The Triodion begins today as we officially embark on our annual liturgical journey to Pascha. We start chanting from the Triodion, the liturgical book that contains all the services of Great Lent and Holy Week but which also comprises the hymns for the four week preparatory period before Great Lent that begins today with the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee. At Saturday evening vespers after the usual resurrectional hymns have been chanted in the tone of the week we include the first hymns from the Triodion.
There is a tradition, a ritual, that is often performed at the vesper service. The tradition doesn't appear in the Typikon of the Great Church but has gained widespread acceptance and use in recent years. Before the vesper service begins the book of the Triodion is placed before the icon of Christ. Towards the end of the Great Litany, in time for the chanting of Κύριε εκέκραξα,the Protopsaltes approaches the icon of Christ, makes three metanoias, reverences the icon, picks up the Triodion and reverences it, makes an additional three metanoias and brings the Triodion back to the Analogion with him.
The symbolic act has no precedent in liturgical tradition and no other liturgical book has a similar ritual associated with. Perhaps this speaks to the significant reverence and extreme popularity that exists in the Church for the services and the hymnology contained in the Triodion. Both clergy and laity derive spiritual strength from the services of Great Lent and Holy Week and are equally inspired by the beautiful hymnography but it is perhaps the chanters of these divine hymns themselves that are most familiar with the pages of this book and who eagerly anticipate the chanting of these sacred hymns for the spiritual edification of the faithful and for the glory of God. Therefore it seems fitting that it is the senior chanter who stands in front of the icon of Christ and receives the Triodion.
As the opening hymn of the Triodion so eloquently reminds us:
