Pascha Weekend at St. Nicholas in Philadelphia

The faithful of St. Nicholas Serbian Orthodox Church in Philadelphia began the Paschal weekend with a Lenten retreat for the children of the parish.  For their first activity, the youth decorated the Lord's tomb under the guidance of church school teacher Kristina Randjelovic.  The children then gathered to dye eggs for the parish baskets, learning the traditional way with onion peels as well as the contemporary way. The children also learned many lessons about the red eggs, and the Orthodox symbolism of red: red for the blood Christ shed for us, the egg representing both Christ's tomb and life, and the breaking of eggs on Vaskrs symbolizing shattering the gates of Hades.

From there it was on to traditional church school lessons on the days of Christ's betrayal, crucifixion, and Glorious Resurrection. With the assistance of church school teachers the children made crafts pertaining  to the Resurrection and baskets cloths.  The faithful gathered for matins and Lamentations with Father being assisted by the beautiful chanting if Radovan Micic and altar servers Marko Neskovic, Dmitri Randjelovic, and Milutin Stojmirovic. A group of faithful  including young altar sever Milutin attended the Resurrectional matins with the procession with the joyous proclaimation of "Hristos Voskrese" at midnight. 

A glorious bright sunny Pascha morning greeted the full church of faithful as Fsther Milorad proclaimed to all Hristos Voskrese. The newly formed and very young voices of our youth choir sang the Oce Nas, Zvucha Zvona, and Hristos Voskrese. The day ended with an Easter egg hunt and prizes for the kids. It was truly a glorious way to celebrate the Redurrection of our Lord and Savior.

Source: http://www.easterndiocese.org/