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The first full day of Lent for church buildings utilizing the “old calendar” to calculate the date of Easter is Monday, March 18.
In the Eastern Christian custom, this present day is called “Clean Monday” — and it comes on the sixth Monday earlier than Palm Sunday.
The identify Clean Monday stems from the start of a season of fasting and a renewed sense of forgiveness, Archpriest John Whiteford of St. Jonah Orthodox Church in Spring, Texas, informed Fox News Digital.
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“In a certain sense, Orthodox Lent begins on Sunday, because what we do is after the liturgy, most parishes do what’s called Forgiveness Vespers,” Whiteford stated in a telephone interview.
This is the primary Lenten service, stated Whiteford. The colours of the church are even switched from gold to black, and the vespers are sung utilizing the Lenten melody.
Fr. John Whiteford, an Orthodox priest in Spring, Texas, informed Fox News Digital about fasting customs and the follow of “Clean Monday” to begin Lent — stressing the significance of looking for forgiveness. (iStock/Courtesy of Fr. John Whiteford)
“In most parishes, at the end of that service, they will do what’s known as the ‘Rite of Forgiveness,’” he stated, which entails a request for forgiveness by all these current of everybody else.
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“By the time the service is over, everybody has asked for everybody else’s forgiveness,” stated Whiteford.
On Clean Monday, most parishes have a service within the night referred to as the “Great Compline and the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete,” he stated, “which is a penitential canon.”
Lent in Orthodox Christianity sometimes begins later than within the west, as these church buildings use a unique calendar to calculate dates. (iStock)
The canon is prayed over 4 components throughout the first week of Lent.
“The Great Compline is a fairly long service, when it’s done as part of Lent,” he stated. “It has a lot of penitential elements to it. But the canon is the highlight of that service.”
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While Orthodox and different Eastern Christians quick throughout Lent, these fasts are extra intense throughout the first week, Whiteford informed Fox News Digital.
“Some people won’t even eat at all, at least for the first three days.”
Orthodox Christians quick from meat and dairy merchandise all through Lent, together with fish.
Whiteford stated fish is permitted solely on Palm Sunday and on the Annunciation. (The consumption of shellfish and bugs is, nevertheless, permitted throughout this time.)
During the primary week of Lent, Orthodox Christians sometimes preserve a stricter quick, stated Whiteford. (iStock)
During the primary week of Lent, many individuals take the quick a step additional and keep away from issues akin to meals cooked in oil, he stated.
“They’re trying to eat very simply,” stated Whiteford.
He stated some folks select to eat soup and bread throughout this time.
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“And some people won’t even eat at all, at least for the first three days.”
The common layperson, he stated, is not going to preserve a quick as intense as that after the primary week of Lent — however fasting will ramp up as soon as once more come Holy Week, the week previous Easter.
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Orthodox Easter this yr will probably be celebrated on May 5, 2024, greater than a month after “Western” Easter on March 31.
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