important feast days such as Saint George, which may be combined with the paschal celebration. If it becomes necessary to celebrate a funeral during Bright Week, even this service is radically different, and follows for the most part the format for Paschal Matins, with only a few funeral hymns being chanted. Thomas Sunday The Sunday which follows Pascha (the Second Sunday of Pascha) is called "Thomas Sunday", because it recounts the appearance of Jesus to the Apostle Thomas eight days after his resurrection. Thomas Sunday is also called "Antipascha" (literally, "in the place of Pascha") because those who for honorable reason were not able to attend the Paschal Vigil, may attend services on this day instead. In middle Greek, "anti" Pascha also means "enter" Pascha. Pascha is a unique feast in the church year; being the "Feast of Feasts" it follows a format unlike any other day. Those liturgical elements normal to a Great Feast of the Lord which were displaced by Pascha's unique elements are instead chanted on Thomas Sunday. Radonitza Radonitza (Russian: "Day of Rejoicing"), is a day of commemoration of the departed. Because the celebration of any memorial service for the departed is forbidden from Holy Thursday through Thomas Sunday, a popular tradition has arisen of visiting the graves of departed loved ones and chanting memorial services on the first day this is permitted. There are no special hymns appointed in the Pentecostarion for Radonitza, and nothing different is done in the Daily Office. However, after the Divine Liturgy, it is customary for the faithful to visit cemeteries and serve memorial services, and to give alms in the name of the departed. It is not unusual for families to bring a picnic with them to the cemeteries, which would include paschal foods, especially Easter eggs. Some people leave Easter eggs on the graves of their beloved departed as a way of giving the Paschal greeting to the departed, and as a sign of their belief in the resurrection of the dead. Sunday of the Myrrhbearers The Third Sunday of Pascha is dedicated to the 'Myrrhbearing Women' (the Theotokos, Mary Magdalene, and the other women who brought spices to the Tomb of Jesus) and also to Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who cared for the burial of Jesus after his crucifixion. The placement of this feast is based upon the idea of the synaxis, wherein secondary persons directly