If there\u2019s one thing other Christians know about the ancient churches of the East it is that Orthodox believers usually get to buy their Easter candy at closeout prices.<\/p>\n\n
This year, the gap between the two Easter dates was so large \u2014 five weeks \u2014 that the leftover chocolate eggs had been cleaned out by April 27 and the great Orthodox feast called Pascha (Greek for \u201cPassover\u201d).<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s true that when the Easters are not together, we don\u2019t have to deal with the whole Hallmark Card, Easter bunny side of things,\u201d said Father Alexander Rentel, professor of Byzantine Studies at St. Vladimir\u2019s Seminary in Crestwood, N.Y. \u201cThat we\u2019re on a different schedule can make it easier to for us to concentrate on what we\u2019re supposed to be concentrating on \u2014 which is what the season means in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Why are the dates for Easter and Pascha usually different? The short answer is that all the Eastern Orthodox churches use the ancient Julian calendar when calculating the date for this season, while the Western church began using the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century. A more complex answer is to say that, for the Orthodox, Pascha is the first Sunday after the first full moon that comes after the vernal equinox and after the Jewish Passover. <\/p>\n\n
The bottom line, however, is that the Julian and Gregorian calendars are about 13 days apart and this gap will continue growing at the rate of about a week per millennium.<\/p>\n\n
All of that can be hard to explain, noted Rentel, when a child at school hands another child an invitation to an Easter party.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cOne kid says, \u2018Happy Easter!\u2019 and then your kid says, \u2018Actually, we haven\u2019t celebrated Easter yet.\u2019 Then the other kid says, \u2018Why not?\u2019 and then that leads off into all kinds of conversations that can either be good or bad, depending on how comfortable your children are when they\u2019re talking about what they believe and why.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
In other words, he said, answering questions about why your church celebrates Easter on a different Sunday is similar to answering questions about why your family fasts from meat and dairy for long periods of time, or why you go to confession, or why you make the sign of the cross and pray before eating lunch in the school cafeteria. Any strong belief that clashes with the surrounding culture is going to lead to questions.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThese are questions about who we really are,\u201d said Rentel.<\/p>\n\n
Identity questions can be especially complex for the Orthodox in North America. There are 250 million Orthodox believers worldwide \u2014 the second largest Christian church \u2014 but only 5 million in the United States. The Orthodox flock in the \u201cnew world\u201d remains divided into a dozen jurisdictions, each with ethnic and historical ties to a mother church abroad.<\/p>\n\n
Thus, there are times when it\u2019s hard to draw a line between ethnic traditions and Orthodox traditions. It\u2019s easy for the rites of Holy Pascha to turn into My Big Fat Greek \u2014 or Russian, or Lebanese, or Bulgarian \u2014 Easter. Someday, the parishes founded by converts into Orthodoxy (like my own near Baltimore) may be tempted to celebrate My Big Fat Ex-Evangelical Protestant Easter. It could happen.<\/p>\n\n
What the Orthodox call the \u201csmall t\u201d traditions are important, said Rentel. The family baskets packed with holiday foods, the blood-red eggs, the joyous dances and the other ties that bind are important. But what cannot be sacrificed are the \u201cBig T\u201d traditions found in the 500-plus pages of prayers, scriptures and rituals that guide the spiritual journey from Palm Sunday to Holy Pascha.<\/p>\n\n
The final sermon is always the same \u2014 year after year, century after century \u2014 no matter where Pascha services are held. All Orthodox priests, by tradition, read the Easter sermon of St. John Chrysostom, which dates to about 400 AD. As the sermon ends, the preacher called \u201cthe golden mouthed\u201d summed everything up:<\/p>\n\n
\u201cO death, where is thy sting? O hell, where is thy victory? <\/p>\n\n
\u201cChrist is risen, and you, o death, are annihilated! <\/p>\n\n
\u201cChrist is risen, and the evil ones are cast down! <\/p>\n\n
\u201cChrist is risen, and the angels rejoice! <\/p>\n\n
\u201cChrist is risen, and life is liberated! <\/p>\n\n
\u201cChrist is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;?for Christ having risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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