East Syriac Rite

Fr Hardon defines the Syriac Rites (East and West) as: SYRIAN RITE. In the East it is also known as the Chaldean, Assyrian, or Persian Rite and is used both by Catholics and dissident Oriental Christians. The language is Syriac or Aramaic. Among the Syrian Nestorians there are only five sacraments, with penance and anointing of the sick practically unknown. In the West, the Syriac Rite is also used by both Catholics and Non-Catholic Orientals, notably the Syrian Catholics, Maronites, and Jacobites. Among the last mentioned this rite is interspersed with many Arabic prayers.

lt is also known as the Assyrian Rite, Persian Rite, or Chaldean Rite. It is an Eastern Catholic liturgical rite that employs the Divine Liturgy of Saints Addai and Mari and the East Syriac dialect as its liturgical language. It is used by  the Chaldean Catholic Church of Iraq and the Syro-Malabar Church of India.

The liturgical year is divided into periods of about seven weeks each, called Shawu'i; these are Advent (called Subara, "Annunciation"), Ephiphany, Lent, Easter, the Apostles, Summer, "Elias and the Cross", "Moses", and the "Dedication" (Qudash idta). "Moses" and the "Dedication" have only four weeks each. The Sundays are generally named after the Shawu'a in which they occur, "Fourth Sunday of Epiphany", "Second Sunday of the Annunciation ", etc., though sometimes the name changes in the middle of a Shawu'a. Most of the "Memorials" (dukhrani), or saints' days, which have special lections, occur on the Fridays between Christmas and Lent, and are therefore movable feasts, such as Christmas, Ephiphany, the Assumption, and about thirty smaller days without proper lections are on fixed days. There are four shorter fasting periods besides the Great Fast (Lent); these are:

• the Fast of Mar Zaya, the three days after the second Sunday of the Nativity;
• the Fast of the Virgins, after the first Sunday of the Epiphany;
• the Rogation of the Ninevites, seventy days before Easter;
• the Fast of Mart Mariam (Our Lady), from the first to the fourteenth of August.

The Fast of the Ninevites commemorates the repentance of Nineveh at the preaching of Jonas, and is carefully kept. Those of Mar Zaya and the Virgins are nearly obsolete. As compared with the Latin and Greek Calendars, that of the Chaldeans, is very meagre. The Malabar Rite has largely adopted the Roman Calendar, and several Roman days have been added to that of the Chaldean Catholics. The Chaldean Easter coincides with that of the Roman Catholic Church