Bright Week

The observance of the week after Pascha as a single sustained celebration is of ancient standing in the Church. The Council in Trullo (the Quinisext Council) directs in its 66th canon that during this period the faithful should spend the days "repeating psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, rejoicing and celebrating Christ," attending the Divine Liturgy and hearing the Scriptures — establishing the week as an extended feast rather than a return to ordinary time.

Bright Week opens the Pentecostarion, the liturgical book governing the fifty days from Pascha to Pentecost. Its opening week carries dramatically altered practices: the services are chanted in their entirety rather than partly spoken, their length is abbreviated, the Paschal Hours replace the ordinary Little Hours, and regular psalm-reading is suspended. Paschal hymns supplant the standard liturgical texts, and Psalm 67 (the Paschal Verses) is sung responsively with the Paschal troparion.

Over the week's development a series of distinctive rites took shape. From Bright Monday through Bright Saturday, outdoor processions follow the Divine Liturgy, carrying the icon of the Resurrection and the Artos — the blessed Paschal loaf — three times around the church, concluding with Gospel readings and the blessing of holy water. The Artos, sealed with an image of the Cross with the crown of thorns or of the Resurrection, is placed on a table before the iconostasis after the Paschal Vigil; the faithful venerate it through the week, and on Bright Saturday the priest breaks it and distributes it with the antidoron.

The one feast that may be celebrated within Bright Week is that of the Life-giving Spring (Zoodochos Pege), kept on Bright Friday. Its origin is traced to a fifth-century miracle recorded by the ecclesiastical historian Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos: near the Golden Gate of Constantinople the soldier Leo Marcellus was told in a divine instruction on April 4, 450, to use a nearby spring to heal a blind man. After becoming the Byzantine Emperor Leo I (reigned 457–474), he built the Church of St. Mary of the Spring at the site, and the icon of the Theotokos as a source of living water spread across the Orthodox world.

The week left its mark on civil as well as ecclesiastical life. In Imperial Russia the taverns closed and no alcoholic drink was sold during Bright Week, marking the days as set apart from ordinary time.

Bright Week extends and unfolds the single reality of Pascha: that Christ is risen from the dead. By keeping the seven days as one continuous liturgical day, the Church teaches that the Resurrection is not a single commemorated moment but an enduring condition into which the faithful now live. The renewal signified by the name Diakainisimos is understood to touch the whole of creation, which is renewed in the risen Lord.

The open Royal Doors are the central visible sign of the week's meaning. Remaining open throughout — uniquely in the year — they represent the open door of Christ's empty tomb, and are also associated with the tearing of the temple veil at the moment of His death, signifying the opening of access to God.

The complete prohibition of fasting expresses the theological logic of joy: where the Bridegroom is present and risen, mourning has no place, and the faithful recover strength after the long labor of Great Lent and Holy Week. Tradition holds that this joy reaches even the departed — those who die penitently during Bright Week are held to be released from the bonds of their sins and received into the Kingdom, and funeral services are accordingly reshaped, combining Paschal hymns with the funereal litanies so that resurrection hope predominates.

The Artos carries a Eucharistic and Christological sense: it stands for the physical presence of the risen Christ among His disciples, recalling His post-Resurrection appearances in which He ate with them and blessed bread, and it embodies the confession of Christ as the Bread of Life who remains invisibly present in the Church. The feast of the Life-giving Spring gathers the week's water imagery into a Marian key, associating the flowing spring with the Theotokos's intercession and with the renewal of divine grace mediated through her.

During Bright Week the ordinary liturgical texts are replaced by the Paschal hymns, which are sung rather than read throughout. Psalm 67, the Paschal Verses, is chanted responsively together with the Paschal troparion, and special Paschal Hours take the place of the customary Little Hours. The suspension of regular psalm-reading and the complete chanting of the services mark the week's hymnody as wholly festal.

The hymnody of the season belongs to the Pentecostarion, whose water imagery reflects the newly baptized — the "Newly Illumined" — who received baptism at Pascha, and whose Sundays progress through the Gospel of John and the Acts of the Apostles as the fifty days unfold.

Bright Week is kept as a fast-free week in its entirety: the Church's practice permits no fasting and no kneeling during these days, since the joy of the Resurrection excludes both. The relaxation also allows the faithful to recover their strength after the extended fasts of Great Lent and Holy Week. As with all such matters of discipline, the faithful are directed to consult their priest.

The Royal Doors of the iconostasis remain open for the entire week as a sign of Christ's open, empty tomb — the only time in the year this occurs, with the Epitaphios visible on the altar through the open doors.

The faithful exchange the Paschal greeting "Christ is risen!" answered "Truly He is risen!" throughout the week; in Russia and Serbia the greeting is accompanied by a triple kiss of peace on alternating cheeks.

Red eggs are shared as a sign of the Resurrection.

From Bright Monday through Bright Saturday, outdoor processions follow the Divine Liturgy, carrying the icon of the Resurrection and the Artos three times around the church, concluding with Gospel readings and the blessing of holy water.

In monasteries the Artos is brought daily to the refectory and lifted with the proclamation "Christ is Risen!"; on Bright Saturday the priest breaks it and distributes it with the antidoron.

The feast of the Life-giving Spring (Zoodochos Pege) is kept on Bright Friday, the only feast permitted within the week, often with the Lesser Blessing of Waters after the Divine Liturgy.

• Matthew 28:5-6 — The angel's proclamation at the tomb, "He is not here; he has risen," the likely source of the Paschal greeting.
• Luke 24:33-34 — The disciples' proclamation "The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon," associated with the response to the Paschal greeting.

When a funeral must be served during Bright Week, it follows a special rite that combines the joyous Paschal hymns — set to the form of Paschal Matins — with a minimal number of funereal litanies and hymns, so that the emphasis falls on the hope of the Resurrection rather than on mourning.