Pascha is the most important Christian feast. Saint John of Damascus, the author of the Paschal Canon, calls it the “feast of feasts and triumph of triumphs”. It is for this reason that Pascha is celebrated, unlike other feasts, not merely for one or several days, but for 40 days (until the Ascension of the Lord).
Why exactly 40?
Primarily, this has a historical basis: after His Resurrection, Christ appeared to His disciples for forty days, and only after this period did He ascend into heaven. The Gospel describes several of these appearances. First, immediately after the Resurrection, the Saviour appeared to the Myrrh-bearing women, who had come to anoint the body of the Lord with fragrant oils. Secondly, in the days that followed, He appeared to the Apostle Peter, to Cleopas (an apostle of the Seventy) and his companion (presumed to be the Apostle Luke), then to the eleven apostles without Thomas, and subsequently to the apostles together with Thomas, alongside other appearances of the Risen Lord recorded by the Evangelists. In truth, there were more appearances (11), just as there were, in all likelihood, more eyewitnesses. As the Apostle John observes: “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25).
Furthermore, the number forty carries special symbolism in Christianity. Every time we „encounter“ it in Holy Scripture, it points to a specific period of activity, effort, overcoming, or completeness. Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai communing with God and led the Jewish people through the wilderness for 40 years after the Hebrew scouts had explored the Promised Land for 40 days. King David reigned over Israel for 40 years, establishing a firm foundation for the state’s power, and his son Solomon, under whom Israel reached its zenith, sat upon the throne for the same duration. There are many such examples in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ fasted for forty days before beginning His preaching. In memory of this, Great Lent lasts 40 days (excluding the days of Holy Week, which in a strict sense do not belong to the fast). Thus, the Paschal joy, which the Church extends over forty days, serves as a kind of mirror reflection of the penitential Lenten season.
The forty-day period of celebrating Pascha thus points, on the one hand, to the historical time from the Resurrection to the Ascension, and on the other, symbolises the fullness of Paschal joy which the Risen Saviour bestowed upon the world.
Originally text is taken from:
https://www.vjeronauka.net/
