What are the days of Easter and what do they mean. When they celebrate Easter. General rule for calculating the date of Easter

03/04/2017 22:26:57 Michael

It's still unclear. Jesus Christ was executed on a certain specific day, on the third day He also resurrected on a specific specific day. And this day is celebrated in different days. And what about calendars?

07.03.2017 8:15:43 Priest Vasily Kutsenko

The fact is that in the early Christian era there were two different traditions Easter celebrations. The first tradition is Asia Minor. According to this tradition, Passover was celebrated on the 14th of Abib (Nisan) (as well as the Jewish Passover). The second tradition is Roman. Roman Christians celebrated Easter on the first Sunday after 14 Abib (Nisan). If the Christians who followed the first tradition were mostly from Judaism, then the Christians of Rome were converted from paganism and the connection with the Jewish traditions was not so important for them. The question arises - which of these traditions is more correct? The answer is both equally. Because both of them were sanctified by apostolic authority and were of the earliest origin.

Subsequently, a dispute arose between the Christian communities of Rome and Asia Minor about the date of the celebration of Easter, but no consensus was reached. Then this issue was raised at the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, in 325. The fathers of the council decided to celebrate Easter on the same day for all Christians according to the Roman (and Alexandrian) tradition.

03/08/2017 10:40:20 Michael

In the "Lives of the Saints" on February 23 (March 8 NS) there is this: ".. Regarding the difference between the Asia Minor and Western churches in understanding and celebrating Easter, the bishops of Smyrna and Rome did not agree to deviate each from their local custom, i.e. St. Polycarp recognized as correct the celebration of Easter by Eastern Christians on the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan and its dedication to the remembrance of the last supper of the Lord with the disciples and the sacrament of the Eucharist established on it, and Anikita recognized, on the contrary, the correct understanding of Easter, established in the West, as the annual feast of the Resurrection Christ and its celebration on the first Sunday after the spring full moon. Why didn’t they listen to the direct disciple of the apostles, but followed someone’s lead?

09.03.2017 23:10:57 Priest Vasily Kutsenko

I will just briefly reiterate the main aspects of the problem:

1. In the Gospel there is no exact date of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is only a reference to the Jewish Passover: In two days [it was] to be [the feast] of Passover and unleavened bread. And the chief priests and scribes were looking for ways to take him by cunning and kill him.(Mark 14:1); On the first day of unleavened bread, when they slaughtered the Passover [lamb], His disciples said to Him, Where do you want to eat the Passover? we'll go and cook(Mark 14:12); and as soon as evening had come—for it was Friday, that is, [the day] before the Sabbath—Joseph of Arimathea, the famous member of the council, came(Mark 15:42-43); after the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Jacob and Salome bought perfumes to go and anoint Him. And very early, on the first [day] of the week, they come to the tomb, at sunrise(Mark 16:1-2).

2. The date of the Jewish Passover - 14 Nisan (Aviv) was calculated according to the lunar calendar. But the question arises - 1) how accurate was this calendar? and 2) can we say with complete certainty that the 14th of Nisan (Abiba), celebrated by Asian Christians in the 2nd c. (it was at this time that the dispute arose about the date of the holiday) fell on the same period of the year as during the earthly life of Christ (here it must be taken into account that Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, and the tradition of calculating the date of Easter could be lost)?

3. Both Rome and the Asian churches insisted on the apostolic origin of their tradition (it should not be forgotten that Rome is the city of the apostles Peter and Paul).

4. The difference in tradition testified to the different understanding and highlighting of various aspects of the celebration of Easter in different Christian communities. But once again I repeat that both of these traditions were correct. But it was Roman and Alexandrian that became historically generally accepted. According to these traditions, Christian Easter must always be celebrated on Sunday.

10.03.2017 17:28:00 Mikhail

1. "In the Gospel there is no exact date of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ." I dare say that in the Gospel there is no exact date for both Christmas and the Transfiguration. Let me remind you once again: "St. Polycarp recognized as correct the celebration by Eastern Christians of Easter on the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan and its dedication to the memory of the last supper of the Lord with the disciples and the sacrament of the Eucharist established on it."

2. "In the fact that the Savior died on Friday and resurrected, respectively, on Sunday, the inhabitants of the planet are accustomed to believing from childhood. However, only two Romanian astronomers thought about the fact that the exact date of the death of Jesus is still not known. They came to grips with these questions.

For a long time, scientists from the National Observatory of Romania, Liviu Mircea and Tiberiu Oproyu, studied the Bible. It was she who was the source of the main premises. The New Testament states that Jesus died on the day after the first night of the full moon, after the vernal equinox. The Bible also says that during the crucifixion of Christ there was a solar eclipse.

