In Orthodoxy we often speak of “The 12 Great Feasts, plus Pascha.” While the list is actually not formally created by The Church it is an easy way of keeping track of the major dates in the Church Year. On these days we might think about having a bigger dinner, using a tablecloth, using our nicer china, lighting the lamps before our Icons, having a clean house, having fresh flowers, and inserting the feast’s troparion into our family prayers. Of course, these are all in the home: we should make every effort to attend the Divine Liturgy on these days.

 

Of course, we already discussed Namedays and Slavas.

 

September 1st - The Induction  

This feast marks the beginning of the new year, ecclesiastically. While not much is done in homes, historically this was an important date, and we’ll begin our walk through the Church year here.

 

September 8th - Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos

This is the birthday of our Panagia! While there are not many traditions surrounding this feast, it is appropriate to place her Icon (or the Icon of the Feast) in the center of our table at dinner time, and to add “More honorable than the cherubim…” to our before-meal prayer (or, even better, the family could sing the troparion of the feast).

 

September 14th - The Universal Exaltation of the Life Giving Cross

This Feast also has few traditions associated with it. Given that the tradition says a basil plant was growing over the True Cross when St. Helen found it, meals featuring basil can help bring this feast into our home. Pesto is our favorite, and quite simple if you use jarred sauce (many of which now are quite delicious and healthy). The Icon Corner could also be decorated with basil.

 

November 15th - Beginning of Advent

The West has a long tradition of counting down the days of Advent, with Advent Wreaths, Advent Calendars, and other ways of recognizing the anticipatory-nature of this fast. Unfortunately these often are too short for Orthodox Advent. Some enterprising Orthodox have ‘baptized’ their older traditions and have longer Advent Calendars or Wreaths. Here is one small booklet of prayers and instructions for an Orthodox Advent Wreath. Another can be found amongst these Antiochian resources. This can be a very meaningful way to count the Sundays of Advent until we get to Christmas, lighting one candle the first Sunday, two the next, etc. The Wreath also serves as a centerpiece for the family table during the season. Here are some designs for Orthodox Advent Calendars. Finally every year Journey To Orthodoxy sponsors the New Testament Challenge, with guides to read through the entire New Testament for the 40 days of Advent. You can read about Fasting in Orthodoxy here.

 

November 21st - The Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple

Again, not many festivities for the Domestic Church are traditionally associated with this feast. Not having a long lineage of time-honored traditions should not lead us to dismiss these feasts, which are rich in theology and help us to understand and love Our Lord all the better. We know some families take this feast as the time to take their daughters out for a special day; a fancy lunch for example, especially using the time to discuss how we follow God’s Will in our life and fostering love in their daughters for the Theotokos.

 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving falls in November for Americans and October in Canada. Other countries may have other harvest festivals. I’m led to understand however that the Americans tend to take Thanksgiving more seriously than other countries, and so I placed mention of this feast in November.

 

Thanksgiving is not a traditional Orthodox feast but it has very Orthodox intentions, and to baptize the day into Orthodoxy is entirely appropriate. It is so appropriate that American Bishops on the New Calendar give a dispensation from the fast to celebrate it. Some parish churches have begun celebrating the Akathist of Thanksgiving in their parishes the day before the feast. The Antiochian church has put out prayers acceptable to use for Great Vespers the night before Thanksgiving, and for the Divine Liturgy. If your parish does neither you could ask your priest, or say the Akathist yourself in your home before your Icons. Here is how to pray an akathist at home.

 

In some families the Blessing Prayer at Thanksgiving is considered the ‘highlight’ of the before-meal-prayers said of the entire year. Being of this mindset, this is the one I use at Thanksgiving:

 

“Lord and Father of all Creation, from nothing You created everything, and nothing exists without You. Despite our fallen nature You have given us every blessing; life, family, gifts, and the abundance of the earth. Above all You have given Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, for our Salvation. O Maker of All, in repayment we can offer nothing but ourselves in Thanksgiving, and as the time of the Harvest is here, we offer You, the owner of the field, as first-fruits, our hymns and lives of praise. We glorify You for the bountiful feast which You have prepared for us, raising up for us the grain, vegetables, fruits, and livestock upon our table. In their sacrifice and consumption may we not be lost to the lusts of food, nor relax in our duty as stewards of Your creation, but be brought to salvation through gratitude to You in all things, our Lord and Master, and remembrance of Your True Sacrifice. As the True Provider You have preserved our home, as the Physician of our souls and bodies we praise You for our health, as the only Lover of Man we offer thanks for the love we have between us who are gathered around this table. O Lord of the Harvest and True Fisher of Men, may this Thanksgiving pervade our hearts as we sing praise for all blessings to You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.”

 

December 6th - St. Nicholas Day

Is there a more beloved saint than St. Nicholas? Patron of children, example to hierarchs, lover of the poor and oppressed. St. Nicholas’s feast has a host of traditions associated with it, which can be tempting to ignore during the busy season of Advent.

