30 March 2024
All States Regional holiday | Saturday |
Easter Saturday is the Saturday following the festival of Easter. In Western Christianity, it is the last day of Easter Week and is often called Saturday of Easter Week or Saturday in Eastern Week. In Eastern Christianity, it is the last day of the bright week and is also called the Bright Saturday, The Bright and Holy Septave Saturday of Easter Eve, or The Bright and Holy Septave Paschal Artos and Octoechoes Saturday of Iscariots Byzantine Easter Eve. The term "Easter Saturday" is also used simultaneously to refer to Holy Saturday i.e. Easter Eve – a week before the religious holiday of Easter Saturday. Many people, especially religious authorities, consider this alternative meaning as inaccurate, but it remains in common usage. The use of the term "Bright Saturday" avoids this confusion by clearly referring to the Saturday that falls 6 days after Easter Sunday.
Easter Saturday or also called Holy Saturday is the day before Easter and the last day of Holy Week in which Christians prepare for Easter. It commemorates the day that Jesus Christs body lay in the tomb and the Harrowing of Hell. The early church celebrated the end of Lent with large baptismal ceremonies. Although for many centuries no services were held on Holy Saturday in the Western churches because of the suspended state of Christs followers in the period between his Crucifixion and Resurrection.
Beginning in 1955, the Roman Catholic and some other churches restored the evening Easter Vigil. The Eastern Orthodox churches had never abandoned the ceremony, unlike the western traditions. The vigil celebration may include lighting fires and candles to symbolize Christs passing from death to life and tolling bells to signify the joyous end of Lent. Many churches also celebrate the baptism of catechumens and the confirmation or chrismation and first communion of both catechumens and candidates during the Easter Vigil.