Orthodox believers are preparing for celebration of the most important and the biggest Orthodox holiday, the Orthodox Easter, which celebrates the foundational principle of Orthodox Christianity – the Christ’s resurrection. According to the Orthodox Christianity, Jesus Christ was condemned on Thursday, crucified on Friday, and resurrected on Sunday.
Parson of the Old Orthodox Church, Father Vanja Jovanović, spoke about Orthodox Easter and rituals related to this holiday, stating that Christ’s resurrection is the most important holiday in Christianity.
“Christ resurrected, defeated the death and thus connected the human and divine way of existing, which was unknown until then. This is some kind of our perpendicular of the movement towards God. A man was created to reach deification, to exist eternally, to be a mediator for consecration of the world and the cosmos, to exist eternally in love. This is the aim of our existence and the existence of everything that surrounds us. That is why this joy is special and great, and that is why everything that exists is celebrated,” Parson Jovanović said.
Speaking of the most famous Easter ritual – the painting of eggs, Jovanović said that egg is a symbol of regeneration and the nature of life. According to tradition, Mary Magdalene, who was with the Christ together with the Holy Mother of God during his Golgotha suffering and to whom Christ appeared for the first time after resurrection, traveled to Rome to preach the Gospel, and she visited the Emperor Tiberius.
“On that occasion, as a sign of appreciation and a New Year’s gift, Mary Magdalene handed over to the Emperor Tiberius a red egg and greeted him with the words ‘The Christ is risen’. Easter eggs are painted on the Holy Friday, usually in red color which is a symbol of Christ’s spilled blood, therefore in the color of resurrection and joy, because resurrection does not occur without suffering and death. One of those red eggs is kept in the house until the next Easter and is called ‘the keeper of the house’,” Jovanović said.
Jovanović highlighted that Easter is primarily an internal experience for everyone, and then an experience of the entire community. He added that the problem of the present life is globalization, BiH being a part of it as well.
“Everything is available to a man. The whole world is one table set right in front of a man. On the other side, the fact is that man has never been lonelier, because he is afraid that someone else will destroy his identity. That someone else is a threat to his identity, which is not true. At the same time, a man feels the need to exist through someone else, because that is the only way to have identity. For example, a mother loses a child. One part of her world dies, as well. She does not recognize the world anymore,” Jovanović said.
Commenting on the ubiquitous lack of dialogue between believers and atheists who blame one another for aggressiveness in stating their attitudes, Jovanović said that every human being has freedom of choice. Jovanović believes that, when speaking of religion and the energy that a man feels inside, no one else can light that fire up but the man himself.
(Source: klix.ba)
