Various Orthodox churches celebrate Christmas on Sunday, January 7. They do so out of calendar literalism: they cling to the Julian Calendar which, because of its imprecision in calculating the length of the earth’s annual revolution around the sun, is about 13 days out-of-alignment with that star.
Not all Orthodox churches adhere to the Julian Calendar. Many have adopted the Gregorian Calendar and, so, observe Christmas on December 25. But the Russian Orthodox Church clings to the Julian Calendar and–given that the Ukrainian Orthodox have switched–is likely to dig in further. They paint themselves as “defenders of tradition.”
I generally do not focus on intra-Orthodox disagreements, but this one has implications for Catholics.
Pope Francis has mentioned striking a “common date” for Easter. He has been voicing those interests with a view towards 2025, which marks the 1,700 anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. Given the Pope’s tendency to issue the “Motu Proprio of the Day,” there is a real danger March 31, 2024 may be the penultimate time Catholics celebrate Easter according to a millennium and a half old formula for reckoning Pascha: the Sunday after the first full moon of spring. (Easter 2025 falls on April 20, the same day in East and West, which may provide the springboard for a new papal “paradigm”).
I have previously criticized this movement as the next Catholic effort to surrender preemptively our heritage in the name of an ecumenical deliverable. I’ve also critiqued it because, in the name of that deliverable, both East and West would forego their time-honored formula in favor of pegging Easter to a fixed Sunday (either the second or third) of April. I’ve questioned whether all the Orthodox will go along (a prerequisite in Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium appendix); I do not believe the Russian Orthodox—the largest autocephalous Eastern church—will do so. That is rife with consequences in view of Russia’s war against Ukraine. (I am also not hearing much public discussion with Protestants: are we to assume they will just pile on?)
Finally, I’ve posed this as a question with ramifications for our understanding of faith and reason because, as a result of a fideistic literalism on the part of some Orthodox, East and West would give up how they have calculated Easter for centuries in order to avoid addressing the inability of some Orthodox to detach from a scientifically obsolete calendar.
I mention all this here because if the Orthodox were to accept that dates are astronomical, not just calendrical facts, we would not only address the divergence of Easter but we would not be celebrating Christmas the day after Epiphany. We would have a common date, observed in East and West, to celebrate Christmas. Nobody would be celebrating Christmas on Thirteenth Night.
And if East and West adopted the Gregorian Calendar, not only would we not need to change how to figure when Easter falls, but we would immediately start celebrating the Nativity of the Lord (which is not a moveable feast) on the same day.
Nobody in Rome is talking about that, at least publicly.
That there should be no theological obstacles to this adjustment is evident by the fact that numerous Orthodox churches use the Gregorian calendar even for liturgical purposes. That there can be cultural adjustment is obvious by the fact that Orthodox-majority countries–including Russia–use the Gregorian Calendar for civil purposes.
This civil/sacral divergence is not healthy. It is the Orthodox analogue to the “two truths” theory—that something can be “true” scientifically but “false” theologically and vice versa. It also frankly nurtures a latent anti-Catholicism: the Gregorian Calendar came from the Pope, so it must be bad.
No doubt, the ecumenical establishment will be itching to “deliver” something for the Conciliar anniversary and there will be those ready to spin this new “paradigm” as a “pastoral” application to enabling people to “walk together” in common Christian witness. To which I say: the problems with this “deliverable” are multiple and it’s time for the East also to deliver ecumenically. By changing the calendar, neither Church needs to change how it has determined Easter.
So, “hands off Easter!” Work instead on Christmas. Much more would come from a common calendar than a common Easter, set in a way that surrenders both Churches’ tradition.
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Why is celebrating on different dates an actual problem?
Obviously harboring resentment is a problem, and heresy and schism are problems. Keeping a different calendar might serve to make Russian Orthodox lives a bit more difficult, but I can’t see how it’s any sort of obstacle to unification with Rome. It’s a date, not a doctrine.
So if the Pope decides to adopt some other formula for Easter, what happens then to the Protestants? Are we out of sync with them then? Are they going to decide that the Pope is right on that one? And even though Easter is a religious holiday, there are commercial implications. Is there then going to be a secular Easter and a religious Easter? If so, which one will win out?
Is there much of a “commercial” or “secular” Easter? I’d suggest that, culturally, public celebration of Easter is minimal, at best confined to a municipal egg hunt. The days of “Easter” or “spring” clothes buying of my youth are long gone.
