Holy Week baroque composers were usually intended for performance during the evening of Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. In the Orthodox Church, the forty days of Great Lent end on the Friday before Palm Sunday. The two days that follow, Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, form a transition to Holy Week, neither in Lent nor in Holy Week themselves, but in combination with Holy Week containing the continuing observances in preparation for Pascha (Easter), during which the faithful continue to fast. Lazarus Saturday commemorates Jesus' raising of Lazarus from the dead, just before he went to Jerusalem himself. The main
Saint George's Day Georgiritt takes place on 23 April and leads from Gunzendorf up onto the Senftenberg. This is a kind of pilgrimage traditionally done on horseback. Under the state atheism of former Eastern Bloc countries, the celebration of Saint George's Day was historically suppressed. If St George's Day (or any saint's day) falls during Holy Week or on Easter Day, it is observed on Easter Monday. The Russian Orthodox Church, which uses the Julian calendar, has two important feasts of Saint George. Besides the feast of 23 April (6 May in the Gregorian calendar), common through all Christendom, Russians also celebrate the