Russian Orthodox Church prepares for Easter

The Baikonur church actively prepared on Saturday 3/4 for the important Orthodox Feast tomorrow: Пасха. At the church entrance, on the right, the typical bread for Easter is on sale. Some pieces are bought and put as offers on the altar inside the church.

When entering the church, above the entrance door, a poster widely says: Христос Воскресе: Christ is resurrected.

In Russian language, the word resurrection (Воскресение) has been extended to the meaning of the 7th day of the week: so Воскресение means both Sunday and Resurrection. In French and Italian, Sunday is the day of the "Master'' based on the Latin root "Dominus", while in English and German it is the day of the Sun...
If the origin of the Russian population comes from Northern Europe, the religion has come from the South West and Greek Orthodox influence (Constantinople) in particular. The Cyrillic alphabet (based partly on the old Greek alphabet) has been created by the two Greek brothers Cyril and Methodius in the IXth century to translate (parts of) the Bible into Old Church Slavonic language. Note for instance the similarity between the Greek and the Russian spellings for the word Christ (Khristos): Χριστός in Greek and Христос in Russian...
Icon of Saint Cyril/Kirill/Кирилл holding the "Slavic"alphabet.

The outcome of all these efforts was the conversion of the Slavic people in the south to Christianity. Vladimir I of Kiev adopted the Byzantine Rite Christianity in 988, and later on Russia converted to the "Orthodox Christianity". Russian Orthodox Church is the main religion in Russia today.

Inside the church, a small shop sales candles, small icons, sorted by names, explaining the life of the saints, Easter chocolate (with the Baikonur St George church picture on the packaging), rings, crosses...
Everything is ready for the long Easter ceremony that will start this evening.
The grave of the Christ is well materialized and still covered with a mourning cloth,

In the afternoon, a young boy rehearses loudly the long texts (litanies?) he will have to read during the ceremony..., in the meantime, few people pray in the church, make offerings and lighten candles.

What is striking (for us) leaving the church is the size of the tank of "blessed water, which is drunk by quiet of a few of the attendees at the end of the mass.

The Easter ceremonies will start on 3/4 at 22:30 to end on 4/4 at 16:00.