+ The Pascha Celebration of the Holy Fire of JerusalemIndeed He is Risen!

"If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty" (1 Cor. 15:14).

Welcome to FeastofFeasts.org, a web site offering resources on the Orthodox Christian celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the Orthodox Church, the feast of Christ's resurrection is commonly referred to as "Pascha" (PAS-ka), the Greek term for "Passover."

Just as the angel of death passed over the homes of the Iraelites in Egypt, all humanity is delivered from death through Christ's death and resurrection. The reality of Jesus' rising from the dead is the point of reference for all Eastern Orthodox thought and life.

+ Icon of Christ's Descent Into Hades, by Fr. Gregory KrougBaptism is understood as participation in the Lord's death and resurrection, as St. Paul teaches in the sixth chapter of his letter to the Church in Rome. (Click here to learn more about baptism in the Orthodox Christian Tradition.)

Every Sunday is dedicated to the resurrection of Christ. And annually, after a period of fasting and spiritual preparation that lasts almost two months called Great Lent, or the Great Fast, Orthodox faithful celebrate the greatest of all holy days, Pascha -- the "Feast of Feasts" praising and glorifying Jesus' life-giving victory over death.

About FeastOfFeasts.org

FeastOfFeasts.org is co-sponsored by the communications office of the Orthodox Church in America and the Department of Internet Ministry of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.

Collected here are a selection of writings on Paschal themes available from the gifted writers and teachers of the Orthodox Church in America and the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese. You can review the selection of articles, here. We have also gathered image galleries, and a list of resources.

We hope that all who visit this site, whether Eastern Orthodox or not, will find that it offers insight and inspiration as we honor the glorious resurrection of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. And we pray that this is only a small compliment to your participation in the holy and awe-inspiring liturgical services of Orthodox Christian Pascha at your own Orthodox Christian parish.

"Jesus has risen from the tomb, as He foretold, and given us eternal life and great mercy." -- Hymn to the Resurrection

About Fr. Gregory's Icon of the Descent into Hades

Christ, vested in the brilliance of His divine power, who ascends from Hades, and, with Him, Adam and Eve, in whom the whole of fallen mankind is personified, mankind which since the Fall has been locked into the universal cemetary of Hell. . . . We are able to see the revelation of the Redemption's inner, eternal, and mystical reality, whose first fruit was shown to the world in the Resurrection of Christ, the same reality which is to come in His Second Coming. . . .

The center of the Icon, its key, lies in the meeting of the hands of Adam and the Savior. The gesture with which Christ restores Adam and Eve to life is full of great love and tenderness. He . . . lifts him up with such gentleness as only a parent can express, helping his child to get up after a fall. Christ thus reveals to Adam and Eve, and to us, the love of a Father -- His Father -- so that to all "who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God" (John 1:12).

Text and Icon From The Light of Christ: Iconography of Gregory Kroug, by Fr. Andrew Tregubov, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press