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→Celebration of the feast
I laughed out loud when I read the following: "Many parishes take the Paschal Sermon of St. John Chrysostom literately and commune all Orthodox Christians who are in attendance." It reminded me of my attendance at two different Pascha liturgies in the same parish. One year I was struck by the fact that, despite St John's exhortation for "fasters and non-fasters alike" to receive communion, the priest made his usual exhortation that those who had not fasted could not receive. The other year I noticed he moved St John's homily until the end of the liturgy after communion. So situated, St John's exhortation to come to the feast could only be interpreted as referring to the lamb dinner served in the parish hall after the liturgy! I do think that, if we are going to use St John's homily (and we should), then we ought not to follow practices at the same liturgy that blatantly ignore his exhortation. --[[User:Fr Lev|Fr Lev]] 06:54, March 7, 2007 (PST)
:As one priest put it though, Pascha is 40 days, so even those who come at the eleventh hour have 39 more days to properly prepare for communion. I think the Paschal homily refers to those who have not fasted during the 40 days. It does not mean that one should walk in after having just wiped the ketchup from his cheese burger from his face, and without having gone to confession, receive holy communion. Most priests are hearing confessions before the midnight office. If someone came to confession then, they would literally be coming at the 11th hour, and would be communed if they had made even the slightest attempts to properly prepare themselves. [[User:Frjohnwhiteford|Frjohnwhiteford]] 20:41, April 20, 2007 (PDT)
The reference was not to the eucharistic fast, but to the Lenten fasting rules. And in the parish referenced there were no confessions heard that day. --[[User:Fr Lev|Fr Lev]] 20:43, April 21, 2007 (PDT)
== Byzantine practice ==
The article says "Foods from which the faithful have been asked to abstain during the lenten journey are blessed and eaten only after the Divine Liturgy."
Does it mean (in some places) foods which were abstained are blessed after the Divine Liturgy? I am in Japan, whose tradition is heavily influenced by the Russian tradition, and there our custom seems the priest s blesses foods (mainly eggs) after the Matin and before the First Hour.
Of course we took no food before the Divine Liturgy! --[[User:Cat68|Cat68]] 00:52, April 9, 2007 (PDT)
: There seems to be some variation on this point, which can certainly be noted in the article. —[[User:ASDamick|<font size="3.5" color="green" face="Adobe Garamond Pro, Garamond, Georgia, Times New Roman">Fr. Andrew</font>]] <sup>[[User_talk:ASDamick|<font color="red">talk</font>]]</sup> <small>[[Special:Contributions/ASDamick|<font color="black">contribs</font>]]</small> 06:50, April 9, 2007 (PDT)
::It looks the main problem was that it was unclear whether "only after the Divine Liturgy" was modifying "bless" or "eaten." I have adjusted this so that when the blessing occurs is not identified, and I have retained a reference to eating after the Liturgy. I think this should sufficiently clear up the confusion. --[[User:Basil|Basil]] 09:44, April 20, 2007 (PDT)
:::In answer to Cat68: actually, yes, at my Antiochian parish here in Austin, Texas, the foods are both blessed and eaten after the dismissal at the end of liturgy. In either case, Basil's modification looks good. [[User:Gabriela|Gabriela]] 20:26, April 20, 2007 (PDT)
Thank you for your editing, now it looks me much clearer. Gabriela, thank you for your information it's quite interesting. How lovely to learn diversity among traditions :) --[[User:Cat68|Cat68]] 04:15, May 2, 2007 (PDT)
== Diversity tag ==
Summary: I removed the diversity tag after making adjustments.
I made a few adjustments so that various traditions were noted. I don't believe this is complete by any stretch. I think at least now no one should say, "We don't do that!" Obviously, not every single little ritual difference is going to be covered in an encyclopedia article; I've just attempted to cover the basics.
However, if it should be felt that still more work should be done, feel free to stick it back on. --[[User:Basil|Basil]] 09:51, April 20, 2007 (PDT)
== Celebration of the feast ==
This section needs a major revision in that the celebration begin with vespers. A section for vespers (or vesperal liturgy, or vespers with liturgy of St Basil) should be added. Why: Pascha doesn't start at midnight: it's no different from any other day of the year in that it starts with vespers the evening before. In this case vespers is combined with the divine liturgy of St Basil on Holy Saturday. At this service standard hymns of the resurrection are sung in tone 1, which is the tone of the day of Pascha; the resurrection gospel is read; the colors are changed to bright colors. Indications are that it's Pascha, and liturgically it is Pascha. Of course, the explosive celebration is held off until midnight, so that we don't say "Christ is risen" or sing the paschal troparion until midnight; the canons say the fast must continue till midnight; and this of course is because Christ didn't rise on Saturday afternoon but during the night. But liturgically it's Pascha by the time you're midway through the vesperal liturgy; certainly by the time the gospel is read and the colors are changed. The transition begins with the singing of resurrectional hymns at Lord, I have cried, just like on any other day of the year. According to the typicon (Moscow typicon at least) the timing of the St Basil's Liturgy is the latest in the year. Fr A Schmemann wrote of the "genius" of the Byzantine division of the feast into two parts: the Holy Saturday liturgy and the midnight service. In earlier times baptisms of catechumens would occur between the two services.
And then a mention of the reading of the book of Acts, since that comes after the vesperal liturgy and concerns the life of the Church after the resurrection; and a section about midnight office (or nocturne) should be added, because obviously that comes after the vesperal liturgy but before paschal matins. That the canon of Holy Saturday is re-read at nocturne shows that at that point, we're still waiting (in a sense) for the rising, even though the resurrection has been announced earlier in the day and we know the Lord is risen. The troparion (apolytikion) of the resurrection in Tone 2 is sung ("When you descended to death, O life immortal ...") because it mentions the descent into hades, the slaying of hades, and the raising of the dead from the depths (topics of Holy Saturday)