Many Orthodox churches base their
Easter date on the Julian calendar, which often differs from the Gregorian
calendar that is used by many western countries. Therefore the Orthodox Easter
period often occurs later than the Easter period that falls around the time of
the March equinox.
Is Orthodox Easter Day a Public Holiday?
Orthodox Easter Day is not a
public holiday. It falls on Sunday, April 28, 2019 and most businesses follow
regular Sunday opening hours in Russia.
What Do People Do?
Millions of Orthodox Christians
worldwide, including about six million in North America, observe Easter, also
known as Pascha, each year. It is estimated that there are more than 250
million Orthodox Christians in the world.
In Lebanon, many Orthodox
Christians attend a church liturgy at Easter, whether it is on Sunday morning
or midnight liturgy between Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. On Easter Sunday,
many families hold a special lunch consisting of turkey or chicken stuffed with
nuts and served with rice. The afternoon is spent visiting friends and family
members. Many homes have maamoul (cookies) on a plate with other delicacies
such as chick peas covered with sugar and sweet almonds.
In Bulgaria, many worshippers
celebrate outside churches after midnight liturgy, carrying candles to
symbolize the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Painted eggs are cracked or smashed
and richly-painted Orthodox churches are filled with clouds of incense and
choir songs.
In Greece, Easter Sunday is also
a widely celebrated occasion. Lambs are roasted on a spit and the provision of
wine is abundant. The roasted lamb is served in honor of Jesus Christ, who was
sacrificed and rose again on Easter. Lamb is the most traditional Greek Easter
food. Red-dyed eggs are cracked against each other and the person with the last
remaining uncracked egg will have good luck. Easter Sunday is a time of
festivity and people eat, chat or dance throughout the night.
On the island of Crete, many
villages prepare for a bonfire effigy of Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus
Christ, as described in the New Testament of the Bible. In the lead up to the bonfire event, people
gather sticks and branches to prepare to burn the effigy.
Around the world, many Orthodox
Catholic Churches, including the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches, hold
Easter liturgies during the Easter period according to the Julian calendar.
Families unite and join in Orthodox Easter activities, festivities and
traditions.
Public Life
Countries that officially observe
the Orthodox Easter period include: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Lebanon, Republic
of Macedonia, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. There are no federal Orthodox
Easter public holidays in countries such as Australia, Canada, the United
Kingdom, and the United States. However, it is a time for families and friends
of the Orthodox Christian faith to gather together and to celebrate the
Orthodox Easter period.
Easter is not a federal holiday
in Jordan, although many Orthodox Christians are pushing to make it an official
holiday. There have been petitions calling for the government in Jordan to make
Easter an official public holiday. Jordan has a population of about six million
people, and about six percent consists of Christians while about 92 percent
consists of people of the Sunni Muslim faith.
In Lebanon – a country with a
population of nearly 60 percent being Muslim and about 39 percent being
Christian – Easter Sunday and Good Friday are public holidays.
Background
In 325CE the Council of Nicaea
established that Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first full
moon occurring on or after the March equinox. From that point forward, the
Easter date depended on the ecclesiastical approximation of March 21 for the
March equinox. Easter is delayed one week if the full moon is on Sunday, which
decreases the chances of it falling on the same day as the Jewish Passover.
Although the Council of Nicaea
established the Easter date for churches around the world, not all Christian
churches observe Easter according the Gregorian calendar. Many Orthodox
churches still observe Easter in accordance with the Julian calendar.
In the Orthodox circles, tensions
exist between New Calendarists – those who use the revised Julian calendar for
calculating the feasts of the ecclesiastical year – and Old Calendarists –
those who continue to use the traditional Julian calendar. The calendar
question reflects the dispute between those who wish to synchronize with the
modern Gregorian calendar and those who wish to maintain the traditional
ecclesiastical calendar based on the Julian calendar.
There have been a number of
proposed Easter date reforms. In 1997 the World Council of Churches proposed a
reform to solve the Easter date difference between churches that observe the
Gregorian calendar and those that observe the Julian calendar. So far, this
reform has not been implemented.
Symbols
Easter celebrations in Orthodox
Christian communities usually include a spit-roast lamb dinner and a display of
hard-boiled eggs, dyed red to symbolize the blood of Christ. The egg was an
important symbol in the mythologies of many early civilizations and was also
connected with the springtime fertility rituals. Many Greeks rap their eggs
against their friends' eggs and the owner of the last uncracked egg is
considered lucky. The red eggs are usually prepared on Holy Thursday in
countries such as Greece. According to tradition, the Virgin Mary dyed eggs red
to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ and to celebrate life. A traditional
Easter dinner may consist of red-dyed eggs baked into a braided loaf of bread,
spit-roasted, herb-perfumed baby lamb, and assorted vegetables.
One of the most common Christian
symbols associated with Easter is the lamb. It is often depicted with a banner
that bears a cross, and it is known as the Agnus Dei, meaning "Lamb of
God" in Latin. The symbol’s origin relates to the Jewish Passover. In
ancient times the Jews sacrificed a lamb in the course of the festival. The
early Christians associated the sacrifice of the lamb with Jesus Christ's
sacrifice on the cross. They connected the joyous Passover festival, which
celebrates the liberation of Jewish people from years of bondage in Egypt, with
the liberation from death represented by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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