The Descent into Hades

Between the cross and the rising, Christ goes down to the dead. The Orthodox icon of the Resurrection does not show Him stepping out of a tomb: it shows Him in Hades, standing on its broken gates, pulling Adam and Eve up by the wrist so that the grip is His and not theirs. This is why the Paschal troparion says He trampled down death by death, and why the Paschal homily of St John Chrysostom, read at Paschal Matins, addresses Hades directly and mocks it. Holy Saturday keeps the day itself, and its hymns are the strangest in the year: the tomb is called the source of life, and the Church sings a funeral service over God.