The Octoëchos

On Thomas Sunday, the first Sunday after Pascha, the Pentecostarion begins using hymns taken from the Octoëchos in First Tone.

Each of the following weeks (with the exception of Pentecost and its week, which would have been in Grave Tone) employs hymns from the Octoëchos in the successive tones, until the Feast of All Saints, which employs the Resurrection hymns of the Octoëchos in Plagal of Fourth Tone. We continue in Plagal of Fourth Tone for that whole week; and on that Monday after All Saints, we resume using the daily hymns of the Octoëchos (when applicable) with the Menaion.

On the first Sunday after All Saints, the cycle of the eight tones of the Octoëchos begins with First Tone, and continues cycling through the eight tones until Great Lent of the following year.

A yellow layer superimposed over the Triodion, Pentecostarion, and Octoëchos to represent the feasts of the Menaion shows that the only two weeks in the year that the Menaion is not used are Holy Week and Bright Week.

PDF of the Whole Year for detailed view

PDF of the Date of Pascha for A.D. 1 to 2500

Holy Transfiguration Monastery Publications, Inside our Books and the Sources behind them, is a companion site to www.thehtm.org.

The Liturgical Year Introduced