Orthodox Easter — Pascha

Pascha — from the Hebrew Pesach, "passover" — is the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. For Orthodox Christians it is not merely the greatest feast; it is the axis on which the entire liturgical year turns.

Why Orthodox Easter is on a different date

The Orthodox Church calculates Pascha using the Julian paschalion, following the rule of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (AD 325): Pascha falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox, always after the Jewish Passover. Because the Julian calendar is now 13 days behind the Gregorian, and because the paschal full moon is calculated differently, Orthodox Pascha and Western Easter can coincide, be one week apart, or be more than a month apart.

Pascha for the coming years

The night of Pascha

Just before midnight the church is plunged into darkness. The priest emerges from the sanctuary carrying a single candle and chants: "Come, receive the light." Fire is passed from candle to candle until the whole nave is glowing. Then the paschal procession moves outdoors, and at the closed doors of the church the priest proclaims: "Christ is risen!" — to which the whole assembly answers: "Truly He is risen!"

The Paschal greeting

For the forty days of Pascha, Orthodox Christians greet one another with the paschal exclamation in every language of the world — Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη! in Greek; Христос воскресе! Воистину воскресе! in Slavonic; Al-Masīḥ qām! Ḥaqqan qām! in Arabic — the same joy in every tongue.