Bright Week
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Bright Week or Renewal Week is the name given within the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches to the period of seven days beginning on Pascha (Easter) and continuing up to (but not including) the following Sunday, which is known as Thomas Sunday. Latin rite and other Christian groups such as Anglicans refer to this period as Easter Week.
The entire week is considered to be one continuous day, and the name of each day of the week is called "Bright" (i.e., "Bright Monday"). Every service during the week is completely different than at any other time of the year. Everything in the services is sung joyfully rather than read. Normally, the entire Psalter is read during the course of a week (and twice a week during Great Lent), but during Bright Week no psalms at all are read. Each of the Little Hours is replaced by a special service known as the Paschal Hours.
The hymns chanted every day are identical to those chanted on the Sunday of Pascha, with the exception of a few parts that are taken from the Octoechos (the "Book of the Eight Tones"). Each day has a different tone assigned to it: Easter Sunday is Tone One, Bright Monday is Tone Two, and so on through the eight tones (skipping Tone Seven, the "Grave Tone").
During all of Bright Week the Royal Doors on the Iconostasis are kept open—the only time of the year when this occurs. 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 the normal fasting rules are suspended, and the entire week is fast-free, with special Paschal foods, such as pascha (a special dish made of cheese, eggs and other products that were forbidden during Great Lent), kulich and other easter breads being eaten every day.
At the end of Vespers on the Sunday of Pascha there is a Cross Procession three times around the church, at which the Icon of the Resurrection and the Artos are carried. On the last circuit, the priest sprinkles the faithful with Holy Water. On Bright Monday through Bright Saturday, this Cross Procession takes place in the same manner after the Divine Liturgy.
The Artos mentioned in the previous paragraph is a loaf of leavened bread that was blessed during the Paschal Vigil, and is symbolic of the physical presence of the Resurrected Christ among the Apostles. This Artos is kept in the church during Bright Week (either in the nave, next to the Icon of the Resurrection, or in front of the Icon of Christ on the Iconostasis). Throughout the week, whenever anyone enters the church, he or she kisses the Artos.
On Bright Friday, in addition to the normal Paschal hymns and the hymns from the Octoechos, special stichera and a canon in honor of the Theotokos (Mother of God) are chanted in commemoration of her Icon of the "Life-giving Spring."
On Bright Saturday, after the Divine Liturgy, the priest says a prayer over the Artos and it is broken up and distributed to the faithful.
Bright Week begins the liturgical season known as the Pentecostarion, the period of fifty days which begins on Pascha and continues to Pentecost. Every day throughout the coming year is dependent upon the date of Pascha for determining both the Tone of the Week (Octoechos) and the Epistle and Gospel readings.