Bereft of anything about the Resurrection (which would offend those folks who abjure pork); Easter is celebrated as the great holiday of an oviparous hare with confection delivery service.
Major retailers injection mold all sorts of chocolate and faux chocolate tests of one’s glucose tolerance into rabbits, birds and other fauna. Occasionally one sees a chiocolate cross.
It’s kind of like that just passed holiday which dare not speak its name.
The Easter candy is already on the shelves in stores.
The millennia overdue revision of the liturgical calendar by setting the common and fixed dates for all Christians using the Gregorian calendar for Christmas (December 25) and Easter (Second Sunday of April) will eliminate the millennia old grief and scandal that different Christian communities and traditions present to the world especially to majority non-Christian countries. The multiple and varying dates of celebrating these hinge feasts of the liturgical calendar made it a deep and serious counter-witness to Christian unity and mission. As Emperor Constantine so long ago observed during his reign but unfortunately still true today, “that on the self-same days some should be engaged in fasting, others in festive enjoyment; and again, that after the days of Easter some should be present at banquets and amusements, while other are fulfilling the appointed fasts.”
I am not sure most of the rest of the world really much cares, much less is “scandalized” by different dates of Easter: I think they may be more “scandalized” by Fiducia Supplicans than what day Easter is celebrated. I maintain the CALENDAR issue is the relevant question because, if you have a common calendar based on real astronomy, there would be NO NEED for either East or West to change the 1,700 year old formula for calculating Easter as a moveable feast.
“The millennia overdue revision of the liturgical calendar by setting the common and fixed dates for all Christians using the Gregorian calendar for Christmas (December 25) and Easter (Second Sunday of April) will eliminate the millennia old grief and scandal that different Christian communities and traditions present to the world especially to majority non-Christian countries. The multiple and varying dates of celebrating these hinge feasts of the liturgical calendar made it a deep and serious counter-witness to Christian unity and mission. As Emperor Constantine so long ago observed during his reign but unfortunately still true today, “that on the self-same days some should be engaged in fasting, others in festive enjoyment; and again, that after the days of Easter some should be present at banquets and amusements, while other are fulfilling the appointed fasts.”
Even “progressive” Roman Catholics remain imperialists with respect to outward unity.
Past the Julian vs Gregorian calendar difference, there was historically the date calculation difference, which led to assorted churches listing the date of the birth of Jesus mainly on what we call Christmas Day or Epiphany, and likely why smart Roman liturgists incorporated both into one Christmas season of circa 12 days. Christmas was a latecomer in liturgy with widely divergent dates into the 400-500 AD timeframe. It may rule today in popular culture, but was a novelty to earlier believers, and there is no particular reason to attempt some worldwide solid date this late in the game. The day of celebration in much of the world still centers nearer Epiphany, and these talks of setting a date are all quite egotistical western/euro in origin.
“The day of celebration in much of the world still centers nearer Epiphany, and these talks of setting a date are all quite egotistical western/euro in origin.”
Yes, Theophany.
“To which I say: the problems with this “deliverable” are multiple and it’s time for the East also to deliver ecumenically. By changing the calendar, neither Church needs to change how it has determined Easter.”
Do the Ch. Orthodox, other than Bartholomew and _some_ of those aligned with him, care to make any gestures towards a superficial unity that doesn’t address the major theological divisions? Maybe Roman Catholics should consider getting their act together on the Christian initiation of children first, since most refuse to restore ad orientem worship.
Sol, I am not even delving into Orthodox celebration…even Catholics including Mexican, Central and South American churches have Epiphany as the big day of celebration and gift giving, where Europe and the US have caved in to the secular merchandising calendar and lost both Advent and the 12 days of Christmas, where the minority every year has harping article after article on regaining both, to utterly no avail. Far easier to look outside and “fix” others than to look inward and fix self.
“Do the Ch. Orthodox, other than Bartholomew and _some_ of those aligned with him, care to make any gestures towards a superficial unity that doesn’t address the major theological divisions?”
I think that we should be very generous and allow the Orthodox the extreme privilege of having the opportunity to change the date of their celebration to promote unity, by refraining from changing the date of ours.
Hurrah, Leslie.
Let those who seek meaningless and superficial unity worry about such trivialities. The truly devout faithful know exactly when we should celebrate the beginning and the end of Christmas. Isn’t Christmas, the birth of Jesus, every day and always?
