Bright Week

Bright Week, Pascha Week or Renewal Week (Greek: Διακαινήσιμος Ἑβδομάς) is the name used by the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Rite Catholic Churches for the period of seven days beginning on Easter and continuing up to (but not including) the following Sunday, which is known as 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 canon of the Council in Trullo:

"from the holy day of the Resurrection of Christ our God until New Sunday (i.e. 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. 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]

^ 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
^ 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

[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

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