Easter as it's commonly celebrated in the United States falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox (always between March 22 and April 25), while Orthodox Easter is celebrated on the Sunday after the first full moon after Passover (between April 4th and May 8th.) Both holidays celebrate the resurrection of Jesus within the Christian tradition—so why are they celebrated at different times?
It turns out, it can all be attributed to a decision Pope Gregory XIII made in 1582. At that time, much of Europe followed the Julian style calendar, which the pope wanted to change because it ran a few minutes long each day. He implemented the Gregorian calendar (which uses a leap year to offset the extra minutes). The Catholic church uses the Gregorian calendar to determine their holidays, while the Orthodox Christians still use the Julian calendar to calculate Easter — which means they celebrate the same holidays on different days.
HAPPY ORTHODOX EASTER!
ΚΑΛΟ ΠΑΣΧΑ & ΚΑΛΗ ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΗ!
This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.
I love your eggs and I learned a little something about why the Orthodox Easter is on a different day. I invite you to share this with Your Moment Blog Hop: https://juliejewels.blogspot.com/2022/04/your-moment-blog-hop-12.html
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