Editing Great Lent (section)

====Sixth Week====
[[Image:Воскрешение Лазаря2.jpg|thumb|Icon of the [[Lazarus Saturday|Raising of Lazarus]] (15th century, [[Novgorod school]]). In most [[icons]] of [[death]], [[resurrection]] and [[baptism]], the gates of [[Christian views on Hades|hades]] are visible in the background, as they are here.]]
During the Sixth Week the Lenten services are served as they were during the second and third weeks.

Great Lent ends at Vespers on the evening of the Sixth Friday, and the Lenten cycle of Old Testament readings is brought to an end. (Genesis ends with the account of the burial of Joseph, who is a [[Typology (theology)|type]] of Christ.) At that same service, the celebration of [[Lazarus Saturday]] begins. The [[resurrection]] of [[Lazarus of Bethany|Lazarus]] is understood as a foreshadowing of the [[Resurrection of Jesus]], and many of the Resurrection hymns normally chanted on Sunday (and which will be replaced the next day with hymns for Palm Sunday) are chanted at Matins on the morning of Lazarus Saturday.

[[Palm Sunday]] differs from the previous Sundays in that it is one of the [[Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church]]. None of the normal Lenten material is chanted on Palm Sunday, and fish, wine and oil are permitted in the [[Refectory|trapeza]]. The blessing of palms (or pussywillow) takes place at Matins on Sunday morning, and everyone stands holding palms and lit candles during the important moments of the service.

This is especially significant at the [[Great Entrance]] during the [[Divine Liturgy]] on Palm Sunday morning, since liturgically that entrance recreates the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The themes of Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday are tied together, and some of the same hymns (including one of the [[apolytikion|apolytikia]]) are chanted on both days. The Holy Week services begin on the night of Palm Sunday, and the [[liturgical colours]] are changed from the festive hues of Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday back to somber Lenten colours.