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Lamentations
The Lamentations service at Holy Friday Vespers — the Church mourning over the body of Christ.
The Lamentations (Threnoi) are the poetic verses interspersed with Psalm 119 at Holy Friday Vespers (Epitaphios Threnos), sung while processing around the Holy Shroud (epitaphios) — the embroidered image of Christ's burial. The verses alternate between cosmic lament ('O Life, how can you die?') and tender expression of the Theotokos's grief, culminating in an anticipation of the Resurrection. The service is one of the most musically and theologically powerful in the Orthodox year.