Bright Week is the week following Pascha (Orthodox Easter), and in the Eastern churches it is kept as if it were a single continuous festal day, the "eighth day" that does not end. The fasting rules are entirely suspended, even on the Wednesday and Friday that are normally fast days, and the services keep the full Paschal character throughout, with the greeting "Christ is risen!" exchanged in place of ordinary hellos.
Its most striking feature is that the royal doors of the icon screen, and the deacon's doors, are kept open all week, so that the sanctuary, normally veiled, stands open to view, a visible sign that the resurrection has opened what was closed and that the way to God lies open. The Paschal procession is repeated, and in Greek and Slavic practice bells are rung freely. The week ends on the following Sunday, Thomas Sunday, which recalls the risen Christ's appearance to the doubting apostle. Bright Week is the clearest expression of the Orthodox conviction that Pascha is not one day but the source of a season, indeed of the whole Christian life, kept as unbroken joy.