Liturgical Calendar & Feasts
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EssentialLiturgical Calendar & FeastsPascha (Easter)The Feast of Feasts: the Resurrection of Christ. The culmination of Holy Week and the liturgical year. The Paschal Vigil begins at midnight with the proclamation 'CHRIST IS RISEN!' followed by the Paschal Matins and Divine Liturgy. The Paschal troparion is chanted: 'Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.' The paschal greeting continues for 40 days.EssentialLiturgical Calendar & FeastsGreat LentThe most important fasting period: 40 days of preparation before Pascha, followed by Holy Week. Begins on Clean Monday. Features penitential services (Presanctified Liturgy, Great Compline with Canon of St. Andrew of Crete). A journey of repentance, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving leading to the Resurrection.EssentialLiturgical Calendar & FeastsHoly WeekThe week before Pascha, the most intense liturgical period. Each day has specific services: Palm Sunday (Triumphal Entry), Holy Monday-Wednesday (Bridegroom Matins), Holy Thursday (Last Supper, institution of Eucharist), Holy Friday (Crucifixion, the Lamentations/Epitaphios service), Holy Saturday (Harrowing of Hades, the most theologically rich service of the year).EssentialLiturgical Calendar & FeastsPentecost (Feast of the Holy Trinity)Fifty days after Pascha, the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles as tongues of fire (Acts 2). One of the 12 Great Feasts. The church is decorated with greenery and flowers. The day after Pentecost (Monday of the Holy Spirit) honors the Third Person of the Trinity. Kneeling prayers are read at Vespers for the first time since Pascha.ImportantLiturgical Calendar & FeastsAnnunciation: March 25The Archangel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive the Son of God by the Holy Spirit. Mary's response: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word' (Luke 1:38), is the supreme act of human free will cooperating with divine grace. Celebrated exactly 9 months before Nativity. Fasting is relaxed (fish permitted).ImportantLiturgical Calendar & FeastsAscension of ChristForty days after Pascha, Christ ascended bodily into heaven from the Mount of Olives in the presence of His disciples (Acts 1:9-11). He sits at the right hand of the Father and will come again in glory. The Ascension means that human nature, in Christ, now sits enthroned in heaven. One of the 12 Great Feasts.ImportantLiturgical Calendar & FeastsDormition of the Theotokos: August 15The falling asleep of the Theotokos, kept on 15 August. The Church holds that she died as all die, was buried by the Apostles, and on the third day was raised and taken up in the body, her tomb found empty. Orthodoxy confesses this in its hymns rather than defining it as dogma, which is where it differs from Rome, and it holds no doctrine of an immaculate conception: she was mortal like us, and her glory is the fruit of her free obedience. Preceded by a strict fortnight of fasting.ImportantLiturgical Calendar & FeastsNativity of Christ (Christmas)Celebrated on December 25 (January 7 on Old Calendar). The feast of God's becoming man: the Incarnation. Preceded by the 40-day Nativity Fast. The troparion: 'Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, has shone upon the world the light of knowledge.' Paramone (Christmas Eve) features the Royal Hours and Vesperal Liturgy.ImportantLiturgical Calendar & FeastsTheophany (Epiphany): January 6The baptism of Christ in the Jordan and the revelation of the Holy Trinity. The Great Blessing of Water is performed: water is sanctified to become 'new Jordan.' Homes are blessed with holy water. Troparion: 'When Thou, O Lord, wast baptized in the Jordan, the worship of the Trinity was made manifest.' Preceded by a strict fast day.ImportantLiturgical Calendar & FeastsTransfiguration of Christ: August 6Christ revealed His divine glory to Peter, James, and John on Mount Tabor. The uncreated light that shone from Christ is the same light experienced by hesychast saints. This feast has profound theological significance for the doctrine of theosis and the essence-energies distinction.ImportantLiturgical Calendar & FeastsElevation of the Holy Cross: Sept 14Commemorates the finding of the True Cross by Empress Helena (326 AD) and its later recovery from the Persians by Emperor Heraclius (628). A strict fast day (no meat, dairy, or fish). The Cross is brought out in procession and elevated before the faithful. One of the 12 Great Feasts.ImportantLiturgical Calendar & FeastsPalm Sunday (Entry into Jerusalem)Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, greeted by crowds waving palm branches and crying 'Hosanna!' Celebrated the Sunday before Pascha. The faithful carry palm or willow branches blessed at the service. One of the 12 Great Feasts. Marks the beginning of Holy Week.ImportantLiturgical Calendar & FeastsThe Triumph of OrthodoxyThe first Sunday of Great Lent, keeping the restoration of the holy icons at Constantinople in 843 under the Empress Theodora, after the second iconoclast persecution. The icons are carried in procession by the faithful, and the Synodikon of Orthodoxy is proclaimed: a long text acclaiming the teachers of the faith with Eternal Memory and pronouncing anathema on the heresies the Church has condemned, added to over the centuries as new ones arose. It is called the Triumph of Orthodoxy and not the triumph over iconoclasm, because what was vindicated in 843 was the whole confession that God has truly become visible.Liturgical Calendar & FeastsEntry of the Theotokos into the Temple: Nov 21Commemorates the presentation of the three-year-old Virgin Mary in the Jerusalem Temple by her parents, Joachim and Anna. According to Tradition, she entered the Holy of Holies and was nourished by an angel. Celebrates Mary's dedication to God from earliest childhood. One of the 12 Great Feasts.Liturgical Calendar & FeastsNativity of the Theotokos: Sept 8The birth of the Virgin Mary to the aged and barren couple Joachim and Anna: the first feast of the liturgical year (which begins September 1). The birth of the one who would bear God into the world. One of the 12 Great Feasts.