Orthodox Easter Chants

published on 4/11/12 9:06 AM

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Orthodox Easter Chants

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With the words Christ is Risen and Christ is Risen indeed, for some two thousand years now Orthodox Christians are greeting each other on the greatest day of the Resurrection of Our Saviour Jesus Christ. Orthodox church music is an inseparable part of this day and there are special Orthodox chants performed during the church liturgies of the Holy Week.
In final week of the Great Lent, the liturgy in Orthodox churches recreates the events from the last days of the earthly life of Jesus Christ. Researchers have found data about liturgical service in the Passover week in documents dating back to 394 AD. As early as that year, the nun called Eteria who visited Jerusalem describes the existing tradition that each day of this week is related to a scene of the sufferings of Jesus Christ, as well as reading a part of the Gospels, a tradition preserved to date.

Every year Christians come to church filled with hope and faith. There they are eager to hear the tidings of the salvation from the damnation of the original sin and eternal life via the sacrificial death of the Son of God. The central chant performed in the Paschal liturgy on Sunday is the so-called Ode to the Resurrection of Christ, or in Church-Slavonic “Angel Vopiyashe”. In it, the angel reveals the news of the resurrection to Virgin Mary, telling her: “Rejoice, O Pure Virgin! Again I say: Rejoice! Your Son is risen from His three days in the tomb! With Himself He has raised all the dead! Rejoice, all you people! Shine! Shine! O New Jerusalem! The Glory of the Lord has shone on you! Exalt now and be glad, O Zion! Be radiant, O Pure Theotokos, in the Resurrection of your Son!”

The Lord’s Prayer is always part of any Christian liturgy or mass, as it is also in the liturgies of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church during the Holy Week.

An episode from the Gospel of Luke telling about the crucifixion of Jesus and the good and bad thief has inspired Bulgarian composer and researcher of Bulgarian church music Petar Dinev to create a heartfelt prayer. On Maundy Thursday the prayer The Wise Thief is always sung in front of the Crucifixion. This is a prayer to the Savior to give His mercy to the worshippers, just as He did while He was on the Cross to one of the thieves crucified next to Him.
Listen to The Wise Thief prayer performed by the unforgettable Bulgarian opera singer Boris Christoff and the mixed choir at the Saint Alexander Nevski Cathedral in Sofia.

And the miracle happed – Christ is risen from the dead. The Paschal Troparion Hristos Voskrese is part of the festive liturgy. It is performed in the early hours of the Easter night: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the tombs bestowing life!” This triumphant song is repeated many, many times in the festive Saturday night. Orthodox Christians celebrate the greatest feast of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the destruction of Hell and the beginning of eternal life.

English Version Rossitsa Petcova

По публикацията работи: Elena Tsvetkova

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Orthodox Easter Chants

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