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'''Radonitsa''' ("Day of Rejoicing") is a holiday in the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] which falls on the Monday or (more commonly) Tuesday of [[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 [[Slavic languageSlavonic|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 of [[Death and Resurrection of Jesus|JesusChrist' 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 [[Panikhida]] (memorial service) from [[Holy Thursday|Great and Holy Thursday]] through [[Paschal cycle|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 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 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>

St. [[John Chrysostom]] ([[349]] - [[407]]) also bears testimony that in his day they celebrated a joyful commemoration of the departed on Tuesday of Saint Thomas Week in his ''Homily on the Cemetery and the Cross''.