Resurrection (Pascha)

How do Copts greet each other on this day?

The Paschal greeting 'Christ is Risen - Truly He is Risen' (in Coptic: 'Pikhristos aftonf - Kheos aftonf on-met-mee') is exchanged by Coptic Christians for the entire forty days between Pascha and Pentecost Sunday. When two Coptic Christians meet during this period, one says 'Christ is Risen' and the other responds 'Truly He is Risen.' It replaces ordinary greetings. This practice is ancient - it follows the pattern of the early Church, which extended the joy of Pascha across the full fifty-day Pentecost season. As a visitor, you are welcome to use the greeting and to receive it. It is a form of sharing the proclamation rather than keeping it to yourself.

What has changed since the beginning of the week?

Everything. The fasting is over - the forty-day Great Lent and the week of Holy Week together constitute one of the longest and most rigorous fasting seasons in any Christian tradition. Families gather to break the fast together, often with traditional foods that vary by household and region of origin. The church is unveiled, decorated with white and gold, and filled with the Paschal hymns. Icons of the Resurrection appear. The grief and solemnity that marked every hour from Sunday evening through Great Friday have given way entirely to something the Coptic tradition describes simply as joy - a word that does not do justice to what fifty days of waiting and a week of walking the Passion produces when it breaks open.

Why do Coptic families gather for a picnic after the Resurrection Liturgy?

The picnic is a celebration of the broken fast and a continuation of the communal joy of the Resurrection. After the Liturgy concludes - often very late on Saturday night or in the early hours of Sunday morning - families return home and sleep, then gather later in the day to eat together. The gathering outdoors carries echoes of the disciples meeting the Risen Christ outside the city, in gardens and on roads and by lakes. There is nothing strictly liturgical about the picnic, but it is deeply Coptic - the faith moves seamlessly from the altar to the table, and the same community that prayed through the night eats and laughs together the next afternoon.

What foods are traditional?

Traditional Coptic foods for breaking the Resurrection fast vary by family and country of origin but commonly include feteer (a layered pastry), eggs dyed red (symbolizing the blood of Christ and the sealed tomb), and fesikh (salted fermented fish), which is particularly associated with the Egyptian Sham el-Nessim celebration that historically coincides with Pascha. Lamb is common in many households as a direct symbol of the Paschal Lamb. Sweets that were forbidden during the fast appear in abundance. The specifics are less important than the act itself - eating together after a long fast is a theological statement. The body that fasted participates in the Resurrection through the feast.

What happens at the evening service on Resurrection Sunday?

The evening incense (Vespers) on Resurrection Sunday brings the week's cycle to a close with a brief and joyful service. The Paschal hymns are sung again, incense is offered, and the Resurrection prokeimenon is chanted. In many parishes, a second procession around the church takes place with candles and singing. The service is shorter and lighter than anything earlier in the week - it is a resting in the joy that has arrived rather than a striving toward it. The grief is fully behind the community, and the fifty-day Pentecost season stretches ahead.

Is the week officially over?

The Holy Week observance concludes with the evening service, but the Resurrection season continues for fifty days until Pentecost. The Paschal greeting remains active throughout this period. The church calendar remains in its festal mode. For Coptic Christians who have attended every service of the week, Resurrection Sunday evening often carries a particular bittersweet quality - the intensity of the week is over, and the community that prayed together through the night must return to ordinary life. Many describe the days after Holy Week as a slow re-entry. The Church provides the Resurrection season for exactly this reason: the joy is not supposed to be one night, but fifty days.