It was a perfectly understandable question. Perhaps we could just let members of each of the Eastern Churches represented here answer. If he gets numerous different answers from different churches, isn’t the same purpose of educating him fulfilled, without making the poster feel inadequate and inferior?
I was in no way attempting to make him feel inferior, and I apologize if I did. Mea culpa. I was just simply reminding him that there are many Eastern Catholic Churches, each with its own traditions.It was a perfectly understandable question. Perhaps we could just let members of each of the Eastern Churches represented here answer. If he gets numerous different answers from different churches, isn’t the same purpose of educating him fulfilled, without making the poster feel inadequate and inferior?
In the Byzantine Rite, we celebrate Vespers combined with the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great on Christmas Eve. Great Compline is celebrated late in the evening, as well as Matins at some point. The Christmas Day Liturgy is the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrystostom. The timing of the services can vary greatly, depending upon local needs. My parish will celebrate Vespers/St. Basil the Great in the afternoon. Great Compline will be in the evening, perhaps followed by Matins. We likely won’t do Matins, though. The liturgy of St. John Chrystostom will be celebrated on Christmas morning, around 10:00 am. We’re still waiting on our priest to firm up the schedule.
Christmas Eve is a day of strict fast, during which traditionally no food is eaten until the first star can be seen. We have the tradition of a Holy Supper, which is observed by many Eastern Europeans, east and west. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Supper.
When a parish is still on the Julian Calendar, liturgically, the secular date 7 January is the liturgical 25 December, and so Epiphany (jan 6, aka 12th Night) becomes the 19th on the secular calendar. Likewise, all other feasts are ALSO shifted 13 days.
Same for Latin Rite, but the vigil is separate from the day mass. In fact, we have four different masses for Christmas - Vigil, Midnight, Dawn, Day masses. But they are all structured the same as in the Sunday mass, with the optional addition of the blessing of the crib. Last night’s midnight mass lasted 1hr 15 mins, 15 mins longer than normal because of the number of people.
This, other than dates, is the same in Latin rite. The only
Actually, the Latin Church used to have many aliturgical days, including Lent, in the past, but those had fallen into the ether long ago - sadly. The Good Friday ritual is actually one of the most ancient surviving liturgies of the West and shows that there was a great value in aliturgical days.
The Ambrosian Rite maintains a bit more of the ancient custom of aliturgical days. All Fridays of Lent, for example, are aliturgical.
It was far more so prior to its having been butchered in the 1955 “reform” …
Just clarifying a difference in terminology: in the Byzantine-Slavic traditions, the “vigil” usually comprises Vespers, Matins and First Hour (but not the Divine Liturgy). It is not equivalent to the “Vigil Mass” known in the Latin Church. At Christmas, Theophany and Annunciation, however, our vigil comprises Compline, Matins and First Hour (again, not the Divine Liturgy).