For Roman Catholics and many other people of Christian faith, Easter has come and gone already. Some will have hunted for eggs or decorated homes with the chicks and bunnies that signal the arrival of spring. Children may have scoffed their Easter chocolate treats already. Practising believers may have been to church to mark the Passion of Christ and his rising again. But for Orthodox Christians, and travellers visiting countries where there is a large Orthodox population, Easter is yet to come—the date falling one week later. Why?
According to a ruling in the year 325 AD by the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity (Constantine the Great), all Christians should celebrate Easter together at the same time.
But back in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII introduced his Gregorian calendar, jumping the world that followed his orders forward by 13 days. This was because of an 11-minute inaccuracy in the number of days in Julius Caesar’s previous calendar. The fault meant the world had gradually drifted out of alignment with the solar year since the lag had added up over centuries, making the spring equinox 10 days early and Easter fall on the “wrong” date. For farmers, too, being increasingly out of whack with the natural seasons was a concern.
When Gregory’s calendar came into force, on 4 October 1582, the next day was suddenly 15 October. When Easter was celebrated the following year, as per the usual rules placing it on the first Sunday after the first spring full moon, Orthodox Christians, who still used the Julian calendar, no longer automatically celebrated Easter at the same time as other believers because the spring equinox was now different for them.
Orthodox Christian churches around the world, including in Bulgaria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine, still follow the Julian year, meaning their celebrations, including eggs, chocolate, family meals, and church services, are yet to come on 12 April 2026. For travellers, this means an immersive, week-long cultural experience with church processions, midnight candlelit services, and lively Sunday feasts. It is also a peak travel period for locals, meaning it is important to book hotels early and carefully plan holidays.
In most years, the celebrations happen on different dates, with the two Easters coinciding (known as common Pascha) only every three to four years on average—a time held up as a period of special unity.
During the 21st century, they will match 31 times, with the last occurrence in 2025 and the next due in 2028. The Orthodox faith also dictates that Easter must fall after Jewish Passover, pushing the date further away from the non-Orthodox occasion. In fact, the gap between the two Easters is becoming wider, and after the year 2700, the celebrations will never occur on the same date again.