On the basis of this information, the help of calculation astrological programs was involved. From the motion of the planets between AD 26 and 35, it can be seen that in these years the full moon fell on the day after the vernal equinox only twice. The first time was on Friday April 7th in AD 30, and the second time on April 3rd AD 33. Of these two dates, it is easy to choose, since the solar eclipse occurred in the year 33.

The resulting result can be called a sensational discovery. If you believe the New Testament and the calculations of astronomers, then Jesus Christ died on Friday, April 3, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, and rose again on April 5 at four o'clock in the afternoon.

3. Rome, of course, the city of the apostles Peter and Paul. But this did not help him not to become what he represents now.

4. How can two such different traditions be correct? And yet it is not clear why Christmas, Transfiguration, Epiphany are certain constant days, as it should be logically. And the crucifixion and the Resurrection are transitory, although these were also certain and specific days?

10.03.2017 18:54:38 Priest Vasily Kutsenko

Mikhail, once again I recommend that you familiarize yourself with the work of V.V. Bolotov. He explains in great detail why exactly there was a difference in the traditions of Roman and Asian Christians, and what meaning both church communities invested in the Easter holiday.

I will only answer your question in more detail about how two different traditions can be simultaneously correct: it should be taken into account that in the early Christian period such diversity could well exist, now it may seem strange to us, but in those centuries it was the norm. For example, now the Orthodox Church celebrates only three liturgies - St. Basil the Great, St. John Chrysostom and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. Now it's the norm. But in ancient times, the church community committed its Eucharistic worship. And that was the norm too.

Regarding the moving and non-moving holidays, the dates of the holidays did not originate in the apostolic period, and throughout history we can observe how the dates of certain holidays could vary, both in the East and in the West. For example, for quite a long time, Christmas and Epiphany were one holiday, the continuation of which was the Candlemas. Some Christian communities celebrated the Annunciation on the eve of the Nativity of Christ. The history of the Feast of the Transfiguration is also quite complex and interesting.

The ancient Christians emphasized the symbolic side of the event rather than insisting on historical accuracy. After all, even the tradition of Asian Christians to celebrate Easter on Nisan 14 (Aviv) is not historically accurate. Nisan 14 is the first day of the Jewish Easter, and judging by the Gospels, Christ died and rose again not on the Easter day itself. But the ancient Christians saw important symbolism here - the Old Testament Easter is replaced by the New Testament, God, who freed Israel from slavery, is now freeing the entire human race. I repeat once again that all this is described in great detail by V.V. Bolotov.

11.03.2017 13:05:05 Mikhail

Yes, I understand why there was a difference in traditions, in calendars, in full moons and equinoxes. It is not clear to me why they began to attach themselves to these full moons, equinoxes, when an event occurred that could not be overlooked: a three-hour eclipse of the sun? After all, Dionysius the Areopagite noticed and it is known when he noticed and when he lived. It was a specific day. And there was never another three-hour solar eclipse. And it could not be all over the earth. Why was this day not taken as a basis? Here's what I don't understand.

07.04.2019 17:12:47 Site administrator

Who told you, Konstantin, that you can guess at the Annunciation? And heresy, by the way, is a distortion of Christian doctrine - that is, something that arises in the mainstream of theology. And fortune-telling is simply demonic, incompatible with church Christian life, either on the Annunciation or on any other day.

04/07/2019 21:17:21 Leo

Yes, Konstantin, this is a gross superstition! Sin, it remains sin even on especially revered days. This superstition was invented in order to desecrate the holiday with fortune-telling and other unholy things. Sin is always sin and virtue is always virtue. It’s impossible to say that today is the Annunciation and I won’t wash the floor, they say it’s impossible, but I’ll spend this day not in prayer, but in idleness, or even worse in drunkenness. These bans on household chores are conditional, they were established by the Church so that the hard-working peasants were freed from their work in order to be able to participate in long festive services, and this is to save the soul!

When is Easter this year? And when is carnival? When does Lent begin? These are the questions people ask each other year after year. Many are surprised: why some church holidays are celebrated on the same day from year to year, while others always fall on different dates? How are these dates determined? Let's figure it out.

Easter in the Old Testament

The celebration of Easter among the Jews was established by the prophet Moses in honor of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt (see Pesach). “Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, because in the month of Nisan (Aviv) the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night” (Deut. 16:1). In memory of the exodus on Easter, a ritual slaughter of a one-year-old male lamb, without blemish, was prescribed, it should have been baked on fire, and eaten completely, without breaking the bones, with unleavened bread (unleavened, yeast-free bread) and bitter herbs in the family circle during the Easter night ( Exod. 12:1-28; Num. 9:1-14). After the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, ritual slaughter became impossible, so the Jews on Pesach eat only unleavened bread - matzah.

