Why is the Orthodox Easter different to that of the Catholic? How are the dates pertaining to Easter calculated? These are frequently asked questions on the date of the Easter Christian holiday.
For most people, Easter has gone and the religious rituals ended. However, the holiday is not over for everyone, since the Greek Orthodox Church is yet to mark its Easter over the upcoming end of the week.
Confused? Here’s an easy explanation.
Most people celebrate Easter on dates defined by the Western Christian world, based on the Gregorian calendar, which is widely used today.
However, Eastern Christianity chooses to celebrate differently, basing the dates of moveable feasts such as Easter on the old Julian calendar.
This is known as Greek Easter or Orthodox Easter.
In some years the dates on both calendars happen to coincide, as happened in 2014, while the gap can be different every year, to reach as much as five weeks.
As for the calculation of dates, in the 4th century it was decided that Easter would be the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox, which falls on March 20. (The equinox is a day in the year on which daytime and night-time are of equal length. This happens twice a year, once in spring and once in autumn.)
This is where the difference lies, while the Western Church uses the Gregorian calendar to calculate the vernal equinox, the Orthodox churches still use the Julian calendar to this day to calculate the equinox and the full moon that follows it.
This raises another question, why did the Gregorian calendar reform happen in the first place?
The calendar change took place due to the delay of the Julian calendar in comparison to astronomical reality, meaning that by the time 21 March arrived, the actual, astronomical vernal equinox had already occurred.
Setting technicalities aside, we present to you a collection of solemn Orthodox Easter hymns - some of the most beautiful the world has ever heard.
Click on this link for best Orthodox hymns.