The Twelve Great Feasts are the major celebrations of the Church year that mark the central events in the life of Christ and the Theotokos. They’re not just commemorations, they’re moments when we step into those saving events and experience them as present realities.
Pascha stands alone as the Feast of Feasts, so it’s not counted among the twelve. But everything in the Church year revolves around it.
The Twelve
Eight of these feasts fall on fixed calendar dates. Four move with Pascha.
The fixed feasts are: the Nativity of the Theotokos (September 8), the Elevation of the Holy Cross (September 14), the Presentation of the Theotokos into the Temple (November 21), the Nativity of Christ (December 25), Theophany or the Baptism of Christ (January 6), the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (February 2), the Annunciation (March 25), the Transfiguration (August 6), and the Dormition of the Theotokos (August 15).
The movable feasts are Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Pascha), the Ascension (forty days after Pascha), and Pentecost (fifty days after Pascha).
You’ll notice that four of these feasts honor the Theotokos. That’s not incidental. Mary’s life is woven into the story of our salvation because without her “yes” to Gabriel, there’s no Incarnation. The rest celebrate Christ himself, His birth, baptism, transfiguration, entry into Jerusalem, ascension into heaven, and the descent of the Holy Spirit He promised.
The Elevation of the Cross stands somewhat apart. It commemorates the finding of the True Cross by St. Helena in the fourth century, but it’s really a theological proclamation: salvation comes through the Cross.
What Happens on a Great Feast
If you visit St. Michael’s on one of these days, you’ll notice the service feels different. There’s a festal quality to everything, special hymns called troparia and kontakia that tell the story of the feast, Scripture readings chosen for the day, and the icon of the feast displayed prominently for veneration.
Many of the feasts have Vigil services the night before. These can run two or three hours and include Vespers, Matins, and sometimes the Divine Liturgy itself. If you work the night shift at one of the plants around Beaumont, this can be tough. But even attending the Liturgy on the morning of the feast lets you participate in what the Church is celebrating.
Some feasts come with specific customs. On Palm Sunday we bless palms (or pussy willows up north, though that’s less common here in Southeast Texas). At Theophany we bless water, the Great Blessing of Waters, and in some places Orthodox Christians process to rivers or the sea. At Transfiguration, parishes often bless grapes or other first fruits. At the Dormition, flowers.
These aren’t just nice traditions. They’re expressions of a theology that says all creation is being redeemed and sanctified through Christ.
Why Feasts Matter
The Great Feasts aren’t about nostalgia. We’re not playacting historical reenactments. When we celebrate the Nativity, we’re encountering the Word made flesh now. When we celebrate the Transfiguration, we’re glimpsing the uncreated light that shone on Tabor and that’s meant to fill us too. That’s the whole point of theosis, we’re being transformed into the likeness of Christ, and the feasts are moments when we see what that looks like.
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware writes about how the liturgical year isn’t a circle but a spiral. We return to the same feasts each year, but we’re not the same people. We’ve (hopefully) grown. We see new things in the familiar hymns. A feast that didn’t mean much to you last year might break your heart this year.
If you’re new to Orthodoxy, don’t feel like you need to master all twelve feasts at once. Start with the ones that fall near where you are in your journey. Maybe you’re entering as a catechumen near the Nativity. Let that feast teach you. Read the services, look at the icon, listen to the hymns. The Church has been celebrating these days for two thousand years. There’s depth here you can spend a lifetime exploring.
And if you can’t make it to every single feast because you’re on a rotating schedule or your kid has a tournament or hurricane prep is eating your weekend, that’s real life. God knows. But when you can be there, be there. Let the feast do its work in you.
