Lazarus Saturday, a celebration and traditions

In some Maronite villages, children tour houses to recreate the episode of the resurrection of the friend of Christ.
L'Orient-Le Jour by Frederic ZAKHIA, on the 27th of March 2021

The Eastern Catholic Churches today celebrate Lazarus Saturday, in reference to the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus, a friend of Christ. Celebrated on the eve of Palm Sunday, among Catholic and Orthodox communities, this feast marks the beginning of The Holy Week and is considered an anticipation of the mystery of the Resurrection at Easter. Within the Maronite community, it is associated with a popular tradition, similar to that of Saint-Barbara, when children tour houses, especially in villages.

Not everyone is aware of the existence of this custom, especially in cities. Most of the people questioned on this subject express their astonishment and say that they do not know it. But it does exist. It is especially the elderly who remember it perfectly: “Lazarus Saturday was a special day. As at Saint-Barbara, groups of young people came to us with a long sheet of paper in hand on which songs were written,” Éléonore Karam, an old lady in Amchit, told us some time ago. “They knocked on doors repeating a refrain inspired by this miracle: “Lazarus had three sisters, Mary, Martha, and Elizabeth, etc.”They would then enter the houses and do a little theatrical performance there. One of them was lying on the ground and his comrades were shouting, “Lazarus, get up. Lazarus, get up! ” The dead man got up and they started singing again: "Lazarus is screaming, he's hungry, he wants a lot of eggs." The family they visited then offered money or eggs to the children”.

Even if it is no longer in place today, this tradition has left its mark on the Lebanese dialect heritage. Joseph Ilichaa Karam, director of the century-old Notre-Dame-du-Saint-Rosaire school in Amchit, where this tradition continued until the 1950s, reports a saying that many repeats to this day. "When someone wants to describe something that is dragging in time, that is long or repetitive, they'll say, 'It's like Lazarus' Saturday refrain.'"

Father Élie Challita, an auxiliary parish priest of Saint-Élisée parish in the same village, explains that in the New Testament only two sisters of Lazarus are mentioned, Martha and Mary. "The chorus," he adds, "mentions three because it is a popular and unscriptural custom. According to him, this tradition is perpetuated in most of the mountain villages, as in Qartaba, Deir el-Ahmar, and even on the coast as in Blat or Jbeil. "In some large parishes, versions of this commemoration are much more elaborate thanks to the zeal of youth associations," he says, referring to small plays on the theme. For his part, Mgr Moussa El-Hage, Maronite bishop of the Holy Land, explains that this custom is not in place in Palestine.

This practice, obliterated by time, certainly developed during a period when, in the absence of any electronic means of communication or entertainment, such as television and the Internet, and in the very absence of electricity, social life revolved around the Christian liturgical year. Its disappearance in some villages can be explained by the rural exodus and the advent of various means of electronic entertainment. The coronavirus epidemic, which has lasted for just over a year in Lebanon, has brought another blow to this tradition.

The Lazarus Saturday tour existed among the Coptic Orthodox, but it seems to have disappeared today. In other Orthodox Churches, the customs accompanying Lazarus Saturday persist but are not the same. In Greece, for example, crosses are made from palm leaves, in anticipation of Palm Sunday, and a special spicy bread is made in the shape of a man supposed to be Lazarus. In other places in the Mediterranean basin, the tradition is purely religious and not social: Orthodox hermits leave their desert retreat and return to the monasteries to co-celebrate Masses on this occasion.

Translation – Mayda Samaha