The Twelve Great Feasts, and the one that is not among them
The Byzantine year is framed by twelve feasts — the Dodekaorton — running from the Nativity of the Theotokos on 8 September to her Dormition on 15 August, some fixed to a date and some moving with Pascha. They are not the twelve highest days of the year. Pascha is higher, and is left out of the count precisely because it stands above them: a nineteenth-century parish manual puts it plainly, that Easter Sunday "is the feast of feasts", and that "besides this feast there are twelve more". The same page grades every feast of the year great, medium or lesser, which is the shape the service books assume and rarely state.
A Manual of the Orthodox Church's Divine Services · pp. 34-35
Concerning
- The Nativity of the Lord the Nativity of Christ, 25 December
- The Theophany — the Baptism of the Lord the Epiphany, 6 January
- The Transfiguration the Transfiguration, 6 August
- The Entry into Jerusalem — Palm Sunday the Entrance into Jerusalem, the Sunday before Pascha
- The Ascension of the Lord the Ascension, the fortieth day after Pascha
- Pentecost Pentecost, the fiftieth day after Pascha
- The Exaltation of the Holy Cross the Exaltation of the Cross, 14 September
- The Nativity of the Theotokos the Nativity of the Virgin, 8 September, where the year begins
- The Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple her Presentation in the Temple, 21 November
- The Annunciation the Annunciation, 25 March
- The Meeting of the Lord in the Temple the Presentation of the Infant Jesus, 2 February
- The Dormition of the Theotokos the Dormition, 15 August, where the year ends
- Pascha — the Resurrection of the Lord the feast of feasts, left out of the count because it stands above it