At we will give the “stamp” of the day for the entire Holy Week until Easter Sunday
By Marina Zioziou
Holy Week it is something unique in the church year. In the importance, after all, of world-saving events, according to the saint John the Chrysostom, due to the name of the most holy week of the year as “Great”.
In the liturgical act of the Church, the beginning of the next day is made from the afternoon of the previous one. So, the Masses held on the evening of Holy Week, concern the events of the following day. Our texts, following this practice, will describe the next day’s events, but will be in the Sequence of the day they are published.
Every day on –with the help of Archimandrite Fr Filoumenos Roubis, Secretary General of the Holy Archdiocese of Athens– we will give the “stamp” of the day for the entire Holy Week until Easter Sunday. Also, Mrs. Evelena Kardamila, PhD candidate in Folklore will “travel” us to customs and traditions in every corner of Greece, which have their roots deep in time.
On Holy Wednesday in the morning Vespers is celebrated, with some of the Troparia we chanted yesterday afternoon in Orthros, and the last Pre-sanctified Divine Liturgy of the year. At noon or in the early afternoon, our Church appointed the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist to be celebrated.
The Wish Oil, according to Archimandrite Fr Filoumenos Roubis, it is one of the Mysteries of our Church. In the Gospel we see that the holy Apostles on many occasions anointed the sick with blessed olive oil and they were healed (Mark 9:13). Thus, the Orthodox Church, which continues the Apostolic Tradition without fail, performs this Holy Sacrament, for the treatment of the mental and physical illnesses of the faithful. Saint James the Brother of God speaks to us about the Holy Mystery of the Eucalyptus, who exhorts the faithful: “If someone is sick, let him invite the elders of the Church, and after they pray for him, let them anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save him who suffers, and the Lord will raise him from the bed of pain, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven.” Finally, he exhorts everyone to confess their transgressions to one another, and to pray for healing (James 6:14-15).
At the end of the Sacrament, all the faithful kneel and the priest reads the absolution, with which the sins of the faithful who have already been confessed are forgiven. The Anointing, that is, does not replace confessionbut complements it and restates the request for forgiveness of sins.
To understand it better: Because the Maundy Thursday is the commemoration of the Last Supper, during which the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist was delivered by Christ, it is customary for most believers to receive communion on this day. The Church, therefore, says the Eucharist the day before with the following rationale: from our last confession until the moment of Holy Communion, various forgivable (minor) sins have definitely intervened, so that they do not prevent us from coming to the Holy Eucharist. At the end of the Eucharist, the priest smells the faithful on the different parts of the body.
In Jerusalem, in Patmos and in other placesit is customary, before Holy Thursday, to do the ceremony of Niptiros. Thirteen clergy participate, of which twelve are seated and the first of the Priests or High Priests, in a type of Christ, washes their feet, at the moment when the corresponding Gospel passage is read.
Maundy Wednesday afternoon – Maundy Thursday Orthros
Passion Week itself begins with Holy Thursday, during which we celebrate, according to the memorandum of the Triod, the following four: “the holy Niptira, the mystical Supper (that is, the tradition of the Mysteries that are horrible to us), the supernatural Prayer and this Betrayal”. At the beginning of the Procession, the image of the Bride of Christ is removed from the Sanctuary and the image of the Last Supper is placed in procession in its place. It is called the Last Supper, because during it Christ introduced the disciples to the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist.
Let’s follow the events of the day: The eight-day celebration of the Jewish Passover, which that year fell on a Saturday, had already begun. Christ instructs Peter and John to prepare the evening meal. “Go to the country and you will reward a man who will hold a pitcher of water. Tell him that the Master asks what he will do with the Easter disciples. And he will show you a large room on the upper floor, furnished and ready; there you will prepare the Passover dinner.”. Of course, Christ could have told them from the beginning whom specifically to meet, because this man was known to them, from the wider circle of disciples. However, as the Fathers report, Christ did not want it to be known in advance in which house they would dine, so that Judas would not be informed in advance. The disciples go to Jerusalem, they find the man who takes them up to the upper floor, where the great room was laid out and ready.
Tradition says that this host was Joseph of Arimathea, while other scholars believe that it was the Apostle and Evangelist Mark. Another tradition – perhaps the most prevalent – wants Zebedee, the father of John the Theologian and James, as the owner of the house. He possessed a large house, which he divided in half, and gave one half as the house of the High Priest of Israel. There was, in fact, a small door through which the two houses communicated. So, Zebedee’s family met daily with the High Priests of Israel. The high priests of that period were Annas and Caiaphas, that is why the Evangelist John in the 18th chapter of his Gospel describes himself that, during the night when Christ was arrested, he was able to enter the court of the High Priest and watch what was going on as it is “he was known to the chief”.
