The Orthodox Christians celebrate the Feast of Ascension on May 29. This feast, also known as Ascension Thursday or Ascension Day, commemorates the bodily Ascension of Jesus into heaven. Priest Eugen Onicov, of Saint Panteleimon Church, has told IPN that on this day the Christians greet each other saying “Christ has ascended” and the answer is “He has ascended indeed”. The priest calls on the people to go to church and pray to God.
According to the priest, the Ascension is is one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Orthodox liturgical year. Ascension has an Afterfeast of eight days, while Easter of 40 days. “During these 40 days we celebrated the return to life of Jesus Christ and greeted each other with “Jesus has risen”, and answered “He is risen indeed”. At the end of this period, the Christians bake paschal cakes and paint the eggs red, as on Easter,” said Eugen Onicov.
The feast is always observed with an All-night vigil and the Divine Liturgy in gratitude to God for his care for the people.
In the Eastern Church this feast is known in Greek as Analepsis, the “taking up”, and also as Ispas, deriving from the Slavic word ‘spasiteli”, which means Savior. They say that this day is as important as Easter. On the Ascension Day, the Orthodox Christians go to church to bless walnut branches. Paschal bread and red painted eggs are put on the holiday table.
