On August
15/28 the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates its final major feast of the Church
year–the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos. When my husband and I were in the process of
converting, I literally had no idea of what those words meant!
The word
Dormition means “falling asleep,” or in other words, the death. In Orthodoxy, we refer to Mary as the
Theotokos, a term that comes from two Greek words. “Theos” means God, and “tokos” means
bearer. We refer to Mary as the
“God-bearer” because she carried Jesus in her womb. So the Feast of the Dormition could also be
called the Falling Asleep of the God-bearer.
The
Church fathers, after some debate, decided that the term Theotokos was the
proper term to use for Mary because it demonstrated a correct understanding of
the Incarnation–that God became Man. By
referring to Mary as the God-bearer, we are demonstrating our complete belief
in a real Incarnation.
The Story
of the Feast
According
to Church tradition, when the Theotokos was near death, all of the apostles
(except Thomas) were miraculously brought to her bedside. They were able to be with her, pray with her,
and receive her blessing before she died.
Then they buried her in the Garden of Gethsemane in her family tomb.
Three
days later Thomas arrived. When they
went to show him her tomb, they found that her body was no longer in it. An angel confirmed that she had been taken bodily
up to Heaven by her Son.
Orthodox
Christians see in this feast an important teaching of the faith–namely the
general resurrection of the body. We
have hope in the resurrection and in eternal life, and the Dormition of the
Theotokos helps us get a glimpse and a foretaste of our own.
1. Attend
Divine Liturgy as a Family
If at all
possible, make an effort to attend Divine Liturgy for the feast as a
family. Some churches have Liturgy in
the evening on feast days to better accommodate the work schedules of
parishioners. If you are unable to
attend the Liturgy, perhaps you can go to Vespers the evening before the feast.
When you
are in church, you will be able to hear the Scripture readings for the Feast of
the Dormition of the Theotokos and meditate upon them, sing the hymns for the
feast and learn them to use in your home, and receive the Eucharist as the
ultimate celebration of thanksgiving for the work of God in the world.
2. Read
or Tell the Story of the Feast
In order
to prepare your children for the feast, it is a good idea to read or tell the
story of the Dormition of the Theotokos to them. There are a few excellent options for this:
1) Ancient
Faith’s The Saint of the Day podcast
Ancient Faith radio has a fantastic podcast called The Saint of the Day
that tells the story of that day’s saint.
Each episode is only around five minutes. As a sidenote, this would make a wonderful
addition to the daily family routine. Perhaps
your family could listen to the episode immediately after dinner each evening
or at breakfast in the morning. What a
lovely way to learn more about the saints of the Church!
2) Retell
the story in your own words. You can
also retell the story using your own words and knowledge of the feast. This could be done in the car on the way to
Liturgy as a reminder to the children of why you are going to Church.
3) The book
Heaven Meets Earth One excellent
resource for the entire Church year is a children’s book entitled Heaven Meets
Earth: Celebrating Pascha and the Twelve Feasts by John Kosmas Skinas. The book has a section for each feast with
the story, Scripture readings, facts, a bit of Church history, and an explanation
of the festal icon. I highly recommend
it!
3. Learn
the Hymn of the Feast
Each
feast day has a troparion, or special hymn, that is sung on that day. The
hymns of the Church pass on
important theology and the rich stories of the faith through music. Since children (and many adults!) remember
things that are sung, they are a perfect way to bring the feast into your daily
lives.
In our
house, we try to sing the hymns of the feast during morning and evening prayers
and occasionally at the dinner table.
Through this repetition, even our youngest children are able to learn
them–belting the hymns out at church (sometimes a bit too loudly!).
Here is
the troparion for the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos:
“In
giving birth you preserved your virginity.
In
falling asleep you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos!
You were
translated to life, O Mother of Life,
And by
your prayers you deliver our souls from death.”
You can
listen to some examples of this here and here and here. If you listen to all three, you will hear the
beautiful diversity of musical traditions in the Orthodox Church.
4. Make a
Special Meal
Feasting
often implies eating, so make a special meal to enjoy as a family! It can be easy to “go all out” for Pascha and
Nativity, and forget to celebrate the other feasts of the year. However, celebrating with special foods can
help remind us of the importance of those days.
Particularly after the Dormition Fast, it can be nice to enjoy some of
the foods we have been abstaining from for the past couple of weeks.
5.
Display the Icon of the Dormition
If your
family has an icon of the Dormition, place it in a prominent location in your
house during the festal period. In our
family, we place the festal icon so that it is the first thing you see walking
into our house. This helps remind us to
praise the Lord and pray to Him as we enter and leave our house.
If you do
not have an icon of the feast, perhaps you can print an image off from the
Internet or have your children color one and display it.
6. Bring
Flowers to Church to be Blessed
In some
traditions, flowers are brought to Liturgy on this feast to be blessed. If your church practices this, bring in some
as a family. Go to the store, the
farmer’s market, or your own garden to pick out a beautiful bouquet to give in
honor of the Theotokos. Once the flowers
are blessed, you can bring them home and place them next to the icon of the
Dormition.
7. Decorate Your Home with Flowers
In
keeping with this theme, a lovely way to honor the death of the Birth-giver is
to fill your house with flowers. You can
explain to your children that flowers are often given at funerals to show honor
and respect to the loved one. However,
we do not mourn as “those who have no hope.”
The assumption of the Theotokos shows us that death is not the end.
8. Wear
Blue
Finally,
the liturgical color for feasts honoring the Theotokos is blue. If you attend Liturgy on this day, you will
see the priest wearing blue vestments.
Your family can also show their love for the Theotokos by wearing blue
to Liturgy and throughout the day.
These
simple ways of celebrating the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos can
profoundly show our children that our family follows a different path, listens
to a different rhythm in life. That we
follow Christ and live our lives in His life and in His Church.
Source: http://www.orthodoxmotherhood.com/ways-celebrate-feast-dormition/
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