper roof of the reliquary for a walk. “Prayer books that flocked from everywhere for this spectacle” knelt down.
The procession entered Sophia Square, filled with people, from under the arch of the archbishop's chambers: following the banners stretched "an endless row of clergy with candles in their hands, then deacons and priests with censers and ancient icons of the cathedral", then "the sacred body of St. Nikita, highly supported by ten archimandrites, abbots and builders of the monasteries of Novgorod. When the procession stopped at the southern doors of the cathedral for litiya, crowds of people "rushed to the relics in order to pass under them, according to the ancient Orthodox custom." “They wanted to stop the desire of the people for the shrine, but the pious Bishop Leonid, although he himself suffered more than others from the pressure of the crowd, ordered everyone to be allowed so that no one would be deprived of spiritual comfort.” Throughout the course, a prayer service was performed to St. Nikita.
The next day was the feast of the Midday, the bishop again served and went out with a procession to the Jordan to the Volkhov, "preceded by banners and crosses and all the ancient relics of Novgorod." They carried the miraculous icon of the Mother of God of the Sign. Past the bridge, "strewn with people", went down to the Volkhov, "covered with courts." From Jordan, the procession moved north, around the Kremlin wall and stopped for litia at the chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and the next lithium was on the square in front of the cathedral. "The people zealously threw themselves under the icon of the Sign."
Of interest are the rules of conduct during the procession, compiled by Met. Filaret about a specific procession from the Golutvin Monastery to Kolomna in memory of the cessation of cholera, but of a general nature.
“The clergy should remind themselves and others in good time,” these rules said, “that in order for this good undertaking to bear good fruit, for this it is necessary that the work of God be done with deep and uninterrupted reverent attention. When you enter the procession, think that you are walking under the leadership of the saints, whose icons are marching in it, approaching the Lord Himself, since our weakness is possible. The shrine of the earth marks and invokes the shrine of heaven; the presence of the Lord's cross and holy icons and the sprinkling of holy water purifies the air and earth from our sinful impurities, removes dark forces and brings light forces closer. Use this help for your faith and prayer and do not make it useless for you by your negligence. Hearing church singing in the procession, join your prayer with it; and if you can’t hear from a distance, call on the Lord, the Mother of God and His saints in the manner of prayer known to you. Do not enter into conversations with companions; and to the one who starts the conversation, answer with a silent bow or a brief word only necessary. The clergy should be an example of order and reverence, and the worldly should not crowd between the clergy and upset order. It does not matter if you lag behind in body: do not lag behind the shrine in spirit.
A special type was made up of one-time, non-repeating religious processions, appointed on some exceptionally solemn occasion of spiritual life. Despite the fact that they were organized "from above" - ​​by the church authorities and agreed with the secular ones, nevertheless, by the type of people's behavior, by virtue of the very reason for the celebrations, they were an expression of mass religiosity. Such was, for example, the procession from Moscow to the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra in the September days of 1892: on the occasion of the five hundredth anniversary of the repose of St. Sergius of Radonezh. The parishioners of Moscow churches carefully prepared for this move, ordering gonfalons with the image of the Reverend, the appearance of the Mother of God to him, and the images of the saints - his followers. During the march, not only more than seventy banners were carried in front, but also many icons, including miraculous icons known to all Muscovites: the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God from the Kremlin Assumption Cathedral, the image of St. Alexy from the Chudov Monastery, a copy of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God from the Iberian Chapel, the icon of St. Andronicus and Savva from the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery and St. Stephen of Perm from the church at the First Moscow Gymnasium.
On September 21, 1892, from early morning, crowds of people began to flock to the Kremlin, and at 8 o'clock in the morning, after a short prayer service, the procession moved through the Spassky Gate along Nikolskaya Street, towards Krestovskaya Zastava. One of the participants described the composition and prayerful mood of the procession as follows: “Majestically, slowly and smoothly, the procession moved, in a solid mass, damming the longest and widest streets of Moscow. A simple peasant woman in a tattered coat walked along with an elegant lady dressed in the latest fashion; an illiterate peasant walked next to a learned professor - both with uncovered heads, both with the same reverence for the Great Holiday ... One thought, one prayer animated this innumerable crowd, gave it life, merged all individuals into one huge whole, whose name is Russian land ".
Eyewitnesses testified that more than 300 thousand people participated in this procession within Moscow. From the Krestovsky outpost, the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God and part of the banners returned to the Kremlin, and the passage moved further along the Troitskoye Highway, and went to the Lavra from September 21 to 24, with an overnight stay in Bolshiye Mytishchi and Bratovshchina. Spiritual songs were sung around the fires at night. At the chapel "Cross", ten miles from Sergiev Posad, there was a meeting of Muscovites and pilgrims who joined them along the way with religious processions from Vladimir, Suzdal and Kovrov. From Sergiyev Posad, crowds of pilgrims came out to meet them. “Many were on their knees and fervently praying, others, from the fullness of the feeling that gripped them, could not refrain from tears.” At the walls of the monastery, Moscow and Vladimir pilgrims were met by a large religious procession of the Lavra. In the Trinity Cathedral, at the relics of the Reverend, Vespers were performed, and all night long a stream of pilgrims went to venerate the relics.
MM. Gromyko

