In Orthodoxy, the third, ninth, fortieth day after death, as well as the anniversary, are considered sacred days. Each of these days is given special significance, and in order to facilitate the afterlife of a person, it is customary to hold a wake on these dates.
To correctly calculate the day of the funeral, you need to take the day of death as the first day and add the required number to it. You should not do arithmetic addition, because simply adding will result in an incorrect number. For example: someone who died on January 1 should be commemorated not on January 10 (1+9), but on January 9.
Some may confuse the traditional and church days, which begin after the evening service, and then those who died in the morning and late evening of the same day may appear to have died on different days. The generally accepted tradition is to rely on the astronomical day, when it does not matter whether death occurred during the day or before midnight.
If you yourself find it difficult to accurately calculate the dates on which the wake falls, a funeral agent will definitely come to your aid. For churchgoers, it would be natural to address this question to their priest.
The essence of the wake
After death, the soul experiences great sorrow and goes through suffering and ordeal. Immediately after death, a person’s soul is without shelter.
- Until the third day, it is in the habitats of the deceased during life.
- Then the angels take her to Heaven to worship the Lord God. For 6 days she gets acquainted with the lives of the Saints in the heavenly monastery.
- On the 9th day, the soul goes to hell, where for thirty days it is horrified by the torment of sinners.
- On the 40th day, the soul is again called to worship the Lord, where its posthumous fate is decided.
The funeral should help the soul ascend from earth to heaven to heaven . Funeral prayers, words and speeches are a petition to God for the deceased before passing judgment.
Funerals for Orthodox Christians are a mandatory farewell ritual , so find out more about them. For 40 days, relatives and friends pray for the deceased, visit churches, order services for the repose of the servant of God, distribute alms, and conduct memorial ceremonies on the indicated days. Until the 40th day in Church Slavonic the deceased is called newly deceased.
How to count 9 days
On the fourth day the soul goes to heaven, where it remains until the ninth day. During this period, the Lord reviews all the good and bad deeds of a person during his life, decides where the person’s soul should go: to heaven or hell.
9 days are counted from the date of death, including this day. That is, if a person died on October 1 at 23.55, then it is October 9. If a loved one died at 2 am on June 14, then the 9th day is June 22.
On this day, one should remember the deceased with kind words, pray for his soul, and collect a funeral lunch. At funerals, it is customary for Orthodox believers to visit a grave, leave gifts, and order a service in the church. You should give alms to the needy, leave a donation, light a candle for the repose.
All relatives gather at home and remember the deceased and his good deeds. The meal should include the usual simple dishes: pies, pancakes, fish soup. The church does not encourage drinking alcohol.
Days of commemoration
Funeral services are held on the day of the funeral (3rd), on the 9th, 40th days and on the anniversary after death.
Days of commemoration
Private commemorations
Private commemorations include memorial services, memorials from notes at liturgy, magpies, prayers at home on memorial days , on the anniversary of death , birthdays, name days (Angel's Day) and on any other private occasions.
In addition to private commemorations, the Russian Orthodox Church established parental Saturdays - days of special commemoration of all deceased ancestors.
Wake after funeral
The first wake takes place on the day of the funeral, and according to Orthodox tradition, this is the third day after death . On this day, everyone who wishes to see the deceased off on his last journey is present at the wake: relatives, friends, colleagues...
Traditionally in Russia, the first wake takes place in the home of the deceased or his relatives. Nowadays, ordering a funeral service in a cafe or in a specialized funeral hall of a ritual organization .
