Sunday off Publican and Pharisee (Triodio start)
It celebrates 70 days before Holy Easter.
The Liturgical Book of our Church is called the Triodium, which includes the Hymns of the Sundays, from the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee until the Holy Saturday before the Resurrection Ceremony. It is so called because most of the Canons of the Orthrus (morning Order) contain three Odes whereas they usually contain nine Odes – the 8th and 9th always, then one of the first five in succession.
The Triodion is placed in the Anlogues of our Churches on the Saturday Vespers of the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee after the First Cantor receives it from the Icon of Christ and unfastens it. This is how the Triodium opens, a period which is divided into three smaller ones, i.e. Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee until Sunday of the Cheese Eater, Maundy Monday until Saturday of Lazarus and Palm Sunday in the evening until Holy Saturday before the Resurrection. Previously, the period of the trio included the period from Easter Sunday to All Saints Sunday. Later, however, the sacred services of this period were included in a special liturgical book called “Pentecostario”.
All Christian generations from the 5th to the 15th century AD played a role in the formation of the Triodium, as it is used by our church today. (The first edition of the Triodium was published in 1522 AD in Venice). This fact is proven by the hymnal services of the feasts of Saint Gregory of Palamas (Second Sunday of Lent), Saint John of Climacus (Fourth Sunday of Lent), etc. It is also proven by the introduction of the epitaphic lament, eulogies, i.e. sung to the Epitaph, and by the introduction of the synaxaries of Nikephoros Callistos of Xanthopoulos. Famous hymn writers and melodists of our church, such as Romanos the Melodos, (see October 1) and John Damascenes (see December 4) also contributed to the formation of the hymn cycle of the trio.
The trio more than all church books that contain sacred services leads the souls of the faithful children of the Orthodox church to contemplation and contemplation. For this reason it is also called an engulfing triode. With the cycle of the feasts of the triad, the experiences of fasting, abstinence, repentance, and joy are renewed.