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Question 21.
Dear Father Christopher,
Greetings in Christ.
According to the Holy Canons of our Church the Christian Pascha cannot be
celebrated on the day on which the Jewish Pascha (Passover) is celebrated.
Why is this?
Answer to Question 21
Dear Constantine,
The VII Apostolic canon says: “If any Bishop, or Presbyter, or Deacon
celebrate the holy day of Easter before the vernal equinox with the Jews,
let him be deposed.”
The sun passes through two equinoxes during the year, one in the
springtime and the other in the season of autumn. They are called
equinoxes because the day is equal to the night and the night equal to the
day. The autumnal equinox occurs during September; the vernal or spring
equinox occurs in March. Because of the irregularities of the sun’s course
in its motion from west to east the vernal equinox does not always occur
on one and the same day. In the time of the Apostles it was on the 22nd
March, in the time of the 1st Ecumenical Council it was on 21st March and
in our times it occurs on the 8th or even 7th March. These dates are
according to the Julian calendar as the Orthodox Easter is always
calculated to this calendar and not the reformed Gregorian calendar. The
VII Apostolic canon forbids the celebration of Easter before the vernal
equinox. The Jews celebrated the Passover twice. There were the wisest and
learned of the Jews who observed the Passover after the equinox just as
Moses had enjoined it, and the less refined Jews who celebrated it before
the equinox which is the reference made by this canon. The official and
legal Jewish Passover falls on the 14th of the month Nisan or March and
always after the equinox. The month of Abib or Nisan as it came to be
known afterwards began with the first new moon after the equinox. The
Jewish calendar is primarily lunar, with each month beginning on the new
moon, when the first sliver of moon becomes visible after the dark of the
moon. In ancient times, the new months used to be determined by
observation. When people observed the new moon, they would notify the
Sanhedrin. When the Sanhedrin heard testimony from two independent,
reliable eyewitnesses that the new moon occurred on a certain date, they
would declare the rosh chodesh (first of the month) and send out
messengers to tell people when the month began.
The Christian Pascha always comes after the Jewish Passover because that
was the historical order of events during the time of Christ’s Passion and
Resurrection The Evangelist John says: “Then led
they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and
they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be
defiled; but that they might eat the passover.” (John 18:28) The
passage “The Jews therefore, because it was the
preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the
sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,)” (John 19:31)
also makes reference to the Jewish Passover. That Sabbath was not like any
other Sabbath, but was a high day meaning it was the Passover. The Jewish
Passover occurred on the Saturday and the Resurrection of our Lord
occurred during the early hours of Sunday. Celebrating Easter after the
Jewish Passover serves to remind us of this historic truth.
There are four factors which are taken into account in connection with
finding the date of Easter. The first is that Easter must always be
celebrated after the occurrence of the vernal equinox; the Second that it
must not be celebrated before or on the same day as the Passover of the
Jews. These two factors are ordained by the present Apostolic canon VII.
The third that it is not to be celebrated simply after the vernal equinox,
but also after the first full moon of March that happens to occur after
the equinox and fourth, that it is not to be celebrated on the first
Sunday that comes after the full moon. These two factors are derived from
tradition and not from any canon.
The formula for Easter “The first Sunday after the first full moon after
the vernal equinox” is identical for both Western and Orthodox Easters,
but the two churches base the dates on different calendars: Western
churches use the Gregorian calendar, the standard calendar for much of the
world, and Orthodox churches use the older, Julian calendar. 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,
this is ignored and Easter sometimes precedes Passover by weeks.
Yours in Christ
Fr. Christopher
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