Orthodox Christians begin their Holy Week
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Apr. 18—Vicky Christou has come full circle.
On Saturday, she was surrounded by a handful of young girls who were watching her fold palm fronds into palm crosses in her church social hall.
"I've been doing it probably since I was about 9 or 10 years old," she said. "We learn by going to church on Saturday of Lazarus and watching. The older women taught us how to do it. It has become a little tradition ever since."
The crosses would be blessed the next day — Palm Sunday — and given to parishioners at the end of that morning's service.
But wait — Palm Sunday? Wasn't yesterday Easter Sunday?
Countless Catholic and Protestant congregations did indeed celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Sunday. But Christou belongs to St. George Greek Orthodox Church, one of three Orthodox Christian congregations in New Castle.
For Christou and her fellow parishioners — as well as for those at St. Elias and St. Nicholas churches on the city's East and South sides, respectively — Holy Week began Monday and includes a series of services capped by the celebration of Easter, or Pascha.
Why the difference in dates?
Father Michael Gavrilos, St. George pastor, explained that the Orthodox faith uses a different calendar to determine the date of Pascha each year.
"Everyone uses the same formula — the entire Christian world," Gavrilos said. "We're just using a different calendar, so the day can be anywhere from the same (as Western Christians observe) to five weeks difference in feast days."
Two historical splits figure into the difference.
Originally, there was but one Christian church, Gavrilos said, but the Great Schism of 1054 resulted in two sections, the Western (which became the Roman Catholic church) and the Eastern (Orthodox). Then, more than 500 years later during the time of Pope Gregory XIII, "they realized that they had made a mistake on how long it takes for the earth to go around the sun," Gavrilos said.
The result was that the pope introduced a new calendar — the Gregorian — to replace the previous one, the Julian (named for Julius Caesar). The move created a 10 or 11-day difference, Gavrilos explained, a gap that increases by a full day every 100 to 200 years.
"They went to bed one night, I believe it was October first, and when they woke up," he said, "it was October 12th."
However, the Orthodox Church continues to apply the formula that determines the date of Easter using the Julian Calendar. That formula was set by the First Ecumenical Council in 325 in Nicea, and it established that Pascha should be celebrated on the Sunday that follows the first full moon after the vernal equinox. The day to be considered the invariable date for the equinox is March 21, the first day of spring.
"But we're 13 days behind," Gavrilos said, "so March 21st would be March 8th. There's a 13-day gap that could push (Pascha) until the next full moon."
There are similarities between Western and Eastern observances of Easter. Both observe a 40-day Lenten period, and each proclaims that Jesus was crucified on a Friday and resurrected on Sunday.
But there are differences as well.
While Western Christianity marks the beginning of Lent with Ash Wednesday, the Orthodox faith observes Clean Monday.
"We don't necessarily give up things as Western Christians do in their tradition but we're just more mindful," Gavrilos said. "Sometimes that means we are giving things up. We fast, and during fasting periods we don't have meat products, dairy products, oil.
"We want to be more mindful of what we're eating, less heavy foods, so that we're able to more fully enjoy and celebrate what's going on."
There are differences in observances as well. Saturday, for instance, was the Saturday of Lazarus, celebrating the third occasion on which Jesus raised someone from the dead. And what others refer to as Good Friday is known as Great and Holy Friday, Gavrilos said.
St. George begins its observance of the crucifixion beginning at sundown Thursday, when a cross is carried around the interior of the church, and worshipers are able to light candles and venerate it.
On Friday, Gavrilos said, Christ is taken down from the cross, and a funeral procession takes place outside the church.
Saturday morning, Gavrilos said, is the Descent into Hades Liturgy, and "Saturday evening, 99 percent of Orthodox churches do a service right around midnight," he went on, "and that is the resurrection of Christ, where you hear 'Christ is risen!' chanted again and again."
Gavrilos said he frequently fields questions about why the Orthodox celebration of Easter falls on a different day and, in his case, whether one has to be Greek to worship at St. George.
"You don't," he said. "We just brought someone into the faith today who has no Greek background whatsoever. Our faith is Orthodoxy; the ethnicity tied to the front of it doesn't matter.
"It's like saying Roman Catholic, Polish Catholic, German Catholic. Our faith is Orthodox."
