Orthodox Easter (Pascha) Countdown

Orthodox Easter, known as Pascha, is the feast of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the greatest celebration of the Eastern Orthodox Church year. Its date is set by the Julian Paschalion, so it moves each year and often falls in April or May.

History

Pascha — the word comes from the Hebrew Pesach, meaning Passover — is the oldest and most central feast of the Christian East. From the earliest centuries, communities across the eastern Mediterranean gathered through the night before Easter morning to proclaim the Resurrection of Christ, and by the fourth century the celebration had grown into the elaborate cycle of Great Lent, Holy Week and the Paschal vigil that Orthodox Christians still keep today. The name Pascha remains in use across the Greek, Slavic, Arabic, Romanian and many other Orthodox traditions. The date of Pascha rests on a rule agreed at the First Council of Nicaea in 325, which placed the feast on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. The Eastern churches continued to calculate this using the Julian calendar and its fixed table of paschal full moons, a method known as the Paschalion. Because the Julian calendar now runs thirteen days behind the Gregorian calendar used for civil life, and because it reckons the equinox and paschal moon by its own tables, Orthodox Pascha follows its own rhythm through the spring. The Orthodox rule also holds that Pascha should always follow the Jewish Passover, reflecting the Gospel sequence of events. Across the Orthodox world the feast gathered rich local customs over the centuries. In Greece the midnight cry of Christos Anesti — Christ is Risen — is answered by Alithos Anesti, He is Risen Indeed, as candles are lit from the holy flame and church bells peal. In Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Georgia and the Middle East, families bring baked breads and decorated eggs to be blessed, break their long Lenten fast at dawn, and greet one another with the Paschal kiss. Carried by emigration, these traditions are now kept by Orthodox communities on every continent.

Meaning

For Orthodox Christians, Pascha is the very heart of the faith — the Feast of Feasts, celebrating the belief that Christ has trampled down death and opened the way to eternal life. Everything in the church year leads toward it: the fasting and self-examination of Great Lent, the deep sorrow of Holy Week, and then the explosion of joy at the midnight Resurrection service, when darkened churches blaze into light and the faithful sing that death has been conquered. The feast carries a message of hope, forgiveness and renewal that reaches beyond the church walls. The long fast is broken in shared meals that reunite families and villages; the greeting Christ is Risen is exchanged for forty days; and gifts of red-dyed eggs symbolise new life and the empty tomb. In this way Pascha binds together worship, family and community in a single celebration of light overcoming darkness.