Easter service in the church in honor of the holiday begins somewhere around eleven o'clock at night on the day of Holy Saturday. There are chants, and at about midnight a solemn ceremony takes place. Priests in a large festive procession leave the temple, followed by believers. Three times the procession goes around the temple with songs, and then the priest announces that Christ is Risen. Believers begin to congratulate each other on the fact that Easter has come.

It is best to come to the church a few hours before midnight, there is no exact church rule here, and each parish will have its own exact beginning of the Easter service. But according to the rules for holding this festive service, a procession must be held somewhere at midnight, and somewhere at one thirty in the morning the morning festive liturgy in honor of Easter begins.

Important! Matins ends at about four in the morning. Previously, it was after this service that food was blessed, but now food is consecrated the day before on Great Saturday, so that at night there is no pandemonium and everyone has enough time and space to consecrate their Easter basket. However, the priests say that if it was not possible to consecrate the basket on Holy Saturday, you can come with it to the vigil and just go through the procession. This rite will allow you to consider your basket consecrated.

What time does the Easter service begin and end, basic rules:

1. On Great Saturday until midnight, the Acts of the Holy Apostles are read in churches. Among other things, they contain clear evidence of how Jesus Christ was resurrected. Then, around midnight, the procession begins, and then the Paschal Vigil. The procession is a symbol of the flock following towards the resurrected Savior.
2. At the end of Matins, at about four in the morning, special Easter verses are sung as believers congratulate each other on the onset of the holiday. You need to kiss three times, give Easter cakes and painted eggs, and also say the words “Christ is Risen”, to which you need to answer “Truly Risen!”.
3. Morning gradually passes into the Divine Liturgy, the sacrament of Communion passes. If you plan to take communion on Easter morning, then on the eve of Holy Week, you should find time to confess.

How to behave in the temple

It is worth remembering that in the temple you need to dress modestly, closed clothes. Women are advised to wear a long skirt or dress, yet you are going to a festive service and you need to try to find suitable clothes for this. At the same time, men, entering the temple, must remove their headdress. But women and girls need, on the contrary, to cover their heads. This is not necessarily a scarf, a hat or hat is also suitable: but modest, without too much pathos. You came to the temple, not to the fashion podium.

Before entering the temple, you need to stop at its door and cross yourself three times, bowing each time to the very ground. Also remember that you need to turn your face towards the entrance to the temple and cross yourself with a bow three times when leaving the temple after the service. During the service, behave quietly and humbly, do not push around and spread joy around you, not irritation. If you take children with you to the vigil, then you need to explain to them separately how to behave in the temple: do not make noise, do not shout or laugh, stand in one place.

It is also worth recalling that when there is a divine service, you can not turn your back to the altar. Also note that women are always prohibited from entering the gates of the altar. As for men, this can be done with the special permission of the priest, and it is certainly better to postpone this event until calmer days, rather than the festive Easter service.

Currently, the main Easter service begins on Sunday night, when the Church begins to solemnly celebrate the feast of the Resurrection of Christ. This tradition goes back to the early Christians. Already in ancient times (in the first centuries of the spread of faith), believers were awake on the night of Easter, offering their prayers to the Lord.

Now the service on the night of Easter begins with the midnight office, where a special canon is read in front of the holy shroud, which lies in the center of the temple. The start time of Midnight Office is usually 23:00 on Holy Saturday. Sometimes this service starts at half past eleven. According to tradition, this divine service should end before Sunday.

At night, with the onset of Easter Sunday, a festive procession begins (12 a.m.), after which a festive matins is performed, turning into Easter hours and liturgy. The duration of the morning is about an hour. Thus, the beginning of the Divine Liturgy on the day of Easter of Christ falls at a time approximately at one o'clock in the morning on Sunday.

Note: the service of the Easter Liturgy may also begin later, for example at 1:30. This is due to the length of Matins and Paschal hours, during which festive hymns can be sung by the choir more drawn out and longer.

In the evening at Easter, a festive vespers is served. The beginning of this divine service may fall between 16:00 and 18:00, depending on the blessing of the rector of the parish.

Start time of Divine Liturgy on Holy Week

The days of Bright Week are marked by daily Easter services. In the evenings, Vespers, Matins and one Paschal hour are served, and in the morning Divine Liturgy services are performed in churches.

The start time of the evening service in different parishes varies from 16:00 to 18:00 (the most common start time for these services). Liturgy on Easter week begins at 8:00 or 9:00. Approximately half an hour (twenty minutes) before the start of the main Orthodox service, the singing of the Easter hours is performed.

Easter service is one of the most beautiful and solemn. Priests dressed in bright holiday clothes, the singing of the church choir, the ringing of bells in the air ... All this creates a unique atmosphere and penetrates the soul with majestic and important words for every believer: "Christ is Risen!".

Beginning of the Easter service

The service starts shortly before midnight. Its first part is called "Midnight Office" with the canon of Holy Saturday. During it, the Acts of the Apostles are read. After that, the ministers of the church transfer from the middle of the church to the altar and lay the shroud on the throne - the image of Christ in the tomb.

