Today is the 40th day of Pascha. "Pascha" is simply a transliteration of the Hebrew word for Passover, and is the term Orthodox use to designate the three day paschal mystery culminating in the resurrection, aka Easter. Feasts of the church are so important that there is almost always a pre-feastial period (usually ranging from one to seven days) and a post-feastial period (usually ranging from one to eight days). I think the point is pretty simple, the feasts of the church express the theogical content of who God is, who we are, and how we are to commune with him--and it does this not with abstract and objectified statements, but with concrete and experiential hymns and readings expressed in the communal services of the church. For any given feast, one day is not sufficient to drink from these life-giving waters, so we have these extended periods before and after a feast to aid is in taking a bigger drink. It is difficult, especially in America, for all the services to be done in the context of normal parish life, but monasteries can help for they typically offer a fuller cycle of services and make them available to others to drink a little more richly of the feast.
Pascha is not simply a feast, but it is the feast of feasts--the feast from which all other feasts (and fasts, for that matter) derive their meaning. So it has a forty day post-feast (the number taken from the days in which Christ stayed on earth after his resurrection and before his ascension, which, not surprisingly, is tomorrow's feast). The idea is to take a very big drink--a forty day drink--of Pascha. When that period comes to an end, as it does today, the services are done essentially as they were on the Pascha itself, and thus with tremendous celebration and joy.
I am grateful to have experienced these services beautifully done at Iviron, which on the map is here:
I arrived here yesterday afternoon, walking only about 50 minutes from where Fr. Philotheos dropped me off after our conversation with Fr. Efrem. (He was very apologetic about not being able to take me the whole way but his beekeeper's vehicle doesn't have a license so it's illegal to drive it off the monastery property. Even on Athos cars need licenses.)
Here is a view of Iviron as I approached:
To the right, obstructed by the trees, is the Aegean; a very beautiful setting indeed. I was not, however, greeted with a 'good message':
But it turns out that their bark is worse than their bite, and they received me warmly (though, I note, not with the customary ouzo--good to have our expectations drowned once in a while).
So it is here that I say good bye to Pascha for this year. The paschal greetings, "Christ is risen!" and "Truly he is risen!", which have occurred many times in every conversation I've had in the last few weeks on the Holy Mountain, come to an end today. So too the troparion (characteristic hymn) of the feast awaits next year to be sung again: "Christ is risen from the dead trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life."
Today I hope, God willing, to travel only about an hour to Stavronikita, which can be seen on the furtherest point to the right in this photo taken from the shore at Iviron:
I will endeavor to say good bye to Pascha by filling the airways with "Christ is risen!" and singing the Paschal troparion as I pass through the day. I hope you will join me, wherever you are.
Christ is risen! Truly he is risen!
And unto us he has given eternal life!
Let us worship his holy resurrection!
