Greeting during Holy Week

George_Mina_Awad

I have a few questions regarding the common tradition that says we should not greet each other from Wednesday night of Holy Week (some day from Tuesday night) until the Feast of the Resurrection.

-How and when did this originate? Have any Church Fathers spoken about it?
-What is its significance?
-What happens if we continue to greet each other like any other time of the year?

CopticFighter

"From the Eve of Wednesday until the end of Friday, the clergy and congregation do not greet one another with a holy kiss, or kiss the Gospel or the icons as a symbol of Judas's kiss."
--my Pascha book

sifaing

The greetings stop from the 11th hour of Tuesday. Which is the hour we start to say basoteer enaghatos. This is the tradition that we have received. I'm not sure if any of the fathers speak about it or not. But I know that it is mentioned in the ritual books of at least the middle ages (because I haven't read anything earlier than that)...doesn't mean it's not mentioned earlier than that. I just don't know. The reason is so that we may flee from the likeness of judas the betrayer who chose a kiss as the method of betrayal when it is usually used as a sign of love friendship.  It is a type of fast for the body to remind us to never be hypocritical in our dealing with people and to not have fake relationships and to avoid back stabbing and gossiping.

You said what happens if you don't do it. The answer is simply you won't be reliving the passions of Christ. Holy week and the rites of it are a type of anamnesis. So let's try to learn from the rites of holy week and truly live it.