During Bright Week, you don’t fast at all. That’s it. No restrictions on meat, dairy, eggs, fish, or anything else. The Church forbids fasting during this week.
Bright Week is the seven days immediately following Pascha (Easter Sunday), running through the Sunday after Pascha, which we call Thomas Sunday. It’s one of only a few fast-free weeks in the entire Church year. The others are Trinity Week (the week after Pentecost) and the period between Christmas and Theophany. But Bright Week is the most emphatic about it.
Why No Fasting?
The reason is both practical and theological. Practically, your body needs recovery. You’ve just come through eight weeks of fasting, the entire forty days of Great Lent plus Holy Week. That’s a long time of restriction. Bright Week gives you time to regain your strength. Think of it like the rest day God commanded after six days of work. Your body needs it.
But there’s something deeper happening. Bright Week isn’t just seven ordinary days. The Church treats it as one continuous day of celebration. We’re living inside the Resurrection. The Royal Doors stay open all week, symbolizing the empty tomb and the torn Temple veil. We greet each other with “Christ is risen!” and answer “Indeed He is risen!” every time we meet. The Paschal services repeat daily. Everything about this week says: death is defeated, the tomb is empty, and we’re celebrating.
Fasting during Bright Week would contradict all of that. Fasting is a tool for repentance and spiritual discipline. It’s medicine for the soul. But this week isn’t about repentance. We just finished that during Lent. This week is pure joy. To fast would be like wearing black to a wedding or fasting at a feast the Bridegroom Himself is hosting.
The Church Fathers understood this. St. John Chrysostom’s Paschal homily, which we read every year at the Paschal Liturgy, invites everyone to the feast, those who fasted and those who didn’t. “Enter all into the joy of your Lord,” he says. The emphasis is on abundance, on the overflowing grace of the Resurrection. Fasting doesn’t fit.
What This Means Practically
If you’re used to fasting Wednesdays and Fridays, you don’t during Bright Week. Even though Wednesday and Friday fall within these seven days, the fasting rule is suspended. Some Orthodox jurisdictions resume the Wednesday and Friday fast after Bright Week ends, though practices vary. But during Bright Week itself? No question. Everyone eats everything.
This can feel strange if you’re coming from a Protestant background where Easter is one day, maybe a nice lunch after church, and then back to normal life on Monday. In Orthodoxy, Pascha isn’t a day. It’s a season. The Paschal celebration continues for forty days until the Ascension, though Bright Week is the most intense part of it. We’re not rushing back to ordinary time. We’re dwelling in the Resurrection.
I’ve noticed that folks here in Southeast Texas, especially those working rotating shifts at the plants, sometimes struggle with the long Lenten fast. Twelve-hour shifts and fasting don’t always mix well. Bright Week offers real relief. You can pack whatever lunch you want. You can join your family for a steak dinner without checking the calendar. It’s freedom, but freedom with a purpose, to celebrate what Christ has done.
The Church knows we’re not angels. We’re embodied creatures who need food, who get tired, whose bodies affect our souls and whose souls affect our bodies. Bright Week acknowledges that. It says: you fasted, you prayed, you made it through Lent. Now feast. Recover. Celebrate with your whole self, body included.
When Thomas Sunday arrives and Bright Week ends, we return to the regular rhythm of Church life. But we carry something forward. We’ve tasted the feast of the Kingdom. We’ve lived for seven days as if the Resurrection changes everything, because it does.
