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Bright Thursday

Christ is Risen! 

Indeed, He is Risen!

The entire week following Pascha, known as Bright Week, is to be set aside by Orthodox Christians for the celebration of the Resurrection:

"from the holy day of the Resurrection of Christ our God until Thomas Sunday for a whole week the faithful in the holy churches should continually be repeating psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, rejoicing and celebrating Christ, and attending to the reading of the Divine Scriptures and delighting in the Holy Mysteries. For in this way shall we be exalted with Christ; raised up together with Him."

During all of Bright Week the Holy Doors on the Iconostasis are kept open—the only time of the year when this occurs. The open doors represent the stone rolled away from the empty Tomb of Christ, and the Epitaphios representing the burial clothes, is visible through them on the Holy Table. The doors are closed before the Ninth Hour on the eve of Thomas Sunday. However, the Afterfeast of Pascha will continue until the eve of the Ascension.

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 Easter eggs blessed during the Paschal Vigil.  The faithful joyously greeting each other with the salutation of Christ is risen, followed by the response indeed He is risen or Truly He is risen, as the whole of creation is renewed by Our Lord and Savior.

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. 

Earlier Event: April 11
Bright Wednesday
Later Event: April 13
Bright Friday