Leavetaking of Pascha
What is “leavetaking”? For most major feasts, we continue celebrating beyond just one day. For Pascha, we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection for 40 day, and it concludes on the Holy Feast of Ascension. During those days, we sing “Christ is Risen” and the hymns in the services are still the beautiful and joyful Paschal hymns! The “leavetaking” is the 39th day (aka today)! Think of it as the last day of the feast! After today, the paschal hymns are no longer sung- until next year!
Instead of saying “Christ is Risen,” we now say “He is Ascended!”
In light of the leave taking, I will be putting away our paschal decorations. I finally feel ready for this new chapter in our Liturgical cycle!
Christ is Risen!
-Khouria Destinie
Check out these blogpost for more information about the feast of Ascension:
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Here you’ll find 10 fun ways to celebrate Ascension as a family in hopes that one of these ideas will spark some ideas for you as you live out the Liturgical Calendar. Perhaps they will become your annual tradition for each Ascension! These are not just activities for activities sake, of course. My hope is that these will aid you in sharing more about our faith with your children in a way that is developmentally appropriate, allows for their exploration and participation in the feast, and hopefully cultivate a rich soil in their hearts that allows the seed of Truth that stays with them all the days of their life.