How is russian easter determined

Home Menu. Orthodox Easter: Why are there two Easters? A Greek Orthodox altar boy holds up a ceremonial cross. These Macedonian Christians celebrate Easter at a monastery. Magiritsa Easter soup. Getty Images. A traditional Paskha cake. More like this. Top Stories. How Christmas can still sparkle with plastic-free glitter 6 hours ago 6 hours ago. Everyone lights their candles and follows the procession.

The Orthodox liturgical chant creates a very special atmosphere. The Mass goes on till dawn, when church bells start ringing, the singing gets louder, and finally the priests tell everybody to forgive each other, and seal their forgiveness with a hug and a kiss. Holy Week is a busy time in most Russian homes. Everyone is looking forward to the feast. Easter Day starts with a long family breakfast. The table is decorated with fresh flowers, pussy-willow branches and, of course, painted eggs.

However, the feast starts with a simple piece of aromatic Easter bread. Sharing food at Easter has a long tradition in Russia.

After breakfast, people visit friends and neighbours, exchanging eggs and Easter breads. In the past, only men were allowed to ring church bells. For the same reason, the church sets the date of the spring equinox at March 21, even though the actual vernal equinox can occur on March These two approximations allow the church to set a universal date for Easter, regardless of when you observe the paschal full moon in your time zone.

Easter is not always celebrated universally by all Christians on the same date. Western Christians, including the Roman Catholic church and Protestant denominations, calculate the date of Easter by using the Gregorian calendar, which is a more astronomically precise calendar that's used throughout the West today in both the secular and religious worlds. Eastern Orthodox Christians, such as the Greek and Russian Orthodox Christians, continue to use the older Julian calendar to calculate the date of Easter.

The Orthodox Church uses the exact same formula established by the Council of Nicaea for determining the date of Easter only with a different calendar. Because of the date differences on the Julian calendar, the Eastern Orthodox celebration of Easter always occurs after the Jewish celebration of Passover. Erroneously, Orthodox believers may think their Easter date is tied to Passover, but it isn't.

The Council of Nicaea set up a formula for calculating the date of Easter to separate the Christian celebration of Christ's Resurrection from the Jewish celebration of Passover. While Easter and Passover were related historically—the Council of Nicaea ruled that because Christ is symbolically the sacrificial Passover lamb, the holiday of Passover no longer has theological significance for Christians. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data.

Select personalised content. The Eastern Church sets the date of Easter according to the actual, astronomical full moon and the actual equinox as observed along the meridian of Jerusalem, site of the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

The Eastern Orthodox Church also applies the formula so that Easter always falls after Passover, since the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ took place after he entered Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. In the Western Church, Easter sometimes precedes Passover by weeks. The Western church does not use the actual, or astronomically correct date for the vernal equinox, but a fixed date March And by full moon it does not mean the astronomical full moon but the "ecclesiastical moon," which is based on tables created by the church.

These constructs allow the date of Easter to be calculated in advance rather than determined by actual astronomical observances, which are naturally less predictable.

This division between the Eastern and Western Churches has no strong theological basis, but neither is it simply a technical skirmish.