Continuous week. What is the Great Week

In Church Slavonic, the word "week" fully corresponds to the usual "week" variant. But there is one nuance: our ancestors called the word "week" not all seven days, but only one of them - the one we now call Sunday. It began with a seven-day countdown, and on this day it was necessary to rest. The word "week" also came from "not doing", that is, resting. The entire cycle of seven days was called the week. In addition to the usual weeks in the Orthodox calendar, there are special ones. Let's talk about them.

Weekly one-day posts

First of all, we learn about what constitutes a continuous week. What is the week, we found out, but what is the meaning of the word "solid"? In order to understand this, we will make a small digression, referring to the church statute. The fact is that during the week (week) he enforces the observance of two one-day posts.

The first of them is on Wednesday. This is the day when Judas Iscariot appeared to the high priests and invited them to betray Jesus Christ for reward. In memory of the sad day every Wednesday, Orthodox people fast.

The second one-day post is prescribed on Friday. It is established in memory of the greatest event - on this day Jesus Christ was crucified. This is how during the year all Orthodox people observe fast two days a week. In this case, the week is ordinary.

Five continuous weeks

There are weeks in which it is allowed to eat the fastest all seven days in a row. This is what is called "continuous week". What is the Christmas tree, probably everyone knows. This is the time from the Nativity of Christ to the Epiphany. Here in this period and included the first in the year continuous seven. There are five in total. Two weeks before the start of Lent there is a continuous week, which is called the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee. Just before the Great Lent, there are seven days of cheese. They are popularly called Shrovetide. This is also a continuous week, but on the specified days meat is excluded from the diet.

After the joyful spring holiday of Easter, there comes one more - Easter, or a bright week. After completing the long weeks of fasting, the church gives us the opportunity to replenish our strength. And, finally, the last one in a year is the whole week - Troitskaya. It follows immediately after the feast of the Trinity. And this is not accidental. It was to mark the day in which God first manifested his trinity at the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan, and a continuous week is set.

What is Holy Week?

The forty days of the Great Lent, established in memory of the time spent by our Lord in the desert, are coming to an end. Until the bright Christ Sunday is a week. This is the last 7 days of the Savior's earthly life. The events that filled it are so important and dramatic that the whole week is called - the Great Week. Still it is called Passionate, that is, full of suffering. These are the redemptive torments carried by the Savior during these days.

Days of the Great Week

The name of the six days of this week begins with the word "great". On Great Monday, the church recalls the miracle of the desiccation of a barren fig tree. In this way she gives an example of faith and the power of prayer, as well as the doom of all and all who do not bear the fruits of Christ's teaching. On Great Tuesday, Christ, when he came to the temple, teaches much, instructs the congregation. The high priests and elders want to seize Him, but they do not dare. The Great Wednesday recalls the libation of a precious woman by a certain woman to the head of Christ, as well as the conspiracy of Judah with the high priests.

Great Thursday is full of events worthy of memories. This is the Last Supper, and Christ's washing of the feet of his disciples, and the dramatic events in the Garden of Gethsemane, and all that followed. Good Friday is the day of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, His great redemptive sacrifice. The next Great Saturday is the day when the Savior brought from the depths of hell all the Old Testament righteous, destroying it and revealing to all people the way to eternal life.

In this article we examined what a continuous week is, what is Holy Week, what is the meaning of the church in them. These are very important concepts, without which it is impossible to produce a full-fledged fulfillment of the annual circle of worship.