Feast

The celebration of feasts was an essential component of daily life in Byzantium. Liturgucal feasts were recorded in the church calendar, and were either "fixed" or "mobile." The feasts were classified as "dominical" (despotikai, of Christ), "Marian" (Theometorikai, of the Virgin Mary), "sanctoral" (of the saints), or "occasional" (commemorating the founding of a city, the consecration of a church, a council, a miracle, a transfer of relics, a natural disaster, etc.). Sunday always commemorated the Resurrection while a cycle of fixed commemorations existed for each weekday. The ceremonial for the different feasts is described in the liturgical typikon of the church, which provides a set of administrative or liturgical rules.

The emperor participated in many of the feasts in Constantinople. On dominical feasts, the emperor attended services in Hagia Sophia; on Marian feasts, he attended services in the Chalkoprateia or Blachernai church, and on the Thursday of Holy Week, the emperor performed the ceremonial Washing of the Feet found in John 13:14. Many saints's days also involved city wide processions. Our main sources for the emperor's participation in church activities are the Kletorologion of Philotheos, De Ceremoniis, and pseudo-Kodinos.

Those feasts known as Great Feasts were distinguished by special liturgical practices. The Typikon of the Great Church (Hagia Sophia) marked Easter, the Nativity, and Epiphany as Great Feasts; they were proceeded by a forefeast. Later, the number of Great Feasts was increased to twelve, known as the dodekaorton. They consisted of nine fixed feasts-Annunciation, Nativity, Epiphany, Hypapante, Transfiguration, Birth of the Virgin, the Presentation of the Virgin, the Dormition, and the Exaltation of the Cross-and three mobile feasts-Palm Sunday, Ascension, and Pentecost. The "paschal triduum"-Good Friday to Easter-was considered a category separate from the Great Feasts. From the eleventh century on, illustrated cycles of the Great Feasts dominate Byzantine art, especially monumental art. These cycles generally consisted of six fixed feasts-Annunciation, Nativity, Epiphany, Hypapante, Transfiguration, and the Dormition-and six mobile feasts-Lazarus Saturday, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost. BLR

COMPARANDA
Hosios Loukas, Nea Moni, Daphni
Mosaic icon of the Twelve Great Feasts (Florence)
Mosaic iconof the Twelve Great Feasts (St. Petersburg, Hermitage)
Icon with the Transfiguration (Paris, Louvre)
Panels from and Icon with the Twelve Great Feasts (London, Berlin, Washington D. C.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Great Feasts." Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Ed. Alexander Kazhdan. 3 vols. New York: Oxford University Press. 868-869.

"Feast." Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Ed. Alexander Kazhdan. 3 vols. New York: Oxford University
Press. 781-782.