The Rite of the Burial of the Most Holy Theotokos is a special service in the Orthodox Church, during which the Dormition and burial of the Mother of God in Gethsemane is remembered. This is a special service that all believing Orthodox Christians try to attend.
The Rite of the Burial of the Most Holy Theotokos includes both sad hymns dedicated to the assumption (death) of the Virgin Mary, and liturgical texts that give a person hope for the fulfillment of the promise of the Mother of God herself about the intercession of mankind before God until the end of time.
The celebration of the Divine Service of the Burial of the Mother of God is a pious custom that has entered the liturgical life of the Church. In the Typikon (the main book, reflecting the liturgical charter of the Church), there is no very succession of the Rite of the Burial of the Mother of God, and there are no indications for its performance in Orthodox churches. However, such a silence of the Typikon about this service is not a serious obstacle to the administration of the service, because in such an action a person's special love for the Mother of God and reverence for the zealous intercessor of Christians is manifested.
The first manuscripts with the order of the Burial of the Most Holy Theotokos date back to approximately the 15th - 16th centuries. According to the established pious custom, this rite is performed in Jerusalem at the tomb of the Mother of God in the morning on the eve of the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God. Historically, in other Churches of the Orthodox East, this divine service was performed in conjunction with the festive service of the Dormition of the Theotokos (August 28, new style), that is, on the feast of the Dormition itself. However, the Charter of the Great Church of Constantinople prohibits such a combination of the Rite of the Burial of the Most Holy Theotokos with the festive service of the Assumption. In Russia, the practice of performing the festive Dormition service in combination of the all-night vigil (on the eve of the Dormition) with a separate part of the service from the Rite of Burial has been preserved. In this case, the Rite of Burial falls on the evening of August 27th. This practice takes place in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and in the Kostroma Epiphany Monastery.
In most churches of the Russian Orthodox Church, it is customary to perform the Rite of the Burial of the Most Holy Theotokos in the coming days of the Feast of the Assumption. Most often, this service is performed on the third day after the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God. If we take into account that the service of the daily circle begins on the evening of the celebrated event, then the all-night vigil with the Rite of Burial itself takes place on the second day in the evening after the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos - August 29th.
The practice of performing the Rite of the Burial of the Virgin on the third day after the Dormition has been firmly entrenched in Russia since the middle of the 19th century, when this divine service began in this sequence in the Gethsemane skete at the Trinity-Sergeev Lavra.
However, it is worth considering that sometimes the third day of the Assumption of the Virgin coincides with Sunday. In this case, the Rite of the Burial of the Mother of God is not performed together with the festive Sunday service, but is postponed to the fourth day after the Dormition (accordingly, the all-night vigil, performed the night before, is sent on the third day). It happened in 2015. The feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God fell on Friday, August 28th, respectively, the third day coincides with Sunday. But on the eve of Sunday, a festive Sunday service is performed on Saturday evening. Therefore, the liturgical Rule recommends the postponement of the Divine Service of the Burial of the Most Holy Theotokos on the 4th day after the Dormition (Monday 31st August). Accordingly, the rite of the Burial itself is served in 2015 on the 30th of August on Sunday evening.
It is also worth noting that with the blessing of the parish rector, due to some valid reason, the Rite of the Burial of the Mother of God can be served on other days of the feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos.
