About Triodion
The Triodion period is a 10‑week liturgical season in the Orthodox Church Calendar that prepares the faithful for Pascha through a focused life of repentance, prayer, fasting, and charity.
When it happens
It begins on the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee, ten Sundays before Pascha.
It ends on Holy and Great Saturday, the day before Pascha.
It is usually described in three phases: the Pre‑Lenten weeks, the forty days of Great Lent proper, and Holy Week.
The three main phases
Pre‑Lenten period: four Sundays (Publican and Pharisee, Prodigal Son, Meatfare/Last Judgment, Cheesefare/Forgiveness) that gradually introduce themes of humility, repentance, judgment, and mutual forgiveness.
Great Lent: six weeks of intensified fasting, almsgiving, and prayer, seen as a spiritual journey of return to God, centered on repentance (metanoia).
Holy Week: from Palm Sunday evening through Holy Saturday, focusing on the Passion, Death, and burial of Christ as immediate preparation for the Resurrection.
Main spiritual themes
Repentance as mankind’s return to the Father, especially as seen in the images of the Publican and the Prodigal Son.
Humility, watchfulness, and mercy, as necessary virtues for true fasting and prayer, contrasted with pride and formalism (e.g., Pharisee, Last Judgment).
Reconciliation/forgiveness, as the door into Lent, is especially emphasized on Cheesefare (Forgiveness) Sunday.
How it shapes daily life
The fasting discipline gradually tightens: first a non‑fasting week, then partial abstinence, then the full Lenten fast, teaching the faithful to enter a higher spiritual life with discernment and determination.
The services grow more penitential and frequent (e.g., more prostrations, special Lenten prayers and canons), forming a community rhythm of compunction leading toward Pascha.