Easter among the early Christians

In the Christian Church, Easter has been celebrated since the first centuries, but due to local traditions, peculiarities of the calendar and calculations in the communities of different cities, the days of celebrating Easter did not coincide. Therefore, at the First Ecumenical Council in 325, it was decided to adopt a single method for the entire Christian world to determine the date of Easter. Then it was decided that Christians should not follow the custom of the Jews in determining the day of this most holy celebration. At the Council it was forbidden to celebrate Easter "before the spring equinox together with the Jews."

When is Easter this year?

In 2019, Orthodox Christians will celebrate Easter on April 28. The date of the celebration of Easter is determined by a special calculation called the Orthodox Paschalia.

Paschalia is a calculation system that allows, according to special tables that determine the relationship a large number calendar and astronomical values, to determine the dates of the celebration of Easter and passing church holidays for any given year.

The Russian Orthodox Church uses the traditional Julian calendar, created under Julius Caesar in 45 BC, to calculate the date of the celebration of Easter and passing holidays. This calendar is often referred to as the "old style". Western Christians use the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. It is commonly referred to as "new style".

According to the rules of the First Ecumenical Council (325, Nicaea), the celebration of Orthodox Easter takes place on the first Sunday after the spring full moon, which comes after or on the day of the spring equinox, if this Sunday falls after the day of the celebration of Jewish Easter; otherwise, the celebration of Orthodox Easter is transferred to the first Sunday after the day of Jewish Passover.

Thus, the day of the celebration of Easter falls within the limits of March 22 to April 25 of the old style, or from April 4 to May 8 of the new style. After calculating the date of Easter, a calendar of the rest of the passing church holidays is compiled.

Church holidays

Every day of the calendar year is dedicated by the Church to the remembrance of one or another sacred event, the celebration of the memory of saints, or the glorification of the miraculous icons of the Most Holy Theotokos.

The most important day of the church year is the feast of the Holy Resurrection of Christ, or Easter. The next in importance are the 12 great twelfth holidays (the name itself - the twelfth - indicates their number). Then, according to the meaning, the Church singles out 5 great holidays. There are others holidays celebrated by the celebration of solemn divine services. Sundays stand out in particular, which are also dedicated to the remembrance of the Resurrection of the Lord and are called "Little Pascha".

The twelfth holidays are divided into non-transitory and transitory. Dates of non-transferable holidays do not change from year to year; Passover holidays fall on different dates every year and depend on which day in the current year Easter falls on. The beginning of Great Lent, the popularly beloved Pancake week, Palm Sunday, as well as the Ascension and the day of the Holy Trinity also depend on the date of Easter.

The twelfth feasts are divided into Lord's (in honor of the Lord Jesus Christ) or Mother of God (dedicated to the Mother of God). Some of the events that became the basis for the holidays are described in the Gospel, and some are established on the basis of church tradition.

The Twelfth Passing Holidays:

• Holy Christ's Resurrection. Easter
• Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. Palm Sunday (7 days before Easter)
• Ascension of the Lord (on the 40th day after Easter)
• Day of the Holy Trinity. Pentecost (50th day after Easter)

Twelfth non-passing holidays:

• September 21 - Nativity of the Blessed Virgin.
• September 27 - Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
• December 4 - Entry into the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos.
• January 7 - Christmas.
• January 19 - Epiphany. Epiphany.
• February 15 - Meeting of the Lord.
• April 7 - Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin.
• August 19 - Transfiguration of the Lord.
• August 28 - Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.

great post

Easter is preceded by Great Lent - the strictest and longest of all Orthodox fasts. When does Lent start? It depends on the date on which Easter falls in the current year. Fasting always lasts 48 days: 40 days of Great Lent proper, called Forty Days, and 8 days of Holy Week, starting from Lazarus Saturday until Great Saturday on the eve of Easter. Therefore, the beginning of fasting is easy to determine by counting 7 weeks from the date of Easter.

The significance of Great Lent lies not only in the strict rules of abstinence from food (only eating plant foods is prescribed, fish is allowed only twice - on the Annunciation and on Palm Sunday), and avoiding various entertainments and amusements, but also in a very deep liturgical system in its content. The services of Great Lent are very special, unlike anything else. Each Sunday is dedicated to its own special theme, and together they set the believers to deep humility before God and repentance for their sins.

How is the date of Easter calculated?

In the era of the creation of Paschalia (the system for calculating the dates of Easter), people represented the passage of time differently than now. They believed that all events occur in a circle (“everything returns to normal”). And the whole variety of events is determined by the fact that there are many such “circles” (“cycles”) and they different sizes. In a circle, day is replaced by night, summer - winter, new moon - full moon.

