Radonitsa
commemoration of the departed within the Russian Orthodox Church (East and South Slavs)
Radonitsa (Russian: Ра́доница, Belarusian: Ра́даўніца "Day of Rejoicing"), also spelled Radunitsa, Radonica, or Radunica, in the Russian Orthodox Church is a commemoration of the departed observed on the second Tuesday of Pascha (Easter) or, in some places (in south-west Russia), on the second Monday of Pascha. In the Ukrainian tradition it is called Provody (Ukrainian: Прóводи).
History and meaning
The Slavs, like many ancient peoples, had a tradition of visiting family members' graves during the springtime and feasting together with them. After their conversion to Christianity, this custom transferred into the Russian Orthodox Church as the festival of Radonitsa, the name of which comes from the Slavic word "radost'", meaning "joy". In Russia a local name is "Krasnaya Gorka" (Кра́сная го́рка, translated as "Red Hill"; or more archaically, "Beautiful Hill"), and has the same meaning. In Serbia, the day is called "Pobusani ponedeonik" (Побусани понедеоник) i.e. "The Tomb-Sweeping Monday". The word "ponedeonik" is a more archaic form, the standard form for Monday in modern Serbian is "ponedeljak".
It may seem strange to call a memorial for the departed "joyful", but the Christian belief that lies behind this joy is the remembrance of Jesus' Resurrection and the joy and hope it brings to all.
Because of the importance of the last few days of Holy Week, and because of the joy of the Resurrection, the Typikon (Ustav) forbids, as in other festal periods, special prayers for the departed, e.g.
The public source identifies “Radonitsa” as commemoration of the departed within the Russian Orthodox Church (East and South Slavs). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Radonitsa, commemoration and departed.
Why this record matters
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2997731. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Radonitsa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.