At the same time, the choir and priests sing: “For I will rise and be glorified.” The Shroud will remain on the Great Throne until the moment of the Giving of Pascha, that is, until the feast of the Ascension of the Lord.

Just before midnight, the bell ringing is born and gains power - Blagovest. He announces that the bright holiday has begun.

The priests thrice, at first very quietly, and then louder and louder, sing: “Thy Resurrection, Christ the Savior, the angels sing in heaven, and vouchsafe us on earth to glorify Thee with a pure heart.”

For the first time they sing with the Royal Doors closed and the veil drawn (katapetasma); the second time - louder, with the Gates closed, but with the veil open; the third - with the Royal Doors open and only half of the text. The choir sings the second half.

Matins and Procession

Exactly at midnight, Matins begins. To the sounds of the Blagovest, the clergy with a cross, banners, icons, incense and Easter lamps leave the altar and march through the entire church to the exit. This is a procession.

A lantern is carried in front, followed by a large altar cross, the image of the Virgin, and then they already go in pairs: banner bearers, singers, priests with large candles, deacons with censers and smaller candles, priests.

The last pair of priests carries the Gospel and the icon of the Resurrection. The primate of the temple closes the procession with three crossed and connected candles (trisveshnik) and another cross.

Three times the priests and parishioners go around the church counterclockwise. The laity have lit candles in their hands. The stichera sounds again, verse six: “Thy Resurrection, Christ the Savior, the angels sing in heaven, and make us on earth glorify Thee with a pure heart.” And above the church, the jubilant Easter chime, which replaced the Blagovest, soars up, symbolizing the joy of the news that Christ has risen.

During the procession, the priests repeatedly greet the parishioners with the words: “Christ is Risen!”, each time repeating them three times in a row. And the laity respond in a well-coordinated chorus: “Truly, He is Risen!”.

How is the Easter service in the church

After going around the church three times, the procession enters the narthex and stops in front of the closed doors of the temple. The bell ringing ceases, and the priest, having accepted the censer from the deacon, sprinkles the icons and parishioners with holy water. The rest of the ministers sing: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and bestowing life on those in the tombs.” The primate reads verses from the prophetic psalm: “Let God rise again,” to which the parishioners answer: “Christ is risen.”

After that, the stichera sounds, and again: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and bestowing life on those in the tombs.” The priest depicts the sign of the life-giving cross on the gate with a censer, and the gate opens.

Continuation of Matins

The Easter procession enters the church, festively decorated with flowers and numerous lit candles. The Easter service continues with the second part of Matins. During it, the Easter canon is sung and the "Word of St. John Chrysostom" is read, reminding the faithful about the meaning of Easter . Completing the Matins is the singing of the Pascha stichera: “Let us embrace each other, brethren! and we will forgive those who hate us all by the resurrection.”

Then the parishioners approach the priest, kiss the cross and christen ( approx. ed. - kiss three times) with the father. Many churches give out consecrated eggs (approx. red - colored eggs).

Every believing Orthodox Christian who plans to visit the temple on the eve of Easter, and especially the night service, has a very good and true message. If you do not know what time the Easter service begins and how it goes, then look for useful information in an accessible form in our material.

During the long Great Lent, forty days plus Passion Week, people prepared themselves spiritually, weakening their bodies, for the feast of the Resurrection of Christ. Great Saturday has already come - this is the last day of fasting, but very important and special. It is important to know what time the Easter service begins and ends today in order to become part of the annual Resurrection and bring joy, good news home about the coming of the holiday already from the church on the night from Saturday to Sunday.

During the year, the Easter service is a very important event, in 2019 it will be held on April 27.

Read interesting articles on the topic:

If you are going to a service in the temple, then focus somewhere around midnight from Saturday to Sunday. At this time, the festive midnight service begins. The service begins with the priest and the deacon going to the shroud, which was placed in the center of the church on Good Friday, and it will lie there until the Resurrection of Christ.

The Shroud is a symbol of the shroud with which the body of Christ was wrapped when he was taken down from the cross on Friday. It depicts the Savior crucified on the cross in full growth. It, as it were, symbolizes the time the Lord was in the cave, where he was buried and the shroud is located in the center of the temple until the moment when Christ is Risen, that is, already three hours after the start of the Paschal service, it will be taken back to the altar for a whole year.

Quiet hymns about the resurrection of Christ begin to be sung around midnight. Please note that at this time the Royal Doors of the altar will still be closed inside the temple and the priests will leave the side gates. Then the stichera is sung and the royal doors are opened, the voice of the priest and the choir becomes louder and more confident.

Procession for Easter

The Easter service continues with a procession around the church of priests and the entire flock. This action is called a religious procession and is carried out under the ringing of bells. At the beginning of the procession, they carry a lantern, then the altar cross and the image of the Mother of God, then go the deacons, who hold candles and a censer in their hands. The procession is completed by the priest, who carries the Gospel in his hands, and the second next to him - the icon of the Resurrection.

