Reply to Greek Orthodox folks: how do you navigate celebrating Easter at a different date in the US?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s the same celebration! Why not just do both? [/quote]

It’s not that simple. Today is the Greek Orthodox Palm Sunday and the Catholic Easter. You have to choose one to celebrate [/quote]

Then go to both services. You can to Catholic Palm Sunday, then 2 Sunday services on the Palm Sunday/Easter Day, then just the Orthodox Easter next week. It might not be the easiest but mixing faiths was never going to be easy.[/quote]

And why is the Easter date different every year? Because it's based on the lunar calendar, as I learned in 8th grade science class, in a public school from a science teacher who was Roman Catholic, as were many of his students.  Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon, after the vernal equinox.  It seemed odd, when I learned it, that a religious holiday was based on astronomy.

Later, I learned that Christmas - the birth of Christ - was also placed on the lunar calendar, based on an already celebrated Pagan holiday, that we later figured out was based on the winter Solstice.  Christmas is a few days after the winter solstice (dec 22) when it became clear that the world wasn't going to get darker and colder - which it had, up until Dec 22.  It still got cold, but it became obvious that the days were lengthening.  So ancient Christians decided that we might as well celebrate the birth of the Savior on an already celebrated holiday!

It wasn't until much later that we scientifically figured out astronomy.  [/quote]

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