One thing I have learned from reading one of Father Taft’s books: “In their own eyes”, is that there is much in today’s liturgy that is symbolism, but which was an actual action in the first few centuries. Things like, the entrance, the opening of the doors, the use of the fans and the cloth. It is all very interesting…
As I’ve said, that’s how most liturgical gestures begin: they originally have had practical purposes. Aside from this example of the waving of the
/aër**vozdúkh, let’s take the (often lengthy) singing of the
Cherubikon. This was originally introduced to fill the silence resulting from the commemoration of the living and the dead at the table of oblation just prior to the Great Entrance. (Given how elaborate liturgies were often said in very huge churches in those days, a procession to the sanctuary - no backdoor sacristies at that time - could take time to complete!)
For another example, this time from the Latin (Roman) Church: the washing of the hands during the Offertory. In the
first Ordo Romanus we read:
The pontiff now goes down to the place where the notables sit, the chancellor holding his right hand and the chief counsellor his left: and he receives the loaves (
oblationes ‘offerings’) of the princes (
principum) in the order of their ‘promotion’ (?) (
per ordinem archium, i.e.
arche ‘beginning’). The archdeacon next receives the flasks (
amulas) of wine, and pours them into the greater chalice which is carried by a district-subdeacon, and a collet follows him holding a bowl outside his planet, into which the chalice when full is emptied. A district-subdeacon takes the loaves from the pontiff and hands them to the subdeacon-attendant, who places them in a linen cloth (
sindonem) held by two collets. An hebdomadary bishop receives the rest of the loaves after the pontiff, so that he may, with his own hand, put them into the linen cloth which is carried after him. Following him the deacon-attendant receives the flasks of wine, and pours them into the bowl (
scyphum) with his own hand, after the archdeacon. Meanwhile the pontiff, before passing over to the women’s side, goes down before the
Confession, and there receives the loaves of the chancellor, the secretary, and the chief counsellor. For on festivals they offer at the altar after the deacons. In like manner the pontiff goes up to the women’s side, and performs there all things in the same order as detailed above. And the presbyters do likewise, should there be need, either after the pontiff or in the presbytery.
After this, the pontiff returns to his throne, the chancellor and the secretary each taking him by the hand, and there washes his hands. The archdeacon stands before the altar and washes his hands at the end of the collection of the offerings. Then he looks the pontiff in the face, signs to him, and, after the pontiff has returned his salutation, approaches the altar.
In other words, the washing of hands originally had a very plain, practical purpose.