It is difficult for a modern person to imagine this, since in his mind he builds a “straight line” of historical events from the past to the future.

The simplest and most famous (and still used) circle is the day of the week circle. Sunday is followed by Monday, Monday is followed by Tuesday, and so on until the next Sunday, followed by Monday again.

The calculation of the date of Easter is based on two cycles: solar (28 years) and lunar (19 years). Each year has its own number in each of these cycles (these numbers are called "Circle of the Sun" and "Circle of the Moon"), and their combination is repeated only once every 532 years (this interval is called the "Great Indiction").

The "Circle of the Sun" is associated with the Julian calendar, in which 3 consecutive years are simple (365 days each), and the fourth is a leap year (366 days). To harmonize a cycle of 4 years with a 7-day weekly cycle, a cycle of 28 years (7?4) was created. After 28 years, the days of the week will fall on the same numbers of the months of the Julian calendar (in the "new" "Gregorian" calendar, everything is more complicated ...). That is, the calendar of 1983 had exactly the same form as the calendar of 2011 (1983+28=2011). For example, the 1st (14th according to the “new style”) of January 2011 is Friday; and January 1st, 1983 was also a Friday.

That is, the "circle of the Sun" helps to find out on which days of the week the corresponding numbers of the months of the year fall.

"Circle of the Moon" is designed to coordinate the lunar phases (new moon, full moon, etc.) with the dates of the Julian calendar. It is based on the fact that 19 solar years is almost exactly equal to 235 lunar months.

An equinox is the moment when the Sun, in its apparent motion, crosses the "celestial equator". At this time, the length of the day is equal to the length of the night, and the Sun rises exactly in the East and sets exactly in the West.

A solar year (otherwise called a "tropical year") is the interval between two successive spring equinoxes. Its duration is 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds (365.2422 days). In the Julian calendar, for convenience and simplicity, the length of the year is taken to be 365 days 6 hours (365.25 days). In about 128 years, the spring equinox is shifted by one day (in the 15th century of the "new era" the equinox was March 12-13, and in the 20th - March 7-8).

The lunar month (otherwise called "synodic") is the interval between two new moons. Its average duration is 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 3 seconds (29.53059 days).

That is why it turns out that 19 solar years (19365.2422=6939.6018 days) is approximately 235 lunar months (23529.53059=6939.6887 days).

After 19 years, the lunar phases (full moons, for example) will fall on the same numbers of the Julian calendar (this is not observed for long periods of time - an error of one day accumulates for approximately 310 years). We are talking, of course, about average values. The actual dates of the lunar phases, due to the complexity of the movement of the moon, may deviate from the average values. For example, the real full moon in Moscow in April 1990 was on the 10th (“new style”) at 06:19, and in 2009 (19 years after 1990) - on April 9 ( "new style") at 17:55.

Based on the tables obtained, it is possible to determine the date of Easter for any year.

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) gives a not so clear, but more mathematically simple method of calculating the date of Orthodox Easter: “Of all the practical methods of calculation, the method proposed by the greatest German mathematician Karl Gauss (1777 - 1855) is recognized as the simplest. Divide the number of the year by 19 and call the remainder "a"; the remainder of the division of the number of the year by 4 will be denoted by the letter “b”, and through “c” the remainder of the division of the number of the year by 7. Divide the value 19 x a + 15 by 30 and call the remainder the letter “d”. The remainder of the division by 7 of the value 2 x b + 4 x c + 6 x d + 6 is denoted by the letter "e". The number 22 + d + e will be the day of Easter for March, and the number d + e - 9 for April. For example, let's take 1996. From dividing it by 19 there will be a remainder of 1 (a). When divided by 4, the remainder will be zero (b). Dividing the number of the year by 7, we get the remainder 1 (s). If we continue the calculations, we get: d \u003d 4, and e \u003d 6. Therefore, 4 + 6 - 9 \u003d April 1 (Julian calendar - old style - approx. editions)».

When is Easter for Catholics?

In 1583, in the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new Paschal, called the Gregorian. As a result of the change in Paschalia, the whole calendar has changed. As a result of the transition to more accurate astronomical dates, Catholic Easter often celebrated before the Jewish one or on the same day, and ahead of the Orthodox Easter in some years by more than a month.

The discrepancy between the dates of Orthodox Easter and Catholic Easter is caused by the difference in the date of church full moons, and the difference between solar calendars - 13 days in the 21st century. Western Easter in 45% of cases is a week earlier than Orthodox, in 30% of cases it coincides, 5% is a difference of 4 weeks, and 20% is a difference of 5 weeks (more than the lunar cycle). There is no difference in 2-3 weeks.

