Apodosis of Pascha

The Apodosis, or leavetaking, is the final day on which a feast is celebrated in the Church. The Greek term apodosis literally means "giving back" rather than simply "leavetaking." Most leavetakings conclude an afterfeast period during which most elements of the festal services are appointed to be served again, and Pascha, along with most First and Second Class feasts, observes such a leavetaking. The Church has traditionally maintained afterfeasts for its major feasts on the understanding that when one experiences something beautiful, it is natural to desire that experience again; the leavetaking gathers up the feast one last time before its close.

The paschal afterfeast is distinguished by its exceptional length. Where an ordinary feast concludes on its eighth day, Pascha extends across forty days, from Pascha Sunday to the Apodosis on the Wednesday of the sixth week, the day before Ascension. Throughout Bright Week and beyond, the paschal order is repeated for all the services, and the special paschal features are retained in the services for the forty days until Ascension. The Paschal Troparion is sung at each of the daily services until Ascension Day, and at the Sunday services the Paschal canon and hymns are repeated. An Artos — a consecrated bread bearing the image of the Cross or of the Resurrection — remains in the church throughout these forty days and is distributed on the following Saturday, marking the liturgical continuity of the whole period.

On the day of the Apodosis the services are celebrated as on Pascha itself, sung in the manner of Bright Week, while the daily Scripture readings change. After the dismissal at the Liturgy the paschal hymns cease, the prayer "O Heavenly King" is not said or sung until Pentecost, and the Winding Sheet (Plaschanitsa) is removed from the altar and returned to its place. Two traditions govern the final days: in the older usage the Resurrection hymns are combined with those of the Sunday of the Blind Man on the Wednesday, while in modern Greek practice the Apodosis of the Blind Man falls on the Tuesday and the Wednesday services use the special paschal form employed during Bright Week.

The observance sits within the Pentecostarion, the moveable liturgical book covering the fifty-day period from Pascha to Pentecost and extending to the Feast of All Saints on the Sunday after Pentecost. The paschal season it governs theologically joins the sacraments of Baptism, tied to the Resurrection, and Chrismation, reflected in Pentecost, and its hymns are marked throughout by water imagery drawn from baptismal theology. The unifying refrain of the entire season proclaims that Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.

The forty days of the paschal celebration are treated, by long convention, as a single continuous day — a new day conveyed to the faithful in the length of the paschal services, in the repetition of the paschal order through Bright Week, and in the paschal features retained until Ascension. The Apodosis is the last hour of that one great day, the point at which the Church, having lived within the light of the empty tomb for six weeks, gathers the feast in its fullness a final time.

The extended celebration mirrors the forty days during which the risen Christ appeared to His disciples before ascending into heaven, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, where He showed Himself alive after His passion by many proofs, being seen of them forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. The Apodosis therefore stands at the threshold between Resurrection and Ascension, closing the season of the appearances and preparing the Church for the Lord's ascent.

The theological emphasis of the day is that the leavetaking is not an absence. Though Christ ascends physically, He remains spiritually present with His Church: the hymnody of the season teaches that He ascended in glory yet was not parted from those who love Him. The Apodosis thus voices both the sorrow of a farewell to the visible celebration of the Resurrection and the assurance that the risen Lord is never truly departed from His people.

Throughout the paschal afterfeast the Paschal Troparion is sung at each of the daily services until Ascension, and on Sundays the Paschal canon and hymns are repeated, so that the Apodosis restores this festal hymnody one final time in the full Bright-Week manner. The unifying proclamation of the season declares in sense that Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and bestowing life upon those in the tombs.

The theme carried into the leavetaking looks toward the Ascension: the hymnody affirms that Christ ascended in glory yet was not parted from those who love Him. After the dismissal at the Liturgy of the Apodosis these paschal hymns fall silent, and the prayer "O Heavenly King" — omitted throughout the paschal season — remains unsung until it is restored at Pentecost.

Although the Apodosis of Pascha falls on a Wednesday, which is ordinarily a fast day, the Church's practice is to lift the fasting restrictions for the feast, so that fish, wine, and oil are permitted. This relaxation reflects the festal character of the day, on which the paschal celebration is kept in its fullness one last time before Ascension. The site adds a "consult your priest" disclaimer, and typikon prescriptions may vary by jurisdiction.

The Winding Sheet (Plaschanitsa) is taken from the altar and returned to its proper place after the services of the Apodosis.

The paschal services are celebrated one final time in the full manner of Bright Week, after which the paschal hymns are no longer sung until the following year.

The Artos, consecrated at Pascha and kept in the church through the forty-day afterfeast, is distributed to the faithful on the Saturday following the Apodosis.

• Acts 1:3 — The risen Christ shows Himself alive by many proofs, seen of the disciples forty days — the pattern the forty-day paschal afterfeast reflects.