Aër

The Aër (Greek: Ἀήρ, lit. the "air"; modern Greek: Αέρας; Slavonic: Воздýхъ, Vozdúkh) is the largest and outermost of the veils covering the Chalice and Diskos (paten) in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite. It is rectangular in shape and corresponds to the veil used to cover the chalice and paten in the Latin Rite, but is larger. It is often made of the same material and color as the vestments of the officiating priest, and often has a fringe going all the way around its edge. Tassels may also be sewn at each of the corners.

It takes its name either from the lightness of the material of which it is made, or from the fact that during the Nicene Creed in the Divine Liturgy, the priest holds it high in the air and waves it slowly over the Chalice and Diskos. Its original use was to cover the Chalice and prevent anything from falling into it before the consecration. It symbolizes the swaddling clothes with which Christ was wrapped at his Nativity, and also the grave clothes in which he was wrapped at his burial (both themes are found in the text of the Liturgy of Preparation).

The Aër is first mentioned by name in an explanation of the Divine Liturgy by a writer of the sixth century, and is also alluded to as "the so-called Aër" in the Acts of the Council of Constantinople.

At the Divine Liturgy, during the Liturgy of Preparation, when the Aër is to be placed over the Gifts (the Bread and Wine for the Eucharist), it is first wrapped around the censer and then laid over the Chalice and Diskos, so that the front edge of the Aër just touches the surface of the table. When not covering the Gifts, the Aër is folded (usually folded 3 x 3, so that when it is laid out flat the creases will form a cross). The Aër normally has a cross embroidered in its exact center, so that when it is folded the cross is visible.

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