OTOH, in the Vatican, many are preoccupied with blessing things against nature, Revelation, and perennial common sense, too blind to see that God dwells among us on earth and in His church.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250028/christmas-when-does-it-end
I don’t put my decorations up until Christmas Eve, and have several times left them up as late as Candlemas. (In fact, I left them up even longer once, because they are beautiful and they make me feel joyful and I like them, but of course they were down before Lent).
I find it sad that starting on December 26 suddenly there’s no Christmas music on the radio, no Christmas decorations, etc. I can understand why people are tired of those by then, considering that they put them up at Thanksgiving or before, but it’s still sad.
Traditions, dates etc are important matters. But do we really need to dig in for more divisions. There’s already enough problems in the world of religion to lend ourselves these luxuries
The question is begged, how would any changes affect when Mardi Gras is celebrated? Would Mardi Gras take on a fixed date also? If so, I opine that in my beloved New Orleans that dog won’t hunt. Whether Mardi Gras is early or late in any given year is an annual, seasonal discussion and consideration.
Right now, because Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring (according to the formula established by Nicaea), Easter can fall anywhere between Mar 21 and April 25, so count back 43 days (40 days of Lent + Triduum) and you’ve got Mardi Gras. The proposed formula would abandon Nicaea and peg to the second or third Sunday of April, i.e., sometime between April 8-21, so Mardi Gras would always be sometime between February 28 and March 15, more or less. What I am NOT seeing is the resolution of the calendar issue, because the “second Sunday of April” is different in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, unless we use the bizarre Orthodox “solution” of transposing Gregorian dates on to Julian dates, in which case, why not just solve the whole problem by the East adopting the Gregorian Calendar liturgically and continuing with the current Nicaea Easter calculation?
Why not leave them alone? We have much more serious problems. Address those and I’m sure the calendar issue will resolve itself. I’m tired of symbolic chair arranging on the deck of the Titanic.
Why to mix together the topics of Russian-Ukrainian war, Julian calendar and Gregorian calendar? What for?
Ukrainian Orthodox Church began celebrating the Nativity of Our Lord on 25th in 2023, as a response to the invasion and after the Ukrainian Orthodox Church broke its ties with Russian Orthodox Church. Psychologically speaking, it is understandable. Considering this, the statement “the Russian Orthodox Church clings to the Julian Calendar and–given that the Ukrainian Orthodox have switched–is likely to dig in further” has no meaning because Russian Orthodox Church, together with the Church of Jerusalem, Serbia and Mount Athos have been “sticking” to the old calendar after the calendar reform in 1923. Hence the Russian Orthodox Church “sticking” has nothing to do with Ukraine. Please note that while “sticking” to the old calendar the Russian Orthodox Church has been perhaps the most philocatholic. For example, only in the Russian Orthodox Church Roman Catholics could receive Holy Communion, according to the rule made in 20c. Try to do this in the Greek Orthodox Church (which re-baptizes Roman Catholics) which accepted the new calendar and see what will happen.
The catching but false connection “Russia-Ukraine” being cleared, let me say the following. I am an Eastern Orthodox who lives in the West. I celebrate the Nativity on 25th because it is what the majority of the Orthodox Churches present in the West do. If I was in Russia or Serbia or Jerusalem I would do it on 7th. We have no problem with the calendar differences; it is not an issue for us.
Being an Orthodox, I also have been worshiping with the Roman Catholics for ten years because there is no Orthodox Church where I live now. Hence again, I celebrate the Nativity on 25th because my local catholic congregation does so. I also celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord with the Roman Catholics, after attending all services of the Passion Week.
I will clarify that I consider the Catholic and Orthodox Churches to be one Church because both have true Sacraments. We both have the same Christ in the Cup hence we are one. Because of this, I see the attempts of Francis (sorry, I do not recognize him as the Pope = the Bishop of Rome no longer because of his subtle heretical moves) to make one date of the Easter for Catholics and Orthodox as yet another useless empty PR. I do not think Orthodox could be interested in this proposition even before Fransis began his heretical moves but now, after the recent “blessing of the homosexual couples” it would be met with an understandable scorn.
As for myself, if during the reign of Pope Benedict XVI, I was fond of the idea of a formal unity of two Churches (which are one in Christ and always have been) now I shiver when I think of it. I set for myself the limit of my presence in the local Catholic church. In the moment when the priest does that “blessing” I will walk out, and walk out in the best Orthodox tradition i.e. making it very clear to all why I do that. That will leave me without Sacraments but the church which blesses such “unions” loses the grace and becomes heretical – and there can be no communion with heretics.