1. G \u003d (Y mod 19) + 1 (G is the so-called "golden number in the metonic" cycle - the 19-year cycle of full moons)
2. C \u003d (Y / 100) + 1 (if Y is not a multiple of 100, then C is the century number)
3. X \u003d 3 * C / 4 - 12 (adjustment for the fact that three of four years multiples of 100 is not a leap year)
4. Z = (8*C + 5)/25 - 5 (synchronization with the lunar orbit, the year is not a multiple of the lunar month)
5. D \u003d 5 * Y / 4 - X - 10 (in March, the day? D mod 7 will be Sunday)
6. E \u003d (10 * G + 20 + Z - X) mod 30 (epakta - indicates the day of the full moon)
7. IF (E = 24) OR (E = 25 AND G > 11) THEN increase E by 1
8. N = 44 - E ( March nth- day of the calendar full moon)
9. IF N 10. N = N + 7 - (D + N) mod 7
11. IF N > 31 THEN the date of Easter (N ? 31) April ELSE the date of Easter N March

Photo - photobank Lori

About the Holiday

Easter is a celebration of victory over death. The word "Passover" comes from the Hebrew "Pesach", which means "to step over" or "to pass", "to pass by". The homes of the Jews before their exodus from Egypt were bypassed by a great calamity - the death of the firstborn. The doorposts in their house were stained with the blood of lambs. Families of slaves, Jews, were not affected. Before the exodus from Egypt, the Jews had a farewell meal and went to the Promised Land, the land that God had promised them. They crossed the swamps, quicksands of the Red Sea coast and ended up in the desert. Pharaoh's chariots, on which the Egyptians tried to catch up with the slaves, drowned in the sea. Since then, in memory of this event, Jews have cooked lamb with bitter herbs in honor of the Passover holiday.

Christians say - "our Easter is Christ." Why? Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Did you know that Jesus also celebrated Easter? On the eve of how He was seized, on the eve of the ordeals that we remember on Holy Week, and the execution on Golgotha, He gathered His disciples in Jerusalem and celebrated with them the “Legitimate Passover” according to all the laws of that time. But on this day, important and new words for future Christians were heard: “Take, eat, this is My body, which is broken for you. Accept and drink, this cup is the New Testament in My blood, poured out for you and for many for the remission of sins. Do this whenever you drink, in remembrance of Me.” So the Old Testament between God and people remained in the past. Not because Jesus abolished it, "did not abolish it, but fulfilled it." God concluded a new “agreement” with people, according to which people accepted the Savior's Cross sacrifice.

We rejoice in the liberation from "spiritual Egypt", the kingdom of death and sin, and the transition to another life. Jesus Christ opened the doors of hell. Saved mankind from eternal torment for our sins.

By partaking of the Body and Blood of the Savior, we partake of His sorrows and sufferings, of His death, but at the same time, we partake of the "transition." It was a transition to immortal life, to victory over hell and death, which Christ gave us. The disciples of Christ and the women faithful to Him buried the body of the Lord in a cave, but He… is Risen! He moved the heavy stone of the tomb and stepped out of it. Easter has conquered death. Easter is the main component of the Christian faith, the hope for Eternal life.

"Christ is Risen!" “Truly Risen!”

These words express the most important thing in Christianity. After all, if Jesus is not resurrected, then our faith is in vain.

Fra Beato Angelico. Resurrection (fresco from the monastery of San Marco, Florence, middle of the 15th century)

Easter is a moving holiday. Why?

Some Orthodox holidays fall on a different day of the calendar each year. Such holidays are called transitional. This means that their date is specified according to the lunar calendar. In the Orthodox calendar, these are all the holidays associated with Easter. For example, the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. Maslenitsa, the beginning, the day of the Myrrh-bearing Women, the Ascension of the Lord, the Trinity - all these dates depend on what day of the church year Easter is celebrated.

The Easter holiday for Christians has certain rules: we cannot celebrate Easter before the Jewish holiday of Pesach. Jesus was crucified on a full moon, the Gospel says that when He was crucified, the sun went dark, so Easter is celebrated on a full moon. Also, Easter must fall on a Sunday. All these factors make Easter dependent on lunar calendar and a passing holiday.

How to prepare for Easter in 2019?

Easter in 2019 falls on April 28th. The main preparation for Easter for a Christian is to observe Great Lent. Great Lent leads us to Easter. The most important thing during fasting is not only to abstain from a certain type of food, but to reconcile with the offenders, to pray. If a person did not fast, this does not mean that on Easter in 2019 he is forbidden to enter the temple. Easter is a holiday for those who fast, and for those who came to the temple for the first time.

