This year according to the GOC calendar, Pascha and the Annunciation fall on the same day.
We have a special name whenever the Feast of the Annunciation coincides with the Feast of
Pascha. This special pairing is called Kyriopascha,, and it is very special because when
Our Lord rose from the dead it was the very day in which He was conceived in the womb of
the Holy Virgin Mary, the Feast of the Annunciation. It was fitting that Christ our God would
initially come into the world as a babe on the same day in which He would return in glory. Will
Christ our God also return in glory to judge the living and the dead on the Annunciation? We
will not know. It is not for us to speculate.
The Genuine Orthodox Church in Greece (GOC under Archbishop Stephanos) celebrates the
Annunciation on Pascha this year, April 8, as the Feast of the Annunciation is transferred to
Pascha since it falls on Holy Saturday (April 7). Thus, women will wear white scarves and veils
to church. It is said that our Lord rose from the dead on the Feast of the Annunciation, so this
is a very special day for us, which happens very rarely less often than once in a blue moon.
Kyriopascha reminds me of C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, where it was always winter
and never Christmas when the four children originally visited Narnia. On the New Calendar, it
can never be Kyriopascha as the Annunciation and Pascha can never fall on the same day.
Thus, it is truly a travesty.
Charlotteriggle wrote:When Pascha and the Annunciation fall on the same day, it’s called Kyriopascha.
This can’t happen on the New Calendar. On the Old Calendar and Gregorian Calendar, the next Kyriopascha is in 2075.As with Kyriopascha, Annunciation and Holy Friday can’t fall on the same day on the New Calendar. They can on the Old Calendar and Gregorian Calendar. When this pairing of holy days occurred in 1609, it resulted in one of the most sublime poems by John Donne, On the Annunciation and Passion Falling on the Same Day.
see: https://charlotteriggle.com/catherines- ... -calendar/
Even though the GOC will be celebrating Kyriopascha this year, according to ROCOR-MP calendar which I have in front of me, they will celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation on Holy Saturday.
Here is the poem by John Donne:
THE ANNUNCIATION AND PASSION.
by John DonneTAMELY, frail body, abstain to-day ; to-day
My soul eats twice, Christ hither and away.
She sees Him man, so like God made in this,
That of them both a circle emblem is,
Whose first and last concur ; this doubtful day
Of feast or fast, Christ came, and went away ;
She sees Him nothing, twice at once, who's all ;
She sees a cedar plant itself, and fall ;
Her Maker put to making, and the head
Of life at once not yet alive, yet dead ;
She sees at once the Virgin Mother stay
Reclused at home, public at Golgotha ;
Sad and rejoiced she's seen at once, and seen
At almost fifty, and at scarce fifteen ;
At once a son is promised her, and gone ;
Gabriell gives Christ to her, He her to John ;
Not fully a mother, she's in orbity ;
At once receiver and the legacy.
All this, and all between, this day hath shown,
Th' abridgement of Christ's story, which makes one—
As in plain maps, the furthest west is east—
Of th' angels Ave, and Consummatum est.
How well the Church, God's Court of Faculties,
Deals, in sometimes, and seldom joining these.
As by the self-fix'd Pole we never do
Direct our course, but the next star thereto,
Which shows where th'other is, and which we say
—Because it strays not far—doth never stray,
So God by His Church, nearest to him, we know,
And stand firm, if we by her motion go.
His Spirit, as His fiery pillar, doth
Lead, and His Church, as cloud ; to one end both.
This Church by letting those days join, hath shown
Death and conception in mankind is one ;
Or 'twas in Him the same humility,
That He would be a man, and leave to be ;
Or as creation He hath made, as God,
With the last judgment but one period,
His imitating spouse would join in one
Manhood's extremes ; He shall come, He is gone ;
Or as though one blood drop, which thence did fall,
Accepted, would have served, He yet shed all,
So though the least of His pains, deeds, or words,
Would busy a life, she all this day affords.
This treasure then, in gross, my soul, uplay,
And in my life retail it every day.