“Christ is risen!” That’s what you say. The other person responds, “Truly, He is risen!” (Some say “Indeed” instead of “Truly”, both work.) This exchange replaces your normal hellos from Pascha through the forty days until Ascension.
It’s not just a nice custom. It’s a proclamation. Every time you greet someone this way, you’re announcing the central truth of Christianity: Jesus conquered death. He walked out of that tomb. And because He did, we will too.
When We Use It
Starting at midnight on Pascha (what most folks around Beaumont call Easter), Orthodox Christians greet each other this way. Not just on that one Sunday. For the entire forty days until Ascension, this becomes your greeting. You answer the phone this way. You start emails with it. When you see someone at coffee hour or run into them at Brookshire’s, you don’t say “Hey” or “Good morning.” You say “Christ is risen!”
The priest will proclaim it at the beginning of services. The choir responds. Everyone exchanges it, often with a kiss on both cheeks (though in Southeast Texas we’ve adapted that to handshakes or hugs for most people). During Bright Week, the first week after Pascha, you’ll hear it constantly. The joy is supposed to be overwhelming.
What It Means
This greeting does something. It’s not like saying “Have a nice day.” When you say “Christ is risen,” you’re confessing your faith. You’re stating what you believe happened in history and what it means for you right now. The Resurrection isn’t just a past event we remember fondly. It’s the hinge of everything.
St. Paul put it bluntly in his first letter to the Corinthians: if Christ hasn’t been raised, our faith is worthless. We’re still dead in our sins. But He has been raised. That’s why we can’t shut up about it for forty days straight.
The response, “Truly, He is risen!”, isn’t just agreeing. It’s affirming. It’s the other person saying, “Yes, I believe this too. This is real. This happened.” Back and forth, we’re strengthening each other’s faith with every greeting.
The Antiochian tradition emphasizes that this exchange, especially when accompanied by a kiss, shows the reconciliation Christ’s Resurrection makes possible. We were enemies of God, dead in our sins. Now we’re alive, reconciled, able to greet each other as brothers and sisters. The greeting reminds us that death has been destroyed, the devil defeated, and peace restored.
The Biblical Root
The words come straight from the Gospels. The angel at the tomb told the women, “He is not here; He is risen.” When the disciples gathered that first evening, they said to each other, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” The early Church took those announcements and turned them into a greeting. By the time of St. John Chrysostom in the fourth century, the Paschal homilies were already proclaiming this victory in language that sounds like our greeting today.
In Different Languages
Walk into an Orthodox church during Paschal season and you might hear it in half a dozen languages. The Greek is “Christos Anesti!”, “Alithos Anesti!” The Arabic (common in Antiochian parishes) is “Al-Masih qam!”, “Haqqan qam!” Slavonic, Romanian, Georgian, Coptic, every Orthodox language has its version. Sometimes at St. Michael we’ll proclaim it in multiple languages during the service, one after another. It’s a reminder that this isn’t just our good news. It’s the world’s.
Living It Out
For those forty days, you’re living inside the Resurrection. That’s what the greeting does. It reorients everything. Your coworker asks how you’re doing, you can start with “Christ is risen!” and then tell them about your week. Your Baptist mama calls to wish you happy Easter, you tell her “Christ is risen!” and she might not know what to say back, but that’s okay. You’re bearing witness.
Some people find it awkward at first. We’re not used to greeting each other with theology. But that’s precisely the point. We’re not supposed to be comfortable with business as usual when the tomb is empty and death is defeated. The greeting won’t let us forget, even for a day, what just happened.
When Ascension comes and we return to normal greetings, you’ll feel the shift. The Paschal season ends. But what the greeting proclaimed remains true every day of the year. Christ is risen. He really is. And that changes everything.
