How do Orthodox Christians calculate which day is Good Friday?

[MoreCoffee]

The Catholic Church uses a fairly easy to remember formula for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil. It works like this:

In 325CE the Council of Nicaea established that Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox.(*) From that point forward, the Easter date depended on the ecclesiastical approximation of March 21 for the vernal equinox.​

Thus in 2016 23rd March is the first full moon after 21st March so Easter Sunday is 27th March and that means Holy Thursday is 24th March, Good Friday is 25th March, and the Easter Vigil is 26th March.

Of course, in 325 AD everybody still used the Julian Calendar while today English speaking lands use the Gregorian Calendar.

 

[psalms 91]

And moving it away from Passover when it really was to appease and bring in the heathens

 

[MoreCoffee]

And moving it away from Passover when it really was to appease and bring in the heathens

Isn't passover on Wednesday (Jerusalem time) this year? Easter is on Sunday for obvious reasons.

 

[psalms 91]

Isn't passover on Wednesday (Jerusalem time) this year? Easter is on Sunday for obvious reasons.

And almost a month apart. When was He crucified, what was the Holy Day?

 

[MoreCoffee]

And almost a month apart. When was He crucified, what was the Holy Day?

Less than a week apart. Wednesday is only 4 days apart from Sunday.

 

[psalms 91]

Less than a week apart. Wednesday is only 4 days apart from Sunday.

Have you even looked at the date of p[assover? It is in April, not four days apart. MC I know you are more intelligent than this so are you just trying yo confuse it?

 

[MoreCoffee]

Have you even looked at the date of passover? It is in April, not four days apart. MC I know you are more intelligent than this so are you just trying yo confuse it?

Oh, yes, you're right. 22nd of April is Passover for Rabbinic Jews. Nevertheless the first full moon after the vernal equinox is on Wednesday - the local Jehovah's witnesses have been handing out invitations to their annual "evening meal" event which they associate with the "last supper". Of course they use the Gregorian Calendar and Rabbinic Jews seem not to. The exact method by which the Rabbis arrive at dates and the change of the year is something of a mystery to me, I have not bothered to research it because I am not a follower of the rabbis. But this thread is about the Orthodox method of calculating the dates on which holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil fall.

Why don’t Easter and Passover always fall together on the calendar?

Every two or three years the Jewish calendar requires the adjustment of a leap year. During a Jewish leap year an additional month of 29 days is inserted before the month of Nisan. The additional month is needed because the Jewish calendar year has less days than the solar year and begins to slip out of gear with the seasons. The extra month thus realigns the Jewish calendar year with the seasons of the solar year. This is important because the Jewish holidays are closely related to the seasons. For example, the Torah commands that Passover be celebrated in the spring*.

Every so often the Jewish leap year will push Passover so far into April that a second full moon following the vernal equinox would appear before the Sunday following Passover. This happens any time the Sunday following Passover falls later than April 25th on our calendar. On those rare occasions Easter is celebrated the month before Passover rather than the Sunday following Passover.

- See more at: http://www.rayfowler.org/writings/a...for-easter-and-passover/#sthash.0EjKJB3v.dpuf

* Passover commences on the 15th of the Hebrew month of Nisan and lasts for either seven days (in Israel) and for Reform Jews and other progressive Jews around the world who adhere to the Biblical commandment or eight days for Orthodox,Hasidic, and most Conservative Jews (in the diaspora).[7][8] In Judaism, a day commences at dusk and lasts until the following dusk, thus the first day of Passover only begins after dusk of the 14th of Nisan and ends at dusk of the 15th day of the month of Nisan. The rituals unique to the Passover celebrations commence with the Passover Seder when the 15th of Nisan has begun. In the Northern Hemisphere Passover takes place in spring as the Torah prescribes it: "in the month of [the] spring" (בחדש האביב Exodus 23:15). It is one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays​

Since I live in the southern hemisphere passover here is not a spring festival but an autumn one and so I guess that in some way or other Jews in Australia have to have some rationale for why they have passover in autumn instead of spring. My guess would be that it is because it is spring in Jerusalem and everything in ancient Judaism's law was centred on Jerusalem. Christians are not tied to a specific city and place as far as feasts and faith are concerned.

 

[psalms 91]

People tend to forget that the feasts are not Jewish, they are Gods, as is the timing of them because God laid out the calander and the days

 

[MoreCoffee]

People tend to forget that the feasts are not Jewish, they are Gods, as is the timing of them because God laid out the calendar and the days

If you're keen on the calendar that Israel had when Moses was about then you ought to stop talking in terms of the months we have and your years ought to be set by biblical rules. Personally I see no reason to use a lunar calendar.

