The Celebration of Pascha: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ in the Orthodox Church and its Date Determination
Written by Fr. Dr. Jaroslaw BucioraThe Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Pascha) is the most important event for Christianity:
“But if there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ has not been raised either. But if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.” (St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 15).
It is an event where the foundations of Christian faith is established and cemented. Easter Sunday is the central mystery of faith of the Christian Church. It is the fulfillment of the prophecies and the culmination of hope of the foundation of the existence of the Church.
The Orthodox Church celebrates on Sunday the Holy Eucharist and remembers the Resurrection of the Lord. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, was raised from the dead in the early morning hours of the first day of the week. According to the passage from St. Mark cited below, the Holy Myrrhbearing Women went to the tomb where Jesus was buried and found the tomb empty with an Angel proclaiming Christ’s Resurrection. The early Church proclaimed this day as the Lord’s Day and the first day of the week, where Jesus Christ was proclaimed as the Messiah-Son of God, and the Son of Man. Sunday is also known as the day of Light or the day of the Holy Spirit, and the manifestation of the Kingdom of God.
Although the importance of Easter Sunday is undisputed, the date of celebration of Christ’s Resurrection is still being contested among the Christians of the world. The celebration of Easter by the Ukrainian Catholics in the diaspora, according to the Roman Catholic tradition, is the latest example of this issue. The Ukrainian Catholic Church, since its inception in 1596, has celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ together with the Orthodox world as an inseparable part of its Orthodox heritage. The celebration of Easter by the Ukrainian Catholics in the diaspora, together with the Roman Catholic Church and the entire Christian West, could indicate a split within the Ukrainian Catholic Church. It is important to note that the Ukrainian Catholics in Ukraine will celebrate their Pascha together with the believers of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and all Orthodox Christians in the world. The celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on this coming Sunday (the first Sunday after the Jewish Passover) is faithful and consistent with the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325 A.D., which established the guidance and parameters on how we calculate the date of Easter’s celebration. The Orthodox Church strongly affirms the decision of the Council I Nicaea in her life to this day in order to proclaim the harmony of peace in Christendom and the true identity with the early Church.
There are three main foundations/set of rules accepted in the Orthodox Church, based on which the Celebration of Pascha is calculated on a specific Sunday. We have to mention that Easter Orthodox Pascha must always be celebrated between April 4 and May 8. The following rules are a simplified version of how Orthodox Pascha is calculated.
According to the Ecumenical Council, Pascha in the Orthodox Church is always celebrated after the vernal equinox (the first day in spring, when day and night are equal in time). The vernal equinox usually happens from March 19 - 21 every year.
The celebration of Pascha is always on the first Sunday after the first moon after the vernal equinox.
The celebration of Pascha, according to the Orthodox Church in the world, is always on the first Sunday after the Jewish Passover, after the first moon, after the vernal equinox. The Orthodox Church never celebrates Pascha before or on the same day as the Jewish Passover. This condition constitutes a primary difference between the Orthodox Church and the rest of the Christian world as we calculate the celebration of Easter Sunday. This is fundamentally rooted in the fact the Orthodox Church, since her establishment, is primarily oriented on Holy Scripture. The Orthodox Church, based on Holy Scripture, ensures the chronological and original sequence of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ as presented by the New Testament, specifically by the Gospels. According to the historical and chronological events of the Gospels, Jesus Christ was crucified before the Jewish Passover (also known Pesach in Hebrew, which means passage-commemorating the liberation from Egyptian slavery):
“Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.” (Mark, 14-3.)
It is clear that the Gospel specifically frames the event of Christ’s crucifixion in a specific context and time before Passover. The early Church, as represented by St. Mark in his Gospel, was completely aware of the importance of this event. Without having to refer to the other Gospels and in order to keep the same source, St. Mark also records the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on Sunday after the Passover. According to St. Mark:
“When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you. ”Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid…” Mark, 16:1-16.
St Mark and the early Christian Church established the historical and chronological foundation for the calculation of the date of Pascha for further generations.
As time progresses, we, as the next generation of the Christians in the twenty-first century, are inseparable from the historical and chronological facts of the Gospels. When we look at this year’s celebration of the Resurrection of Christ according to the Catholic Church and the rest of the non-Orthodox Churches, including the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the diaspora, Pascha was celebrated on April 5, four days before the final day of Passover (April 9), which does not follow the chronological and historical facts presented above. Based on the foundations presented above and based on the principle of being faithful to the guidance of the early Church and the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, the Orthodox Church celebrates the Pascha on April 12, the first Sunday after the Jewish Passover. The wisdom of the Church should always be guided by the presence of the Holy Spirit and the life of the entire Church of the world. The internal life of the Church should never be swayed by contemporary trends or political ideology. The Church is always faithful to the words of St. Paul, Hebrews 13:8;
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”
Fr. Dr. Jaroslaw Buciora.