After some time, the procession will begin, during which you have to walk about 20 km. How to behave during this event? This was told to us by Maxim Yuryevich Makarov, who is responsible for organizing and holding the II regional Tikhvin religious procession - the executive director of the Russian Community of the Kaliningrad Region.

Everyone is allowed to participate in the procession, whose appearance and behavior correspond to the meaning of the event and Orthodox traditions.

Participants in the procession use Orthodox canonical icons. The use of icons depicting people or events not canonized by the Church is not allowed.

The procession is not an unauthorized procession, but a type of church service, therefore, when participating in it, one must not forget about several important rules:

• if you cannot go through the entire route and want to join the procession later, when it has already begun, then you should not overtake those walking or go separately. Wait for the banner bearers and clergy to pass, and then join the column;
• a procession is a prayer procession. It is desirable for a crosswalker to participate in general prayer singing, or at least not to interfere with those praying with extraneous conversations;
• be attentive to those walking nearby. If you or your prayers become ill, seek help from the participants in the procession, who will call the doctors from the ambulance accompanying the procession or offer the victim to transfer to the bus accompanying the procession;
• the route of the procession is quite long - 20 km. Travel time is about 4-5 hours. Think in advance which part of the route you can overcome without harming your health. Remember that the main thing is the spiritual benefits of joint prayer, and not the number of kilometers traveled;
• think about what comfortable, if possible waterproof shoes to wear so that your feet do not get tired. If the weather forecast is unfavorable, it is better to take a raincoat with you, not an umbrella;
• don't forget to take any medicines you need with you.

Children under 18 go to the procession only with their parents or guardians. It is forbidden to participate in the procession of persons who are in a state of alcoholic or drug intoxication. Any public actions during the procession, contrary to the spirit and meaning of the holiday, are not allowed. When committing offenses during the procession, violators will be detained by the police officers accompanying the procession (traffic police) and they will be held accountable in accordance with applicable law.

During the procession, no public political campaigning is carried out, and the symbols of political parties are not used. Any slogans, flags, flyers, campaign items containing calls for national or religious hatred are not allowed.

Easter 2018, Easter procession, when it happens, what you need to know about the night Easter service

Easter, the main holiday of the Russian Orthodox Church, falls on April 8 in 2018. Traditionally, the Easter service takes place at night and includes the EASTER PROCESSION.

The procession for Easter begins at night, at 24:00, in remembrance of the fact that the holy myrrh-bearing women went to the tomb of the Savior "still exist tme" i.e. when it was dark.

The people gather in the temple in advance, since before that the Midnight Office is served, which begins on Saturday evening, at about 23:00. Believers prepare candles and lampadas - closed candlesticks, so that the wind does not extinguish the flame of candles on the street.

By the time the Midnight Office is over, the worshipers line up right in the temple to carry banners and icons. Ahead stands a carrier lantern with a candle. Behind him is a parishioner or clergyman carrying a cross. Behind them on both sides stand the parishioners of the temple with banners with the faces of Jesus Christ and the Virgin, but there are more of them. Most often, banner bearers are strong men, since carrying banners, especially if they are large, is not an easy task.

Behind the gonfalon bearers stands a parishioner with a festive icon of the Resurrection of Christ, then parishioners with other icons are arranged in two columns, often they are carried by women and teenagers. This whole group lines up in the temple, facing the exit, even before the end of the Midnight Office.