The procession goes around the temple three times, the flock follows the priests with all the necessary paraphernalia. Everyone stops each time in front of the closed gate on the western side of the entrance to the temple. For the last time, the ringing of the bells subsides, and in this silence every believer can hear the most important words that she has been waiting for so long: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampled down death by death and bestowed life (that is, life) in the graves.”

How long is the service

So, the Easter night service begins around midnight and lasts an average of several hours, ending around three in the morning. Decide whether to take the children to the temple on your own, after all, there will be a lot of people there and to defend such a time, it is quite difficult to make a religious procession.

With this, the festive service ended and the Divine Liturgy immediately begins. Many no longer stay on it - they rush home to tell their families and relatives the joyful news that Christ is Risen, that fasting and sorrow are over, and finally the long-awaited holiday has come, which will last not only on Sunday, but throughout the whole holiday week (popularly called Fomin's week).

About behavior in the church at the Easter service and not only:

• At the entrance to the church at any time, you need to cross yourself three times and bow near the doors. Orthodox are baptized with three fingers of the right hand.
• Remove gloves, for men it is obligatory to remove a headdress, and for a woman - to put on a headscarf.
• In a personal appeal to a priest, you need to start with the words "Father, bless." At the same time, the person should fold the palms crosswise and kiss the hand of the clergyman, with which he blessed. Next, you can ask your own questions.
• On Easter night, the temple is a place where a special and very important sacrament is performed. Due to the large number of people, this can be difficult, but still try not to stand with your back to the altar.
• If you decide to take children with you to the temple, you need to explain to them in advance how to behave there: do not make noise, do not run and do not be capricious, it is not allowed to talk loudly in the temple.
  Of course, you will need to turn off the phone, it is best to at least put it on silent mode.

The Easter service begins at midnight of the transition of the day from Holy Saturday, that is, on April 27, 2019, on the day of the Resurrection of Christ. The service starts at 00.00 and lasts about three hours. After the procession, the morning Divine Liturgy begins.

The most solemn throughout the year is the Easter service in the church, which always takes place at night. It is for this reason that this service is also called Vespers.

The service begins in different churches in different ways, but you can focus somewhere on the time one hour before midnight. Because, a lot of people have been gathering in the temple since ten in the evening, if the goal is to stand closer to the altar and take an active part in everything that happens in the temple, then it is important to come early.

Advice! After midnight, the procession takes place. That is, the priests leave the temple in an organized procession and go around the temple three times along with the entire flock, after which the priest congratulates everyone on the onset of Easter and pronounces the most important words for every Christian: "Christ is Risen." To get to the beginning of the procession, it is better to stand at the beginning of the service not closer to the altar, but closer to the exit from the temple. Because this is how the flock will leave the church behind the procession of priests. Whoever stands at the altar will be the last to leave the church and will complete the procession of the Cross.

Many people are wondering what time the Easter service begins and what time it ends. The solemn service begins at midnight, when a special canon dedicated to the shroud is read. It has been in the center of the temple since Good Friday (we remind you that the shroud is taken out in honor of the fabric in which the body of Jesus Christ, taken down from the cross, was wrapped, Christ is depicted in the tomb in full growth on the shroud).

Important! The Easter service begins at about 23.00 on Holy Saturday, ends in the morning from Saturday to Sunday at about 4.00 in the morning.

Vespers already in honor of the offensive begins on Saturday somewhere between 23.00 and midnight. This service ends before Christ's Sunday, because at about midnight the procession will already be organized. And then the festive morning begins. Then this divine service passes into the Divine Liturgy, which begins at about one in the morning.

On Paschal day itself, Vespers is served in the church, it will already be directly on Sunday, the day of Easter of Christ. The beginning of the festive supper on Sunday falls somewhere from 16.00 to 18.00, depending on the temple and the parish schedule.

Rules for preparing for worship in the church on Easter:

• Dress appropriately: clean and tidy, festive and modest. Women must wear a scarf to church, if possible, choose a long skirt or dress. Try not to wear clothes made of transparent fabrics and with a deep neckline to the temple, to give up cosmetics.
• You can safely go to the temple even during menstruation, although there is an opinion that it is impossible for a woman to go to church during this period. You can put candles, give notes and conduct holy sacraments.
• Before entering the temple, stop and cross yourself three times, after each time bow to the ground. To be baptized without gloves and mittens. If this is a man, then before entering the temple, take off your headdress, and a woman, on the contrary, must cover her head.
• In the service, one cannot speak loudly, use modern means of technology, behave uncivilized, pushing people away at the icons. Remember for what purpose and with what joy in your heart you came to the temple - broadcast bright feelings.
• They do not turn their backs to the altar during the service. Remember that women are always forbidden to enter the altar, and men can only do this with special permission from the priest.
• It is important to tell the children before going to the service how to behave in the temple and why they go to church: they don’t run, they don’t shout, they don’t laugh. If the child is crying and it is difficult to calm him down, it is better to leave the temple with him so as not to disturb other believers.
• For health, candles are placed in front of the icons of any saints, but for the repose on a requiem table, which is most often located next to the crucifix.
• You need to be baptized after the words of the priest “Lord, have mercy”, and also after “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”, even after “Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”.