Good Friday today and at this hour the Epitaph Service takes place in all the churches of Cyprus.
Good Friday is a day of absolute mourning for all Christendom, an absolute holiday and fasting. The day when the Divine Drama of Christ's Passion culminates and his crucifixion takes place at dawn on the same day.
Watch live HERE the procession of the Epitaph from the Cathedral of Apostle Barnabas.
The Church remembers the Holy Passion.
On Good Friday morning, the Epitaph is decorated in the churches. First, the Great Hours are sung, containing Psalms, Troparia, Apostles, Gospels and Blessings. Then the Vespers of Good Friday is sung and the Deposition of the Crucified is performed. Next, a cloth on which the Lord, dead, has been embroidered or painted is placed in the Holy Canopy. This cloth is called the Epitaph.
In the evening of the same day, the Orthros of the Holy Sabbath is sung and the hymnology is related to the burial of the Lord by Joseph and Nicodemus and the descent of His soul into the dark realms of Hades. The related hymns are. And on the third day the Soul was again united with the Body, and the Body rose from the dead. Thus Hades and death were defeated.
During the service, the so-called Encomia, small troparia, very dear to the people, by an unknown poet, are sung in three stops (parts). The best known are: "Life in order...", "It is worthy to grow...", "The generations pass on..." and "O my sweet Ear...".
Then the procession of the Epitaph takes place outside the church and within the boundaries of the parish.
After the return of the Epitaph to the church, a passage from the Gospel of Matthew (vv. 62-66) is read: the chief priests and Pharisees go to Pontius Pilate and ask him to seal the tomb, because they remember that the Lord had said in a passage of his words that in three days he would rise again. Pilate gives them permission.
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