Lent is one of the strictest in the church year. Before him lasts Maslenitsa, Shrovetide week. Christians refrain from noisy celebrations these days. After all, Great Lent awaits them, which is observed not only on the eve of the holiday - Easter, but also transforms the events that occur during the time when we remember the sufferings of Christ.

Lent ends with Lazarus Saturday. On the eve of the feast of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem, the Lord resurrected His acquaintance, Lazarus.

This became the threshold of the resurrection of the Lord himself. Jesus was welcomed in Jerusalem as a King. People saw a real miracle: the body of Lazar, which was already touched by traces of decomposition, came to life. The Lord breathed life into a man who not only died, but died a long time ago and from a severe long-term illness. The Lord was in no hurry to heal Lazarus, although he could do it, precisely because he intended to resurrect him. Those who saw this event and heard about it rejoiced at the coming of Christ to Jerusalem, as they hoped that the Messiah would furiously crush the enemies of the earth by entering the city on a donkey. But Jesus came to fight the main enemies - death and hell. Earthly prosperity and well-being was not part of His plans.

He was awaited by arrest, torture and death on the Cross.

One of the most important days for Christians during Holy Week is Maundy Thursday, when the Church remembers the events of the Last Supper. After all, it was then that it was established.

On Good Friday, the most difficult day, the Savior's sacrifice on the Cross is remembered. This is the day of His suffering and death. The Church mourns for the passions of Christ. Instead of the Liturgy, the Royal Hours are performed on this day. At Vespers they carry out the shroud, this is a symbol of the position of the Body of Christ in the tomb.

The Lord came into this world not to die, but to rise again and give us hope for salvation from the inevitability of death, remission of sins and eternal life. Christians celebrate accepting this opportunity. Preparation for Easter in 2019, as in any other church year, consists of fasting, prayer and reflection on the fact that the Lord suffered for our sins. And we must worthily and righteously accept the gift of life that Christ's Pascha presents us with.

Robert Anning Bell. Myrrh-bearing women

Traditions of the celebration of Christ's Resurrection

Christians congratulate each other on the feast of Easter with the joyful exclamation "Christ is Risen!" “Truly Risen!” These are not just words, but a confirmation of our faith and devotion to Christ. We believe that Christ threw off the shackles of death and was God, and not just a man who fell into a lethargic sleep or fell into a coma. The resurrection of Christ was a true miracle. On the eve of this bright day, believers consecrate the Easter meal, the symbols of Easter are Easter cakes, Easter cottage cheese, painted eggs.

Easter cakes are baked from kvass dough. Even this preparation is a symbol of the Resurrection of Christ. The dough turns sour, and then comes to life in the hands of the cook, as Christ came to life.

Easter eggs are dyed because it is believed that Mary Magdalene once gave the first Easter egg to Emperor Tiberius. She brought it as a gift to announce the Resurrection of Christ, and brought the egg, because in those days it was not customary to come empty-handed. Emperor Tiberius replied that no one can be resurrected, just as a white egg cannot suddenly turn red. At that very moment, the egg turned red. Perhaps this is nothing more than a legend, but Christians dye eggs red. Although other colors and decorations in honor of the holiday are acceptable. Red is also the color of royal glory. Symbol of the Kingdom of Heaven.

But the main tradition for Christians was and remains the Easter service. Easter in 2019 will take place on April 28, and the Easter service will traditionally begin at 12 at night.

Easter symbols

Symbols of Easter in 2019 according to tradition - and colored eggs.

The Easter egg is a symbol of new life. Its shell symbolizes the Holy Sepulcher. Inside the egg new life and the new being that Christ has given us. In the Eastern traditions of Christianity, the culture of hospitality is honored. If we remember the history of the New Testament, Jesus and the disciples always ate together. After Christ ascended to heaven, in memory of Him, the disciples continued to leave bread to Him during the meal. Kulich is a symbol of the bread that we, modern Christians, leave for Christ.

Some Easter traditions, in turn, do not carry any special Christian meaning. So, for example, the custom of breaking eggs against each other when meeting on Easter is already a secular tradition. Nevertheless, the Church does not forbid congratulating each other in this way and rejoicing in the Resurrection of Christ.

Many argue that Christians simply adopted pagan rites, as some of the traditions and customs of Easter resemble pagan rites. In fact, Christian holidays and Christian ideology have nothing to do with them. It is believed that the pagans met spring and dyed eggs in honor of the sun god, the pagans had many other gods, while the Christians have one God - Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, modern historians do not have much information about how paganism was practiced before the adoption of Christianity, and all evidence of such traditions dates back to already Christian times. Therefore, it is quite possible that the pagans adopted the Christian tradition, and not vice versa.