 

Yet it is precisely because this season is so busy that these traditions are so necessary in our lives. They force us to recall the true meaning of the season and give us examples of focusing on what is truly important.

 

The primary tradition of St. Nicholas Day is gifts in a stocking or shoe. St. Nicholas is the origin of the tradition of Christmas Stockings in the West, but in Protestantism, where saints are not celebrated, the tradition moved to Christmas. Orthodox families could easily move this tradition back to its original date, helping to spread out the festivities of the holiday season. You can read the story of St. Nicholas and the shoes here. Here are directions to make chocolate coins (which can be expensive to buy!)

 

In our family we maintain the German tradition of “Speculaas” or “Speculatius” cookies, a light gingerbread cookie usually stamped with images of St. Nicholas, but sometimes just cut in shapes pertaining to the saint. Since the dough has to be refrigerated overnight we begin it on the evening of the 5th, telling our son the story of St. Nicholas while we mix up the dough. Here is the recipe we use. We hang up our stockings and read some books about St. Nicholas. There are several good ones now available.

 

The morning of St. Nicholas Day, after Divine Liturgy, we come home and eat chocolate for breakfast. Then we finish the speculaas cookies, open our stockings, and spend the day eating cookies, reading stories, and sometimes listening to Christmas music. It is our respite from the severity of the fast, and a chance to show our kids that Orthodoxy is not always so strict but oftentimes fun, and all in a way that honors one of the great servants of Christ. There’s a great traditional song “All Who Love Nicholas the Saintly.”

 

December 13 - St. Lucia’s Day

St. Lucia is not widely celebrated in Orthodoxy, being a pre-schism western saint who is mostly popular in Italy and Scandinavian countries. Nonetheless many converts from these countries have introduced the celebration of St. Lucia to their cradle brothers and sisters, and, well, any excuse to celebrate a saint!

 

Saint Lucia (or Saint Lucy) has an old story, beautifully retold in this book about her from an Orthodox perspective! Girls will especially love this feast, as they get to dress up in white dresses and serve Lucy Cat buns to the family, all while singing this beautiful song. The song, the recipe for the buns, and the story are all in the book in the beginning, including her Stichera hymns. Here’s one Orthodox family’s celebration of St. Lucia.

 

December 25 - Christmas

Christmas is such a smorgasbord of good food and traditions it could have a website of its own. Here are some highlights.

 

The night before, many Orthodox countries (and traditional Christian countries in general) have a large (Lenten) meal. The Italians have the “Feast of Seven Fishes,” the French “Le Réveillon,” while the Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and others call it “Holy Supper.” There are some similarities across cultures. The meal is served after getting home from the service on Christmas Eve, but must still be Lenten. Often hay is placed under the tablecloth (which is usually white) and candles are lit. An extra place is set for unexpected guests in remembrance of Ss. Joseph and Mary searching for a place to stay. If there is no church service the meal is eaten after the first star appears in the sky. In the Serbian custom the father of the house censes the house then goes out and invites farm pests (his enemy) to come in and feast.

 

The Serbians also have the custom of the Badnjak (Bahd-nyahk) similar to the British Yule Log. Some Americans have taken the blessing used for the Badnjak and pray it as a prayer over their Christmas Tree. This gathers the family together and sanctifies the decoration of one of the largest symbols of Christmas in the West. I know of one couple who even then keep their tree, cut off the branches, let it dry out, and use it as their yule log the following year (though the Serbian Badnjak is oak, not pine or fir).

 

Another note on Christmas Trees: they are not of pagan origin. You can read about their true history here. Unfortunately Anti-Roman Catholic Protestants invented much of the history that we are taught in the west, often completely fabricating “pagan origins” for Christian traditions. These fabrications have been repeated so many times they are taught as fact (especially in the anti-Christian culture we now live in, where society loves to portray us as hypocrites). Keep this in mind whenever someone says “That has a pagan history” - far more often there is an innocent and beautiful Christian tradition behind it that early Protestants didn’t like.

 

The 12 Days of Christmas

Christmas goes for 12 days, not only one. This is a wonderful discovery for those of us who experience so much “Christmas Letdown” after the huge buildup and then only one day of festivity. Mark the occasion! Celebrate for 12 days with more relaxation, more luxurious meals, more parties and more friends. There is an excellent book reviewed here, a practical and spiritual guide to the 12 Days, and with a link to purchase it.

 

January 6 - Theophany

We already discussed here a bit about the difference between Theophany and Epiphany, the Eastern and Western Holy Days which fall on the same day. That doesn’t mean we cannot recognize the meaning behind both, both of which are important to remember. This also marks the beginning of House Blessing season for our parish priests, so schedule yours. Our “Recipes” page has a recipe for King’s Cake, traditionally eaten on this day (sometimes during a party to mark the end of the 12 Days of Christmas!) and, to recall that ours is a faith not rooted in myth but in history, here is a popular documentary about the site of the Baptism of Christ.