 

[psalms 91]

I guess God didnt either, it is not that I am keen on it but it is what God ordained is it not?

 

[MoreCoffee]

I guess God didnt either, it is not that I am keen on it but it is what God ordained is it not?

No, I do not think that God ordained the use of a lunar month and a year of 360 days - more or less. Any more than God ordained a year of 365.25 days and months of 28, 30, and 31 days length. Unless you're thinking that the orbit of the Earth and the rate of its spin on its axis are ordained in a special way apart from being so by virtue of creation.

 

[MoreCoffee]

I am wondering if George will contribute a post to this thread to explain how the Orthodox calculate the days for Pascha.

 

[psalms 91]

No, I do not think that God ordained the use of a lunar month and a year of 360 days - more or less. Any more than God ordained a year of 365.25 days and months of 28, 30, and 31 days length. Unless you're thinking that the orbit of the Earth and the rate of its spin on its axis are ordained in a special way apart from being so by virtue of creation.

Hmmm everything in the Jewish is done on the lunar calander and God gave them time and seasons and His word says when His feasts are as well as the Sabbeth so what makes you think it isnt of God?

 

[Pedrito]

In Post #11 MoreCoffee stated:

No, I do not think that God ordained the use of a lunar month and a year of 360 days - more or less. Any more than God ordained a year of 365.25 days and months of 28, 30, and 31 days length. Unless you're thinking that the orbit of the Earth and the rate of its spin on its axis are ordained in a special way apart from being so by virtue of creation.

May I ask MoreCoffee what his thoughts are about the Earth's tilt of approximately 23[SUP]o[/SUP] from its orbital plane?

Was that tilt ordained by God or not? If so, why? If not, what is the reason MoreCoffee thinks not?

And with respect to:

I do not think that God ordained the use of a lunar month and a year of 360 days - more or less.

I would like to understand (as would bill1231) why MoreCoffee thinks that.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Hmmm everything in the Jewish is done on the lunar calendar and God gave them time and seasons and His word says when His feasts are as well as the Sabbath so what makes you think it isn't of God?

I think that the length of the months came from Egypt and from the little over 29 day cycle of the moon.

Regardless of the culture, all lunar months approximate the mean length of the synodic month, or how long it takes on average to pass through each phase (new, half, full moon) and back again. It takes 29-30 days. The moon completes its orbit around the earth in 27.3 days (the sidereal month), but due to the Earth's motion around the sun it has not finished a full (synodic) cycle until it reaches the point in its orbit where the sun is in the same position. (wikipedia)

I think that a seven day week may have come from the creation story or may have come from other sources too. All of creation comes from God yet not everything is intended for use nor is everything permanent. I am not a Jew, nor an ancient Israelite so I feel no special desire or need to conform to their lunar calendar. If you do, okay.

 

[George]

I am wondering if George will contribute a post to this thread to explain how the Orthodox calculate the days for Pascha.

I'll post in later about this. I'm actually a bit peeved that someone on here made the following comment when I said as a joke that the Western Easter was four weeks early: "That's because most of us understand that the cross relates to Passover. Like in the Bible."

 

[Lamb]

George, your friend has no idea how EO Easter is connected to the Passover then.

 

[George]

Found an article to address this:
http://usa.greekreporter.com/2015/0...istian-easter-is-later-than-the-catholic-one/

 

[psalms 91]

I'll post in later about this. I'm actually a bit peeved that someone on here made the following comment when I said as a joke that the Western Easter was four weeks early: "That's because most of us understand that the cross relates to Passover. Like in the Bible."

Truth

 

[Lamb]

Found an article to address this:
http://usa.greekreporter.com/2015/0...istian-easter-is-later-than-the-catholic-one/

This quote from that linked article shows the connection to the Passover so your friend is wrong and most likely he's wrong because his pastor gave him faulty information (that's how it is at times and people spread false information in that manner):

The other factor at work is that the Orthodox Church continues to adhere to the rule set forth by the First Ecumenical Council, held in Nicea in 325 AD, that requires that Pascha must take place after the Jewish Passover in order to maintain the Biblical sequence of Christ’s Passion. The rest of Christianity ignores this requirement, which means that on occasion Western Easter takes place either before or during the Jewish Passover. - See more at: http://usa.greekreporter.com/2015/0...r-than-the-catholic-one/#sthash.UeGpgRRB.dpuf