Easter is a rolling holiday, that is, the date of celebration is different every year. And in order to have time to prepare for the meeting of the Bright Sunday of Christ, you need to know the exact number of this main event in the church calendar.
Easter is one of the most important church holidays. The advent of the Bright Sunday of Christ is expected every year by many believers. And since this holiday is a rolling one, that is, its date changes from year to year in order to prepare for the celebration in time, you need to be able to calculate this date yourself, or, in extreme cases, to receive this information from reliable sources.
As for 2019, Orthodox Easter falls on April 28, and Catholic Easter falls on April 21. It is on this day that Great Lent ends and all fasting people will be able to visit the church, defend the service, consecrate knowingly prepared foods, and when they come home, collect the table and taste these delicacies.
It is worth noting that 48 days for Orthodox Christians and 46 days for Catholics before Easter, fasting begins, for the first the fasting day begins on Monday, for the second on Wednesday. During this period, those who are fasting observe a certain diet (lean), pray a lot, abstain from carnal pleasures, evil thoughts, deeds and words. Since food during fasting is very scarce, those who fast always look forward to Easter, because this is a holiday - the day of the Lord's resurrection, and from that moment one can celebrate this event for 40 whole days, that is, lead a more idle lifestyle.
Why Orthodox and Catholic Easter do not coincide in 2019
Orthodox and Catholic Easter often coincide, for example, the last time the holiday fell on the same date in 2017. However, the next coincidence will only occur in 2028 (April 16).
Why do Orthodox and Catholic Easter often fall on different dates? Because the Orthodox Christian Church lives according to the Julian calendar (in Russia the calendar was popularly called the "old style", and even now it is called so. Why does the church use the Julian calendar? Because it believes that the Gregorian calendar violates the sequence of biblical events), and the Catholic one - in Gregorian. As for the differences between these calendars, they are very similar, the only difference is that in the Julian calendar every fourth year is a leap year, and in the Gregorian year, which are multiples of 400, are also multiples of 4, but are not divisible by 100.
When calculating the day of Easter, the following must be taken into account:
- the day of the vernal equinox (falls on the first spring month on the 20th day);
- the first spring full moon after the equinox;
- day of the week.
Both Catholic and Orthodox Easter are celebrated exclusively on the first Sunday, which occurs after the first spring full moon after the spring equinox. And since different calendars are used for counting, the same technique leads to different dates. It is also worth considering that Orthodox and Catholic Easter often coincide and in 45% of cases are celebrated with a weekly difference.
