At midnight from Holy Saturday to Sunday, the celebration in honor of the Resurrection of Christ begins. This holiday is called Easter - the name of the Old Testament holiday established in memory of the deliverance of the Jews from Egyptian slavery. The Old Testament Easter was a prototype of the New Testament, Christian Easter. Then the blood of the lamb, with which the doors of the Jewish dwellings were anointed, saved the Jews from the Angel who struck the Egyptian firstborns with death; now Christ, who died on the cross for our sins as a spotless Lamb, has freed us by His resurrection from slavery to sin and the devil. The essence of all Easter hymns is expressed in the troparion:
Christ rose from the dead, trampling down death by death and giving life to those in the tombs.
At midnight, clergy with a cross, Gospel and St. with icons, before the procession of the cross, they leave the church and walk around it singing:
Thy Resurrection, O Christ the Saviour, the angels sing in heaven: grant us on earth also to glorify Thee with a pure heart.
Stopping in front of the closed doors of the church and showering everyone, the priest makes an exclamation:
Glory to the holy, consubstantial, life-giving, and indivisible Trinity, always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.
In response, the troparion is sung repeatedly:
Christ is risen... (See above).
When singing the troparion, the priest, touching the doors with the cross, opens them as a sign that by the cross of Christ the doors of heaven are opened for us. Then the great litany is pronounced and the Easter canon is sung.