Eastern Easter
Some Easter traditions such as egg hunts, the Easter Bunny and parades are familiar to most Americans.
But there are others, just as time-honored, that remain obscure to larger society.
For example, the date of Easter itself. Western churches celebrate the Resurrection of Christ Sunday.
But members of SS. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 21 Evergreen Road, Lyndora, will mark Easter next Sunday, April 12.
The Rev. Paisius McGrath, Peter and Paul pastor, said since the fourth century the Orthodox church has used a formula for determining Easter's date.
“Basically, Easter is celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon following the vernal equinox,” said McGrath.
While this is the same method used by Western churches to determine Easter, McGrath added, the Orthodox Church bases its calculations on the Julian calendar.
“The formula the church uses was never adjusted when the new calendar (the Gregorian calendar) was created,” said McGrath.
Because of the 13-day difference between the calendars Eastern Orthodox Easter often is on a different date than its Western counterpart.
“We use a table or list based on the old Julian calender, the table that tells us which Sunday is Easter,” McGrath said.
“It varies. When they came up with this formula, the vernal equinox was set as March 21 in the Julian calendar,” said McGrath. “This is April 3 in the Gregorian calendar.”
“That means for us Easter can never happen before April 3 because we use the Julian calendar for the determination of that,” said McGrath and the Western and Orthodox holidays can be as much as six weeks apart.
“It goes in cycles. Sometimes they fall on the same Sunday every eight to 10 years,” McGrath said. “Since I've been here they've been together once, but it happens very rarely.”
“We all celebrate Easter one week later this year,” said the Rev. Bogdan Bucur, pastor of St. Anthony's Antiochian Orthodox Church, 400 Pillow St.
“Another component “is that it (Easter) must always be after the Jewish Passover because there is a symbolic relation between the two,” said Bucur.
“Jewish Passover is the liberation of the slaves, while Christian Passover, Easter, or what we call Pascha, is the fulfillment of Passover, a liberation out of sinfulness and mortality.” Bucur said.
“We call Easter 'Pascha' which means resurrection in Greek,” said McGrath.“The most significant part we have to follow (is) it has to be after Passover because the early church Christian Jews had a difficult time separating Passover from the fulfilled Passover,” said the Rev. John Schmidt, pastor of St. Elias Church in Ellwood City.“We call Pascha the fulfilled Passover to distinguish it from the foreshadowing of Easter in Passover,” said Schmidt. “It's fulfilled Passover in that Jesus is the Pascal Lamb.”“This year Passover begins at sundown Friday (April 3),” said Schmidt. “The end of Passover is in sync with Easter. It isn't often that way.”For Schmidt, Easter observances begin Thursday (April 9) night with a service marking the Crucifixion.“Friday afternoon is the taking down of Christ from the cross. Friday evening the service is the burial service of Christ,” said Schmidt.On midnight Saturday, the St. Elias congregation will have the Resurrection service.“After the service, we will go to the Holy Transfiguration monastery for the agape meal. It can go to 3 or 4 in the morning,” Schmidt said.Bucur said, “Saturday night at 11 p.m. we will gather in the darkened church. The priest will come up with a big torch and light the candles held by the congregation.”He said the congregation will go outside and walk around the church proclaiming Christ's Resurrection.“Then around 2 a.m., we will go downstairs and eat. We will break the fast with the meat and dairy foods we gave up during Lent,” he said.
The congregation of St. John's Byzantine Catholic Church, 105 Kohler Ave., Lyndora, will mark April 5 as Easter, explained its pastor, the Rev. Leo Schlosser. “We use the Gregorian calendar. We changed many years ago,” he said.But he said, “We're more like the Orthodox Church in our liturgy and our canon law. We use the liturgy of St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom.”“We are in communion with the Pope,” said Schlosser. “The Roman Church is one of 23. Most people don't realize there are 23 churches in communion with the Church of Rome.”“We make a big deal of blessing the Easter baskets. Holy Saturday night or Sunday morning, after the Resurrection Mass, people bring baskets to be blessed. They are filled with hams, kielbasa and eggs. Some people spend all Lent decorating their eggs,” said Schlosser.For the Rev. Douglas Lorance, pastor of St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church, 610 Hansen Ave., Lyndora, Holy Week observances began Wednesday with the Vespers with Communion service.“It's the anointing of the sick. They come up. I have oil mixed with rosewater. I bless them and anoint their foreheads.”
Lorance went on to say on Holy Thursday the church uses the St. Basil liturgy.“The prayers are longer and written by church founder St. Basil and in particular celebrates the priesthood of Jesus Christ,” said Lorance.On Good Friday, Lorance said, “We have the tradition of watching the grave. A grave site with a burial shroud is put up. And from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. every hour someone will come in to watch for an hour with me.”Lorance said Saturday there are concluding prayers at the “grave site.”Another tradition, he said, is on Easter Sunday he will bless the Easter eggs and hams, “all the food they have abstained from during Lent, meat and dairy products.”Also on Sunday morning, he said, there is a two- hour ceremony, the iconostasis, opening the gates in front of the altar which is the start of the period after Easter known as Bright Week.For children in his congregation, the notion of two Easters can be confounding, said McGrath.“We explain the calendar issue. I try and simply show how the formula we use is a little different. Our Pascha can never occur before the Jewish Passover. In Western churches, Easter sometimes does,” he said.
