The Triod is a period of 10 weeks before Easter, including Great Lent and Holy Week, preceded by a preparatory period aimed at Lent. The Triod lasts 70 days, from the Sunday of the tax collector and the Pharisee, until Holy Saturday.
The Triduo period. PHOTO Archive
This year, when Easter will be celebrated on Sunday, May 5, 2024, the Triod began on Sunday, February 25, 2024.
In the Orthodox Church, the Triod is known both as a book of worship and as a liturgical period of the church year structured in ten weeks until Easter: three weeks preceding Easter Lent and seven weeks of Easter Lent, according to doxologia.ro.
The Triod begins with the Sunday of the tax collector and the Pharisee, followed by a relatively ordinary liturgical and ascetic week, then the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. Starting this Sunday, the coming week, also called Flesh Week, will be sweet.
Passion Week commemorates the last days of the Savior's life PHOTO The Truth
The second week of the Triod is an ordinary one, that is, we will fast on Wednesday and Friday, and the third week is known as White Week, then being free from cheese, milk, eggs and fish on all days, including Wednesday and on friday.
If we follow in the Orthodox calendar the first of the three preparatory weeks before Great Lent, we notice that Wednesday and Friday are marked with cards, that is, on these days there is no fasting, but there is a relaxation of any kind of food.
“It must be known that during this week the accursed Armenians fast their abominable fast, and we monks, every day, even Wednesday and Friday, eat cheese and eggs at the ninth hour, and the laity eat meat, thus overturning the dogma of that kind of heresy of those”, it is stated in the Great Typic of Saint Sava.
Lent Stuffed Peppers PHOTO: Shutterstock
“More specifically, the “ugly fast” that Saint Sava speaks of is, in fact, a week-long mourning fast, instituted by bishop Serghie the Armenian (6th century) in honor of his lost dog – Artivurion (hence the term ” maps”).
This fast has been condemned, throughout the ages, by several Fathers of the Church, among them are St. Hierarch John the Fast, the Patriarch of Constantinople and St. Pious Theodore the Studite. We understand that the intention for not fasting during this period is apologetic or polemical.
In the pericope the proud way of fasting of the Pharisee is described, in contrast to the humility of the publican, who was a sinner and confessed this in his prayer. Thus, in order to properly prepare for fasting and so that we too do not fast like the Pharisee, with arrogance and praise, the Church has completely suspended the Wednesday and Friday fast”shows doxologia.ro.
