Christ Is Risen!
In most years the Orthodox Church celebrates Pascha (known as Easter in the West) on a different date than Catholics and Protestants. This has to do with the method for determining the date. Some time in history the West changed the method of calculation. Now for them Easter can occur before Passover, but for us, it has to be after Passover. Of course, this is an over-simplification.
Pascha is the Feast of Feast, Holidays of Holidays, Holy Day of Holy Days. It is the most joyous day of the year. We prepare for it with 40 days of fasting. During these 40 days the Church sets standards for us. They are guides, not gods. They are intended to help us to get to our final reward, not to make life miserable.
Because of the weather, we were not able to have the outside procession. This was the first time in over 30 years that I was in a church that could not have the procession because of the weather. As soon as the priest brought in the shroud from the tomb, the crew started dismantling the tomb and we had the procession around the interior of the church. It was still beautiful. As usually, the crew did a fantastic job.
During the sermon of St. John Chrysostom we switched from white to red vestments. I personally do not like using red for Pascha because we should be wearing the brightest colors that we have and makes the day seem like almost any other day, especially since we red for feasts of martyrs often and in some churches red is worn on the Third Sunday of Lent. But this is my own personal feelings.
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