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'''Radonitsa''' ("Day of Rejoicing") is a holiday in the Orthodox Church which falls on the Monday or (more commonly) Tuesday of [[Apostle Thomas the Apostle|Saint Thomas]] Week—eight or nine days, respectively, after [[Pascha]] (Easter). The day is a general memorial for the departed.

The [[w:Slavic peoples|Slavs]], like many ancient peoples, had a tradition of visiting family members' graves during the springtime and feasting together with them. After their conversion to Christianity, this custom transferred into the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] as the festival of ''Radonitsa'', the name of which comes from the [[Slavonic|Slavic]] word ''radost'', meaning "joy." In [[w:Kievan Rus'|Kievan Rus']] the local name is '''Krasnaya Gorka'', and has the same meaning.

It may seem strange call a memorial for the departed "joyful," but the Christian belief that lies behind this joy is the rememberance remembrance of Christ's Resurrection and the joy and hope it brings to all.

Because of the importance of the last few days of [[Holy Week]], and because of the joy of the Resurrection, the [[Typikon]] (''Ustav'') forbids the celebration of the [[Memorial Services|Panikhida]] (memorial service) from [[Holy ThursdayHoly_Week#Holy_Thursday|Great and Holy Thursday]] through [[Sunday of St. Thomas|Thomas Sunday]] (a period of eleven days). Therefore, the first opportunity after Pascha to remember the dead is on the second Monday of Pascha. However, because in Orthodox countries, a number of [[monastery|monasteries ]] follow the custom of fasting on Mondays, the feast is often celebrated on Tuesday, so that all may partake of the paschal foods (which are intentionally non-fasting).

The practice of greeting the dead with the Resurrection is not merely a "baptism" of pagan practices, but has antecedents in the ancient Church. S. V. Bulgakov records the following:<blockquote>The commemoration of the departed after Pascha was also done in extreme antiquity. St. [[Ambrose of Milan]] (340 – 397) says in one of his sermons: "It is truly meet and right, brethren, that after the celebration of Pascha, which we have celebrated, to share our joy with the holy martyrs [[martyr]]s and by them as participants in the suffering of the Lord, to announce the glory of the resurrection of the Lord.". Although these words of St. Ambrose relate to martyrs, they may be an indication of our custom to commemorate the departed after Pascha on Monday or Tuesday of Thomas Week because the beginning of the solemn commemorations in the faith of those who died is established in the [[New Testament ]] Church as a pious custom to the memory of the martyrs, [both] among the martyrs buried in antiquity and the others who have died.<ref>S. V. Bulgakov, ''Handbook for Church Servers'', 2nd ed., 1274 pp. (Kharkov, 1900), pp. 586-589. Tr. by Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris © 2007.</ref></blockquote>

Although the Typikon does not prescribe any special prayers for the departed on these days, the memorial is kept as a pious custom. Unlike the various [[Saturday of Souls|Soul Saturdays]] throughout the year, there are no changes made to [[Vespers]], [[Matins]] or the [[Divine Liturgy]], to reflect this being a day of the dead.

The paschal foods will then be consumed with joy by the friends and relatives of the deceased. It is common to place an [[Easter egg]], a symbol of Christ's coming forth from the [[Holy Sepulchre|Tomb]], on the graves of the departed, saluting them with the traditional paschal greeting: "Christ is Risen!" This practice is both to remind the faithful of the [[General Resurrection]] of the dead, and to "announce the Resurrection" of Christ to the departed.

[[Category:Calendar]] [[Category:DeathLiturgics]]