Pasca

We are week behind USA for "Easter", but it was PASCA here yesterday. So when someone in Russian says some greeting to you something about Christ and it's the Sunday after Easter in America, you're supposed to say to them "vayeesteno vas Chris". They said, "Christ is arisen" and you just said "surely arisen."

We took in the whole orthodox tradition of "Pasca". We went to the church at 11:30pm and these are some of the images we captured:




These are some of the priests in the procession. They marched out of the church, having left the "body of Christ" on the altar down front. The procession marched out and walked around the church three times (to represent the days of Christ in the grave).



They had military men holding the crosses, priests holding the icons and candlesticks, and the "main guy" was in charge of the whole program. We noticed that there are distinctions of hair among Orthodox clergy. The young ones (altar boys and young priests) have no facial hair and short hair cuts. The more intermediate priests may have mustaches or thin beards. As their expertise increases, so does their hair. The "second man" had a thick beard and medium length hair. The main guy wore bushy beard and long hair. All the women keep their heads covered and they do sing accapella.



These are the people who followed. I walked around once, and they were like sheep. There were little babushkas running past me to get closer to the clergy.

There is a holiday today and the whole week for some, following Pasca. They will be having picnics all over, going to the Forest.




More later... (and a few days late anyway) Love b and leesh