Forty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Orthodox Christians celebrate the Ascension, greeting each other with “Jesus has ascended”, and the answer is “He has ascended indeed”. This feast, also known as Ascension Thursday or Ascension Day, commemorates the bodily Ascension of Jesus into heaven, IPN reports.
According to church canons, Jesus Christ predicted that he will rise up to where he came from and, on the fortieth day of Easter, took his apostles with him, went up the hill and ascended into his glory. He promised that the Holy Spirit will descend on Earth in ten days, on Whitsuntide or Pentecost. The feast symbolizes the connection between sky and earth through exaltation after Jesus received a body and came to Earth.
Traditionally, on the eve of this feast, they bake special sweet bread and paint eggs red as this day is as important as Easter Day.
In the Eastern Church, this feast is known in Greek as Analepsis, the “taking up”, and also as Ispas, deriving from the Slavic word ‘spasiteli’, which means Savior. On the Ascension Day, the faithful go to church to bless walnut tree branches.
The Ascension of Jesus is one of the 12 great feasts of the Christian liturgical calendar.
