The Orthodox Academy of Crete, Medievalists.net, and After Constantine Journal are planning an online video conference, entitled Sacred Days in Early and Medieval Christianity, on April 20, 2024, at 17:00 (Athens, Greece, time).
Holy days have existed since antiquity and have been central to the ritual practices of the Jewish, Christian, and Graeco-Roman religions. Holy days provided a means for practitioners of a religion to demonstrate their piety and to express their spiritual beliefs. Often, religious feasts and festivals were shaped by cultural concerns and served to consolidate the identity, social cohesion, and spirituality of a particular religious group. The processes by which a day became a holy one were complex and differed substantially across religions, cultural environments, geographical areas, and historical periods. Christianity inherited its notion of holy days and sacred time from Judaism and developed its own tradition of religious feasts and seasons.
Easter is arguably the most important and central feast of Christianity and its traditions and customs vary greatly across the pre-modern world. This conference will focus on Easter, including Lent, Passiontide, and Holy Week, as well as other days and periods throughout the Christian calendar. This conference will investigate how holy days, liturgical feasts and seasons, and days of religious significance developed in Early, Late Antique, and Medieval Christianity
We invite proposals for 20-minute papers in English on Easter from all angles and disciplines or any other aspect of holy days in pre-modern Christianity.
Suggested topics include:
- Sacred days in Christianity and their origins
- The terminology of the sacred
- The development of the liturgy in tandem with holy days
- Conceptions of Sacred Time
- Easter computus
- Palm Sunday and its traditions around the world
- Theological and historical aspects of Good Friday
- The history, theology, and geographical traditions of Holy Week
- Holy Saturday in Eastern and Western Christianity
- Lazarus Saturday: History, theology, and meaning
- The archaeology and art history of Holy Week
- Historical Easter customs
- Lenten practices in historical Christianity
- Non-Christian/ other influences on the development of holy days in Christianity
- Relationships to Judaism/ Graeco-Roman practices
- The development of the liturgical calendar
- Debates about the fixing of holy days on particular dates/ at particular times
Abstracts of around 300 words and a brief CV must be submitted to info@afterconstantine.com by January 20, 2024.
Organizing committee of the conference
Zoe Tsiami (University of Thessaly)
Hagith Sivan (The University of Kansas)
Konstantinos Zorbas (General Director, Orthodox Academy of Crete)
Peter Konieczny (Medievalists.net)
John J. Gallagher (University of St Andrews)