Easter Night Vigil in an Orthodox Community

Religiously, the Republic of Moldova belongs to the Eastern Orthodox Church; the fact that it’s of the “old” Byzantine style, or the “new” orthodox style, that’s an entire different matter, not discussed in this article. To each its own, I always say. The important thing is that its populace, a vast number of it really, belong to the Orthodox Church. And of course, they observe and follow the precepts of the said religious credo. And perhaps the most important moment of the year for an Orthodox is the Easter, the night that marks the resurrection of Christ. A night vigil is held by every community of this church, no matter how small it is, or how large.

For the Easter night vigil, people are gathering in the wee hours of the morning, around 03.00 hrs, in the local churchyard, and they bring with them members of the family, together with small quantities of food, cooked especially for the Easter. The mandatories are the red-dyed boiled eggs (blood of Christ) and a type of home-made sweet bread, that may contain raisins, orange peel chunks, grounded nuts.

These they usually bring in a basket, to be blessed by the priest, who passes everyone and bless them and their families, sprinkling them with holy water. Small donations are given to the church, for various reasons, in both money or food. Nothing big, just small amounts, showing the appreciation of the community for the special sermon that takes place this special night. The end of the vigil also signifies the end of the Easter fasting period, which these people observe and respect to the letter. Well, most of them anyways.

Until the priest comes out of the church for blessings, the people are lining up in the courtyard, and usually they make small groups based on their relation, be these relatives or friends or neighbours. This is a good occasion for them to meet and exchange news of the members of the community who left the village or town, catch up with the changes that occurred in their community, and it’s a good opportunity for youngsters to roam freely and leave aside TikTok or Facebook, for a change.

The males are usually a distinct group, whereas the womenfolk are gathering in small groups, chitchatting about all and nothing, exchanging recipes, getting news about the children of their friends, and whatnot. It is not a discriminatory behaviour this separation based on gender, at least it is not seen as such by the community. They only follow the precepts which ruled the community for the last centuries. And apparently, the community is all right with this, as no one will ever dream to question this arrangement rooted in the collective mental.

All those present are holding a candle which signifies the holy light. The light has a very interesting route, from the Holy Sepulchre to each and every city, town and village in the Orthodox world, no matter how large or small, or how far is from Jerusalem. The head of each national Church travels to Jerusalem (by plane paid by the government), where he witnesses the miracle of the light appearing at the tomb of Christ. Then the Patriarch of Jerusalem calls everyone there to light their own candle, which in turn is brought home in the respective countries (by plane) and the first candles are lit from that particular one, usually in the main Orthodox cathedral in the capital city. Then, each head priest (who would’ve travelled to the capital city, prior to light arrival) takes is home to his church or churches, and the community comes to the church and lit their own candles.

Quite an impressive logistical feat, if you ask me; come to think of it, it really is.

Photographs were taken with a Nikkormat FT3, handheld, loaded with Svema Foto 400. They are blurred all right, as a result of handheld, so no wonder they’re so. People were not static, they do move a lot. But I guess the blur adds to the notion of this special night. I do hope you enjoy this!

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