The Falling Asleep, Kept with a Fast

The Dormition of the Theotokos, on 15 August, is the great Marian feast of the Christian East, corresponding to what the West calls the Assumption. The word Dormition means "falling asleep", and the Eastern tradition is explicit where the Roman definition is reserved: its hymns and icons narrate Mary's death, the gathering of the apostles, her burial, and the finding of her tomb empty, understanding that she was taken bodily to her Son. The classic icon shows Christ receiving her soul as an infant in swaddling bands while her body lies on the bier.

The feast is prepared by a strict two-week fast (1-14 August), one of the four fasting seasons of the Orthodox year, second in solemnity only to Great Lent, and in the Greek tradition the Paraklesis service of supplication to the Theotokos is sung through it. The Eastern churches have generally not adopted the Western dogmatic definition of the Assumption, keeping the event in the register of liturgy and tradition rather than defined dogma; this restraint is itself often cited as characteristic of the difference in temper between the two.