It is the custom among the eastern Slavs to read the prologue of St. John in many languages during the Paschal liturgy. (By contrast, those in the Greek orbit read the gospel appointed for Paschal vespers in many languages instead.) I think we had over a dozen languages; Danish was a new addition this year. Before I became a deacon, I used to read in Cherokee — someone my mom knows in Tahlequah, Oklahoma made me a recording so I could at least approximate the tonal aspect of the language. Nowadays I skip reading so I can conserve my energy to make it to the end of liturgy.

Last night was the first time we’ve had a sign language interpreter for it, which I thought was really cool.

#Pascha2026 #deaf