In any case, the modern Church denies any belonging to paganism and pagan traditions.

Easter- one of the main Christian church holidays for believers in Russia and around the world. The celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord in Russia has its own centuries-old traditions and customs. People are waiting for Easter with special impatience and inner trepidation, because it is a double joy: the resurrection of the Savior of the human race, crucified on the cross, and the arrival of spring, symbolizing the renewal of all living things. Easter has many names: "The Resurrection of the Lord", "Bright or Holy Easter", "Easter of Christ".

Easter celebration in Russia is notable for its huge number of interesting traditions, customs, rituals, preserved to this day from ancient times. Despite the fact that Easter is a Christian holiday, it has its roots in the deep past, associated with the pagan beliefs of our ancestors. In our Slavic culture, there used to be a special day - the holiday of the arrival of spring, the birth of life, which was celebrated at the end of March or at the beginning of April, when nature began to wake up after winter. There were also rituals. Among men, it was customary to kindle huge fires in order to appease the Sun and get his favor. And women chose the most beautiful girl, having undressed her, watered her with spring water, decorated with herbs, woven flowers into her hair, this ritual ended with the “spring goddess” going around the whole village with a plow, thus endowing the land with fertility, prompting vegetation to life.

Easter was celebrated in Russia immediately after Prince Vladimir the Red Sun was baptized himself and baptized our people. We know that not all Russian people enthusiastically accepted the new religion, they fought for some time for their right to remain pagans and continued to celebrate national holidays, but over time they became imbued with Christianity. Although, the celebration of Easter, like many other holidays of Christianity, is often accompanied by pagan rites, rituals preserved from distant days, which have nothing to do with true faith.

But, the history of Easter throughout the world has even deeper roots. You can read about those events in the book of the Old Testament. The Pesach holiday was celebrated in ancient times by representatives of the Jewish people, after Moses brought them out of Egypt. If the name of the holiday is literally translated from the Hebrew language, it means "Deliverance". Of course that one Christian holiday should not be directly associated with the liberation of the Jews. The history, traditions of Easter of Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox are connected with the events of the New Testament and the main meaning is the triumph of life over death, which was confirmed by the immortality of Jesus Christ, who resurrected after the crucifixion.

In Catholic and Protestant countries, Easter is celebrated a little earlier than in Russia, because in Orthodoxy time is counted according to the Gregorian calendar, and the spring equinox serves as a starting point. Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. The day of Easter is floating, without a specific date. Therefore, in order to know when Easter will be celebrated this year, believers look Orthodox calendars. To observe all the traditions of the Easter holiday, Easter is made up.

Everyone knows that the last week, coming before Easter, is called "Passion", it is dedicated to the suffering that Jesus Christ endured for the human race. The most severe days of fasting fall on it, during which believers eat only bread and water, do not have fun, do not have fun, but only pray for the forgiveness of their sins. Together with the rejection of the joys of life and animal food, people are preparing for the greatest church holiday. On Holy Week, according to tradition, it is customary to clean houses, throw away everything superfluous, give the poor things that you no longer wear. On Clean Thursday, a general cleaning is necessarily carried out, both physical and spiritual. On Thursday, Christians bathed at dawn in a stream to wash away all the sins accumulated over the year. And Friday is allocated for baking Easter cakes and painting Easter eggs.

Why did the tradition of baking Easter cakes and coloring eggs appear for Easter, and what does it mean? Main Easter symbols holiday are colored eggs and Easter cakes. According to tradition, they must first be consecrated in the church. These are not just delicious treats, but also symbols of the Bright Holiday, which have a deeply religious meaning, taken from the Bible. According to legend, after Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, the apostles began to put a piece of bread on the table when they ate, it was intended for the Teacher, who was resurrected. Easter cake is a symbol of that holy food.

The meeting place of the Feast of the Resurrection of Christ is the temple, where parishioners flock to the solemn service, during which the priest consecrates the Easter cakes, apiaries, eggs they brought. The Easter service starts from Saturday evening and goes until the morning, it is called "All-Night". According to tradition, it is customary to wear light-colored clothes for this service in order to festive outfits hear the good news. At midnight, the bells begin to ring, announcing to everyone around that Christ is Risen, at this moment the Easter holiday comes, and the faithful follow the church servants with banners to the procession, during which the church goes around the temple three times, and then everyone congratulates each other. This is a ritual of Christening, when the younger says to the elder: “Christ is Risen!”, And he answers him: “Truly Risen!” They then kiss each other three times on the cheeks. In the morning, returning home, people lay a festive table. Easter is celebrated in a narrow family circle. Some go to the cemetery on Easter, but as the clergy say, this is not worth doing because Easter is a holiday of joy, and the cemetery is a place of sorrow, to commemorate the dead, Parents' Saturday, which comes after Easter, is highlighted. There is an expression that on Easter the deceased themselves come to visit you, and on Parental they are waiting for you at their home.