Procession for Easter 2018, when it starts, features

And so everyone prepared, for a moment, complete silence is established in the temple. When the time comes, the clergy and singers join those standing, the procession begins to move. The priest comes with a triple candlestick on which are located Easter candles, often in three colors - yellow, red and green. The altar servers carry a large candle and the Gospel, the deacon burns incense. In the hands of the parishioners are lit candles, often red. When the procession leaves the temple, its doors are closed.

After the exit, the procession begins bypassing the temple from left to right. At this time, the Blagovest is heard - the ringer strikes one bell. All those walking quietly sing along with the singers: “Thy Resurrection, Christ the Savior, the angels sing in heaven, and make us on earth glorify Thee with a pure heart.”

The procession goes around the temple, and if it is a monastery or a temple complex, then the bypass is made in the largest circle, uniting the buildings into a single one. Approaching the doors of the temple, from which everyone had left earlier, the priest, cruciformly censes with a censer and exclaims: Glory to the Holy and Consubstantial and Life-Giving and Indivisible Trinity ... In response, “Amen” is heard and the Paschal Troparion is sung for the first time. At this time, the bells start ringing. Then, with the singing of the Paschal stichera, the people enter the temple and the divine service begins.

Procession for Easter 2018, when it starts, features

Easter processions with the reading of the Gospel and the sprinkling of those praying during Bright Week are performed daily, after the liturgy. Before the Ascension, processions take place once a week - after the Sunday morning service.

Religious traditions are slowly but surely returning to our lives. On Easter, even people of little faith are happy to color eggs, buy, bake Easter cakes, and cook paska. It seems that a miracle will happen on this day, people will become kinder, happier, dearer, more sociable. True believers Orthodox people have already washed everything on Maundy Thursday, prepared and are going to go through the “path of the soul” - the procession. So, how the procession for Easter 2018 is carried out, when it will be, varieties, process and a lot of interesting things - later in the article.

Interesting! The Jews were among the first to pass the prototype of the procession. They made a long journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. How to cook for Easter.

What is the procession?

The procession with external and altar crosses gave the name to the move. It is distinguished by special solemnity. The clergy, together with the flock, with church banners, icons and shrines, make a procession around the temple, from one church to another or to some holy place. On Epiphany, the procession goes from the church to the "Jordan" - a special ice hole. It is cut down for the festive illumination of water in the form of a cross.

Interesting! Kings Solomon and David participated in the prototypes of the procession, so the procession has a long history.

Interesting! The very first naval religious procession passed along the Black Sea, in honor of the canonization of the most talented naval commander F.F. Ushakov.

It is wrong to think that the procession is always festive and joyful. The procession with the shroud, which is held on Holy Week, is suffering, sorrow and crying. By doing it, they remember the burial of Christ.

Easter Procession

Its antipode is the Easter procession. The procession commemorates the meeting of the myrrh-bearing women with the Risen Jesus Christ. The Bright Resurrection of Christ is distinguished by special solemnity. In the temple, all dark clothes are replaced by light ones. Believers come to the temple for the festive evening service, which begins on Holy Saturday and continues after midnight. The procession is an integral part of it and runs until midnight.

Interesting! The procession around the Russian Orthodox Church moves counterclockwise, the Old Believers - clockwise, according to the movement of the sun.

The priest reads prayers and lights candles together with the faithful. The choir begins to quietly sing a song, which gradually gains strength and merges with the Paschal chime - in remembrance of the holy myrrh-bearing women who met the Risen Lord. It is at this moment that the procession begins, the priest and his flock go around the church three times to a jubilant chime. In the hands of the clergyman is the icon of the Resurrection.

Important! If there is only one clergyman in the temple, then the Gospel and the icon are carried by ordinary residents, thereby becoming direct participants in the sacrament.

The Procession of the Cross for Easter 2018 ends in front of the closed western doors of the church,
the bells are silent. The abbot, standing facing the East, marks the locked gates with a censer three times. After the clergy sing the troparion three times (a short song in which the essence of the holiday is revealed or the saints are glorified) - “Christ is Risen”, the doors of the temple open and everyone, rejoicing and rejoicing, enters it. This action symbolizes the entry of the myrrh-bearing women into Jerusalem with the joyful news of the Resurrection of the Savior.

Important! On Easter, Orthodox people greet each other with the words “Christ is Risen!”, To which you must answer “Truly Risen!”

Throughout the Easter week, the doors in all temples and churches are kept open, at this time the sky is closer than ever to us.

Interesting! Catholics, unlike Orthodox believers, make a procession after the service.