So when it was evening, Jesus together with the disciples go to the porch and they all sit down to have dinner together. The table of the season is a sofras, a low round table. The point where Christ sat was the beginning and end of the perimeter of the table. To his left sits Judas, considering himself more important than the others, since he himself was the treasurer of Christ’s entourage. On the right sits John the Theologian. Next to Judas sits Peter.
“I wished,” said the Master solemnly, “to eat this Easter with you, before my Passion”. According to custom, they began with a prayer. Then, He who was the respected one, takes the wine, glorifies God and passes the glass to the others. And then there is some commotion, since the disciples are arguing about who will be the first to drink from the blessed wine.
Without speaking, the Teacher gets up from the table, takes off His outer robe, girds himself with a towel and washes the students’ feet, wiping them carefully. He started first from his left, that is, Judas.
Bewildered, the disciples let Him wash their dusty feet. Only Peter objects: “Lord, will you wash my feet? This can not be done! You will never wash my feet, Master!”. “If I do not wash you, you will not have a place near me” Christ answers him.
Then Petros gets agitated and agrees. And the Lord explains the reason for His particular act and how they should humbly serve one another. And while everyone understood what was being said, only Judas had in mind what would be the most appropriate time to go and deliver the Master.
Christ then prophesies that one of those present will betray Him. So they began to wonder who he was, each saying:Is it me, Master?’. Judas hears it too. “Is it I, Master?” he asks, so as not to stand out from the others. The Master looks into his eyes and whispers softly: “You said it”. The rest, of course, from their agitation did not hear it.
Peter motions for John to ask Christ about whom he spoke this prophecy and John, falling on the Master’s chest, asks Him imploringly: “Lord, tell me who is the traitor”. The Lord answers softly: “He is the one to whom, after dipping the common morsel of bread into the plate, I will give it.” So he takes a morsel of bread, dips it into the common plate that was there in the middle – this was the custom – and gives it to Judas and whispers to him: “Whatever you do, do it quickly.”
During the Last Supper, the Lord advises His disciples to feel love for one another and not caring about who will be first. While they are eating, Jesus says the prayer of thanksgiving, takes the bread and breaks it. Then He gives it to His disciples saying: “Take, eat, this is my body, which was sacrificed for us for the forgiveness of sins”. Then he takes the cup of wine and, after praying, gives it to them saying: “Drink of it, all of you, this is my blood, that of the New Testament, which is poured out for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins”.
After this event Judas leaves, in order to go to the High Priests. The students paid no attention, thinking that he, as treasurer, had gone to settle the financial affairs of the dinner.
Christ continues His teaching, giving the last testaments and preparing them for His coming passion, prophesying the dispersion and abandonment of the Apostles. The fervent Peter assures Christ that he will defend Him to the end and Christ prophesies his threefold denial “you shout before the alector”. At this point, the Lord also prophesies the coming of the Holy Spirit.
The dinner is concluded with prayer, as was customary (the 117th Psalm was usually sung). This custom continues to this day. The central person of the family (in this case Christ) sits in the middle, like a choirmaster, and around – around the rest clapping their hands or dancing holding their hands. (Blessed Fr. Ananias Koustenis used to say that this is where the children’s game “everyone around, Manolis in the middle” came from, since Christ is Emmanuel).
Then they leave the anogyon and walk towards Gethsemane. On the way, Christ begins to pray with the so-called high priestly prayer, pleading for those who will believe in His name. A little later Christ will be arrested and His Immortal Passion will begin.
The customs of our country
Holy Wednesday has a special place in the days of Holy Week due to the celebration of the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, as he points out Mrs. Evelena Kardamila. Many women go to church flour, with which they then knead Lambri’s bread and pastries.
In the past, the new dough was also prepared on Holy Wednesday. As they believed that the bread dough could at some point lose its strength and purity, on Maundy Wednesday they made sure to renew it. So the women went from house to house and collected flour, which they fermented without leaven. Then they took it to the Church. The priest would rest the Cross with the Holy Wood on the dough and the dough would rise. This constituted the leaven of the year, which the women redistributed to all the houses.
In some places, such as in Pontus, the Eucholeio was performed in each family’s home. In fact, the objects that were blessed during the Euchelaion were attributed a special quality and power. For example, the wood that the priests used to smell, those who attended the service, they kept in their iconostasis and when someone would build a new house, they put it in the foundation of the house.
Source: Skai
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