The Eastern Orthodox Church may not have all the same feast days of Mary found in the Roman Catholic Church, but the Virgin Mary certainly plays a powerful role in the seasons of the Orthodox year. Her feasts are always linked to the Christian message, each one demonstrating something about what it is to be a Christian, what it is to be open to the Gospel message, what it is to become a temple of the Holy Spirit, and what it is to experience conversion and salvation.

Within the Eastern Orthodox context, there are four feasts that are most important in relation to the Virgin Mary, although there are other minor feasts connected with the Virgin Mary's life and some of the miraculous icons associated with her.

The Four Principle Marian Feasts of the Eastern Orthodox Church

The feast of the Nativity of the Virgin commemorates the day that Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna, conceived her. This feast does not have a Scriptural basis, but the tradition surrounding this feast is deep and beautiful. It is the celebration of the beginning of the reversal of the curse that occurred in Eden. Joachim and Anna, who were barren, conceive the Virgin Mary after prayerfully pleading with God that they could become parents. Just as Mary's life will begin to reverse the curse of Eden because of her willingness to give birth to the Redeemer, the curse of Joachim and Anna's life, their infertility, was reversed at the moment of conception.

The feast of Presentation of the Theotokos in the Temple is the celebration of the day the Virgin Mary was brought into the temple by her parents, who had promised to devote her to God. According to Church tradition, the Virgin Mary was raised in “the Holy of Holies,” she herself preparing to eventually become, in a very unique way, the temple of God by giving birth to Christ.

The feast of the Annunciation is the most universally celebrated feast. This one commemorates the day the angel came to the Virgin Mary and told her that she was to bear a child who would be God Incarnate.

The feast of the Dormition celebrates the memory of the Virgin Mary's death, or in the Eastern Orthodox Church, “her falling asleep.” This belief is rooted in the idea that Christians do not die but only sleep in anticipation of ultimately waking with God. In the case of Mary, both the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics believe that the Virgin Mary ascended into heaven.