By Nicholas Damascus | FāVS News Columnist
The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News.
Can you explain the church calendar that the Eastern Orthodox Church uses? Like, why does Easter not coincide with Protestant and Roman Catholic Christian Easter most of the time?
To begin with, the Eastern Orthodox Church is One Church with many jurisdictional locations. For example, when we refer to the Russian Orthodox Church, the Greek Orthodox Church or the Antiochian Orthodox Church, they are all the same Orthodox Church in liturgy, dogma, Holy Tradition, services, feasts and fasts, etc.
However, they may be practiced and understood in different languages, and feasts and fasts may be on different dates.
There are two calendars used in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Depending on jurisdictions, theological feasts and fasts may differ in using the Julian calendar or Gregorian calendar or a combination of both calendars.
The Julian calendar was created by Julius Caesar in 45 B.C. It was still slightly inaccurate, gaining a full day every 128 years. All of Christianity used the Julian calendar until A.D. 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII created a more accurate calendar, the Gregorian calendar, which is still in use today.
As a result, some Orthodox jurisdictions adopted the Gregorian calendar for major fixed feast days, such as Christmas (Dec. 25). With the exception of the Finnish Orthodox Church, all Orthodox use the Julian calendar for the Great Lent of 50 days before Easter, Easter and for the 50 days after Easter to Pentecost.
For those jurisdictions that did not adopt the Gregorian calendar and remained on the Julian calendar for their religious observances throughout the year, Christmas would be celebrated on Jan. 7, a 13-day difference between the two calendars.
What Orthodox Churches use which calendar system?
The Orthodox Churches that use only the Julian calendar throughout the year are the Orthodox jurisdictions of Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Georgia, Poland, Sinai, Ukraine and Japan. These Orthodox jurisdictions use the Julian calendar throughout the liturgical year.
The Orthodox Churches that use the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar are: Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Albania, the Czech Lands and Slovakia, Estonia and the Orthodox Church of America.
Beginning with the period of Great Lent through Easter and concluding with Pentecost, all Orthodox jurisdictions use the Julian calendar (except Finland).
However, for all other theological feasts and fasts days as in the Dormition, Advent, Christmas, etc., these jurisdictions use the fixed dates of the Gregorian calendar.
The Orthodox Church of Finland uses only the Gregorian calendar during the entire liturgical year.
For more information, visit “The Calendar of the Orthodox Church” article on the Greek Orthodox Church of America’s website.
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