To make a total: by his concern about the “common date” even after ‘FS’ Francis shows to the whole world his zero understanding of the Eastern Orthodoxy, just as he showed it comparing his “Synod of Synodality” with the Orthodox Synods.
I mention the Ukrainian issue because (a) the Russian Orthodox Church refuses to recognize the autocephaly of the Ukrainians, just like the Russians pretend the Ukrainians are just lost Russians, so this has implications for ecclesiastical matters in Ukraine; and (b) even if the Russian barbarians were to agree to “ceasefires” on days like Christmas and Easter, you have to have the same calendar to agree when Christmas and Easter are. I know that the Orthodox feigned some consensus a century ago, after Orthodox COUNTRIES abandoned the Julian Calendar, by adopting their transposition of dates, but that further raises the theological question of clinging to a tradition in the name of “faith” that is now more and more divorced from reason, and that, too, is an ecumenical issue.
No one in ecumenical circles today (to the best of my knowledge) is seriously pushing the April/fixed-date plan for Easter; not for years, in fact. It was one of those things thrown out during Vatican II when such an idea seemed “smart” or “simple” in that halcyon-era promoting Christian (and human) unity, but which today would be a horrible idea in hindsight. It’s especially horrible with regard to the Orthodox perspective, since the formula for determining Easter was decreed by the first Ecumenical Council–regarded as the highest authority in the Church and accepted by ALL “families” of the Eastern Church–when the Church Universal (except for the Arian bodies, of course) was enjoying intact communion. It was already a controversial move in its day. So to change to a fixed date, particularly for the Christian East, would be a major NON-STARTER, if for no other reason than such a change contradicts a universally accepted decree going back 1700 years. But’s here how it might work: all churches could agree to maintain the Nicaean formula, viz. that Easter is celebrated on or after the first Sunday following the first full moon of the vernal equinox. But this would be changed to an ASTRONOMICALLY correct calculation. (In the time of Nicaea, it was believed that the equinox always fell on March 21, which we know today is wrong–it can actually fall between the 19th and 22nd of March.) It would also be necessary to determine WHERE that first seasonal full moon would be identified as such; Jerusalem has been frequently suggested. For the Christian East, this would severely mess up the very neat 19 year “epact” cycle that allows Easter and its related feasts to be laid out perfectly with 19 year variations. (That fact alone is a deal-breaker for a LOT of the Orthodox “Old Calendarists” especially in Russia, Serbia and Greece.) But it might be a realistic start. As far as dumping the 11-day off “Old Julian” the aggregate of world Orthodoxy has already taken that in hand. Progress!
I do not want to see the loss of the Nicaean vernal equinox formula in favor of the fixed Sunday, but this is where the Vatican right now seems to be going. That’s why I am pressing for the calendar issue to be resolved, which obviates the need to change the Nicaea formula, to both sides’ satisfaction. But I fear the desire to “do something” for 2025–especially when that something can be called “pastoral” and not involve too much theological thinking–might prove tempting to this pontificate.
“No doubt, the ecumenical establishment will be itching to “deliver” something for the Conciliar anniversary…” I have been fearing this myself. I appreciate that your articles have kept this topic current. I thought the EP’s 2021 call for study, education and discussion was promising but it appears to have garnered only a very limited response. On that and my own (more detailed) views and study of the calendar question:
https://www.byzcath.org/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/421403/towards-a-common-date-of-easter-remaining-faithful-to-nicaea#Post421403
https://www.academia.edu/97415873/The_Church_Calendar_Theology_and_Technology
https://www.academia.edu/115285487/Cracking_the_Calendar_Code_An_Essay_on_Creating_the_Perfect_Calendar
Nonsense;Storm in a teacup!
Catholic church…do what Popa Franjo wants. Stay out of the Orthodox church…correct me if I am wrong it was the west who caused/forced the Great Schism.
Again, please I wrongly state, Christ was not born in December…the 25th aligns with pagan holiday.
Urkaine was a country created post-World War One. The Urkainians “adopted” Dec. 25 out of defiance to Russia.
Personally, I think he has bigger issues within the Catholic church.
Thank you, Dr. Grondelski, for this very informative essay about a multi-faceted and interesting topic which I hadn’t understood before. And I appreciate what I gleaned from others’ replies as well. . . Grateful for- as always- the entertaining and lively debate/intellectual sparring and laughing-out-loud comments in CWR!