The Holy Pentecost is the days of Lent, which lasts exactly seven weeks (week). It usually starts in February or March and ends in April-May. At this time, the church calls on believers to be in the closest union of Christian love and peace not only with living people, but also with the dead, making prayerful commemorations for them on appointed days.
Funeral days during Lent are scheduled for Saturdays of weeks, since on all other days of remembrance of the dead (funeral litanies, litias, memorial services, the third, ninth and fortieth day after death, shrikes) at this time – is not celebrated for the reason that daily there is no complete liturgy with the performance of which this ritual is associated.
It is precisely in order not to deprive the dead of prayer on the days of Holy Pentecost that the said Saturdays are established. They are called Ecumenical Parental Saturdays, and the memorial services themselves performed on these days are called – ecumenical memorial services.
Also on these Saturdays, in addition to the commemoration of each deceased individually, the church commemorates all fathers and brothers in faith who have reposed for a century, who were worthy of Christian death, as well as those who, being caught by sudden death, were not parted in the afterlife by the prayers of the church«. In the circle of the liturgical year, such days of general remembrance are considered to be meat and Trinity Saturdays, as well as Saturdays of the second, third and fourth weeks of Lent.
On all parental Saturdays, service is carried out according to a special charter.