Easter should be Special attention devote to preparing the table. On the eve, believers prepare various treats that will stand on the solemn Easter table, however, due to the fact that Great Lent is still going on at this time, they cannot be tasted until Sunday. But on the Holy Holiday, Christians will be able to enjoy clear, fish treats, try pies, jelly, drink wine, treat relatives and friends.

According to tradition and Orthodox canons, Easter is celebrated for seven days - Easter week, and it ends with the day "Red Hill", in ancient times in Russia, weddings were played on it. The fact is that only in this short period of time did the peasants have free time between Strict Lent and the sowing of grain crops.

Easter in 2018 falls on the eighth of April, in 2019 on the twenty-eighth of April, in 2020 on the nineteenth of April.

Easter is the main event of the Christian world dedicated to the miraculous Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the victory of life over death.

The date of the holiday changes every year, since the day Easter is calculated according to the lunisolar calendar, based on the frequency of visible changes of the Sun and Moon.

About what date Easter is for Orthodox Christians, about the traditions and customs of celebrating it in Russia, read in this article.

When is Orthodox Easter in 2020

What date Easter will be in 2020 is calculated as follows: this important Christian holiday is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon that came after March 21 - the day of the vernal equinox. If this full moon falls on a Sunday, the holiday is a week later, on the following Sunday.

Since Orthodox Christians use the method of calculating the date according to the Julian calendar (according to the old style), Easter for them comes on Sunday April 19, 2020.

Traditions and customs of celebration in Russia

On Holy Saturday before Orthodox Easter in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, at a particularly solemn night service, the Holy Fire is brought to the faithful, miraculously appearing in the Holy Sepulcher and symbolizing the resurrected Jesus Christ.

In Russia, the ceremony is broadcast live, and a piece of the Holy Fire is delivered to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and other churches in large cities by special flights.

All-night vigils - services on Easter night are held in each Orthodox Church. During the service, exactly at midnight, the faithful perform the Procession - a procession around the temple with a large cross, icons and singing a prayer canon.

Easter greeting

Immediately after the night service and on the first day of Easter, Orthodox Christians joyfully greet each other: “Christ is risen!” - "Truly Risen!" and kiss three times. According to tradition, the youngest in age should greet first, and the eldest should answer.

Easter bells

Another Orthodox Easter tradition is to ring the bells at non-liturgical times on Bright Week the week following the holiday Sunday.

The bell towers are open to everyone, and everyone can ring the bell, of course, with a blessing.

Festive meal

The holiday is preceded by a time of abstinence - Great Lent, which ends with breaking the fast.

On the holiday table Orthodox Christians must have Easter cakes consecrated in the church, painted eggs and cottage cheese Easter.

Easter cake - high rich yeast bread with the image of a cross. The tradition of obligatory Easter cake is associated with the apostles, who, after the Ascension of Christ, left a piece of bread on the table, symbolizing the presence of Jesus at the meal. In Russia, Easter cake is poured with white icing and the symbols XB are written - Christ is Risen.

The egg during the Easter meal symbolizes the Holy Sepulcher and the Resurrection - on the outside it looks dead, but inside it contains nascent life.

The custom of Christians to give eggs to each other comes from the tradition of a red-colored egg, which Mary Magdalene presented to Emperor Tiberius with the words "Christ is risen!". Easter eggs can be dyed different colors, but it is red that is traditional - it symbolizes the blood of the crucified Christ, life, the sun and fertility. In Russia, eggs are dyed with onion skins to give them a red color.

Cottage cheese Easter is a special sweet dish made from cottage cheese with raisins and candied fruits in the form of a truncated pyramid, reminiscent of the Holy Sepulcher. It is prepared mainly in the northern and central Russian regions.

Folk festivals and games

Easter festivities in Russia began on the first day of the holiday and could last a week or longer. On Krasnaya Gorka they led round dances with songs, swung on a swing, wooed and played Easter games.

Traditional Easter games are egg rolling and cue ball.

Egg rolling - Slavic easter game, which consists in rolling eggs from a small hill or simply on the ground or floor. At the end of the hill they place miscellaneous items and toys. The player whose egg touches the object takes it as a prize.

Rolling eggs among Christians is a symbol of the stone that rolled down before the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Holy Sepulcher. They are rolled on the ground to make it fertile.

Cue balls - two people take colored eggs and beat them three times - they "Christen." The cracked egg goes to the winner.