Bright Week

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This article is about the weeklong celebration in Eastern Christianity. For the similar period in Western Christianity, see Octave of Easter.
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Bright Week, Pascha Week or Renewal Week (

Thomas Sunday
.

The entire week following Easter is to be set aside by Orthodox Christians for the celebration of the Resurrection. According to the 66th

Council in Trullo
:

"from the holy day of the Resurrection of Christ our God until

Holy Mysteries. For in this way shall we be exalted with Christ; raised up together with Him. For this reason on the aforesaid days that by no means there be any horse races or any other public spectacle".[1]

In

Imperial Russia taverns were closed during Bright Week, and no alcoholic beverages were sold.[2]

Liturgical aspects

Trinity Lavra, in Sergiyev Posad, Russia
).

The entire week is considered to be one continuous day. The name of each day of the week is called "Bright" (e.g., "Bright Monday") and the week's services are unique, varying greatly from those during the remainder of the year. The services are entirely sung, and the Paschal hymns are included with the stichera taken from the Sunday Resurrection propers in the Octoechos, rotating through the various tones. Tone 1 is used Holy Saturday and at Paschal matins on Sunday, tone 2 Sunday night and Monday, etc., skipping the least festive heavy (or grave) tone and ending with the plagal 4th (aka, Tone 8) on Friday night and Saturday.

St. Petersburg
).

During all of Bright Week the

Ascension
.

During Bright Week the Paschal Verses (from Psalm 67) are sung responsorially with the Paschal troparion at the beginning of the Divine Liturgy, in place of Psalm 103 at the beginning of vespers and in place of the Six Psalms at the beginning of matins. Everything in the services is sung joyfully rather than read. Thus, for example, while censing the church before the Divine Liturgy, the deacon recites a Paschal hymm in place of Psalm 50. Normally, the entire Psalter is read during the course of a week (and twice a week during Great Lent), but during Bright Week no psalms at all are read. Each of the Little Hours is replaced by a special service known as the Paschal Hours.[3] In Bright Week ordinary fasting is suspended, and the entire week is fast-free, with special Paschal foods eaten every day as well as red

Paschal Vigil
.

At the end of the

outdoor procession three times around the church, at which the Icon of the Resurrection and the Artos are carried. On the last circuit, there is a reading from the Gospel and the priest sprinkles the faithful with holy water
.

Bright Week procession (Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church in Guslitsa)

The Artos is a loaf of leavened bread impressed before baking with a seal of an icon of the Resurrection that is blessed during the

Holy Doors
. Throughout the week, whenever anyone enters the church, he or she kisses the Artos, symbolically greeting the resurrected Christ.

On

Bright Friday, a service in honor of the Theotokos (Mother of God) as the "Life-giving Spring" is included in the Paschal service. This service is not found in the Typicon, but was composed in the fourteenth century by Nikita Kallistos Xanthopoulos, in commemoration of the renewal, i.e., the consecration of the temple known as the Life-giving Spring.[4]

On

Bright Saturday
, after the Divine Liturgy, the priest says a prayer over the Artos and it is broken up and distributed to the faithful.

Bright Week begins the liturgical season known as the Pentecostarion, the period of fifty days which begins on Pascha and continues to Pentecost and its Afterfeast.[5] The date of Pascha determines liturgical cycles as well as the Epistle and Gospel readings for the subsequent year.

Paschal funeral and paraklesis

Funeral services held during Bright Week have a special rite, consisting entirely of joyous Paschal hymns with only the litanies remaining funereal.[6]

Molebens) during Pascha are likewise served according to a special rite, with the canon of Pascha.[4]

References

  1. ^ Schaff, Philip, ed. (1885), "Council in Trullo: Canon LXVI", Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd, vol. 14, Edinburgh: T&T Clark, retrieved 2008-05-06
  2. ^ Bulgakov, S. V. (1900), Handbook for Church Servers (PDF) (2nd ed.), Kharkov: Translated by Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris (published 2006), p. 581, archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-26, retrieved 2008-05-06
  3. ^ The Pentecostarion (translated from the Greek), Boston MA: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1990, pp. 37–38
  4. ^ a b [1] "Archbishop Averky Liturgics – The Pascha of the Lord, or the Resurrection of Christ; Lenten Matins", Retrieved 2012-04-12
  5. Propers
    for the following two Sundays are often included in the Pentecostarion as well.
  6. Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese
    (published 1975), pp. 435–6, 610

External links

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