With the hope of salvation from the transitory and perishable, the Resurrection of Christ, already in the third millennium, continues to fill the hearts of believers with confidence in the power of truth and love. As every year on this day, the solemn Easter liturgy begins late in the evening of Holy Saturday, and Orthodox churches are overflowing with people of all ages:

"Pascal night, holy night! And how solemn and how beautiful is the holy liturgy of the Passover! And what profound ideas it contains!" notes Professor Ivan Denev in an article about the Easter service on the website Orthodoxy. "The canon of Great Saturday unites the sad with the joyful, the despondency with solemnity. With it, the Sabbath service actually ends and the Easter service begins. The canon describes the state of humanity, when one part of it, in the person of the righteous of the Old Testament, celebrates the victory of the Savior over death and hell, and another part - in the person of the apostles and disciples of Christ, still in deep despondency and sorrow."

Filled with the fragrance of incense, reminiscent of the myrrh-bearing women who first welcomed the news of the Resurrection, the temples symbolically plunge into darkness shortly before midnight. When the hour approaches, the priests go outside with lighted candles and exactly at midnight announce the Bright Resurrection of Christ with the words:

Photos: BGNES, Darina Grigorova