01 — Pascha and the Liturgical Year
The foundation section: Pascha is not one of the Twelve Great Feasts but stands above them all as the “Feast of Feasts,” the ground and summit from which the Twelve take their light; and the Twelve themselves are set within a year of two interlocking cycles, fixed and movable, whose vocabulary of forefeast, afterfeast, and leave-taking gives every feast its shape.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox
Purpose
Before the individual feasts can be studied, two things must be established: that Pascha transcends and grounds them, and that the Twelve are ordered within a structured year. This section supplies both, so that the feast-files that follow can presuppose them.
Navigation
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| pascha-the-feast-of-feasts.md | Pascha as the Feast of Feasts; the Paschal mystery of death and resurrection; why it stands above the Twelve and gives them their meaning |
| the-twelve-great-feasts-and-the-calendar.md | What “Great Feast” means; the fixed and movable cycles; the Church year from 1 September; forefeast, afterfeast, and apodosis (leave-taking) |
See Also
- Orthodoxy: The Church Calendar — the calendar in detail, including the Paschalion
- Hymnography and the Shape of a Feast — the festal cycle treated as a form