Tonight Orthodox priests will utter "Today He was hanged on wood Who hanged the land on waters"

Tonight, on the Good Thursday, the Orthodox priests, after getting out from the Holy Alter, carrying Christ’s Cross on their backs, will utter "Today He was hanged on wood Who hanged the land on waters!" According to the Church’s canons, in the end of the mass in the evening of the Good Thursday, the priests go around the church with the Holy Air, under which then all the believers should pass. Also called Epitaphios, the Holy Air is a sheet of flax or silk on which the dead body of Christ is sewn or painted, representing his shroud. After His death, the Son of God left His body in the tomb for three days and meanwhile descended with His Soul into hell. Living in soul during three days, Jesus wanted to show it is possible to have only a spiritual life, winning and happy, without one’s body. These three days of Jesus’ life represent the beginning of the Paradise. Since that moment, the souls of the righteous ones are placed in the Paradise till they resurrect in their bodies at the second coming of the Savior. Another reason for which Jesus descended to hell was to announce the ones there, who lived on earth before Him, the good news of saving the humankind from the slavery of the devil and sin. Thursday is also the day when housewives should paint eggs in red, while on the Good Saturday they should bake Easter and sponge cakes to be taken to the church on the resurrection night to be sprinkled with holy water, Info-Prim notes.