A promo for “Risen! The Musical”  to be broadcast on Credo TV (Romania) on  Monday, April 9th 11.30 am GMT

Last blog I gave an explanation as to why Easter is not a fixed date as is Christmas. At the end I stated that Eastern Christianity applies the same basic rule but uses the older Julian calendar, which is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar, giving a different range of possible dates.

I have decided today to give a fuller explanation as I have just been reminded that Easter for the Orthodox Church is this coming Sunday, April 8th. Why have I just been reminded of this? Well last Easter Risen! The Musical was broadcast on Revelation TV in the UK and on Alfa- Omega TV in Romania and also Credo TV in Romania. The Credo transmitters are extremely powerful with signals reaching as far as Siberia and the USA. The young man who translated Risen! into Romanian is Alex- Emmaunel – Serban. Alex is fantastic guy who is a video editor for Credo. He speaks English perfectly and not only translated Risen! into Romanian but he also created the sub titles- thank you so very much Alex!!

Alex has just messaged me to say that Risen! The Musical is being broadcast on Credo TV on Monday April 9th at 1.30 pm Romanian time which is 11.30 am GMT.   You can stream it live via http://www.credo.tv/

Anyway Orthodox Easter, also called Pascha and Resurrection Sunday, is the oldest and most important festival in the Eastern Christian tradition, celebrating Jesus Christ’s resurrection, following his crucifixion and death. In most years its date differs from the date of Easter in Western Christianity (catholic and protestant Easter), and is usually one week, but occasionally four or five weeks, later. However, in some years Orthodox Easter coincides with Western Easter and both observances fall on the same date.

In Western Christianity, the date of Easter is based on the Gregorian calendar and can fall between March 22 and April 25. The Eastern Christian tradition bases its calculations of Orthodox Easter on the Julian calendar, which differs from the Gregorian calendar by 13 days. This results in a possible date range of April 4 to May 8. However, both Western and Eastern churches agree that Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, but always after Passover.

This table compares the dates of Western and Orthodox Easter for the years 2010 to 2030:

Occasionally initiatives are started to introduce a fixed and unified date of Easter (probably the second or third Sunday in April), however there are currently no concrete plans to do so.

Quote for the week

“Sometimes God calms the storm – other times He lets the storm rage but calms us.”

The Word for Today