The Orthodox Church Calendar: Pascha, Lent, and the Great Feasts

The Orthodox calendar keeps its own rhythm. Easter, which Orthodox Christians call Pascha, often falls a week or more after the Western date. Some Orthodox celebrate Christmas on December 25 and others on January 7.

This guide explains how Pascha is dated and what Nicaea decided, the Twelve Great Feasts, Lent and Holy Week, the four fasts, and the "old" and "new" calendars. Where churches or parishes differ, we say so.

In brief

The Orthodox year has two interlocking cycles. One is fixed to calendar dates (Christmas on December 25, the Dormition on August 15). The other moves with Pascha, the feast of the Resurrection, which stands at the center of the year. Pascha falls on a Sunday after the spring full moon, and most Orthodox churches still calculate it with the Julian calendar and its ancient lunar tables, which is why it usually comes later than the Western Easter. A popular explanation says Pascha must wait until after the Jewish Passover. The fourth-century evidence suggests instead that Nicaea forbade depending on the Jewish calculation, not coinciding with it; the "after Passover" rule appears in later commentators. Great Lent and Holy Week prepare for Pascha, and four fasts mark the year. Since the 1920s some churches have kept fixed feasts on the Revised Julian ("new") calendar while others keep the Julian ("old") one, but almost all keep the same Pascha.

Thesis: The Orthodox calendar is an inherited way of keeping time around the Resurrection, and its real history, debates included, is simpler and less divisive than the myths that surround it.

Two cycles, one center

Fr. Thomas Hopko's handbook for the Orthodox Church in America notes that September 1 is considered the start of the Church year, yet "the real liturgical center of the annual cycle of Orthodox worship is the feast of the Resurrection of Christ." Pascha is not even counted among the Twelve Great Feasts, "since it is considered by itself as 'the feast of feasts.'"¹ Its hymn sets the tone: "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life."² The name comes from the Passover; St. Paul writes, "For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us" (1 Corinthians 5:7, NKJV).

Everything that moves with Pascha (the pre-Lenten Sundays, Lent, Holy Week, Ascension, Pentecost) uses two service books, the Lenten Triodion and the Pentecostarion. The fixed cycle is set out month by month in the Menaion, with saints or events for every day.³

The Twelve Great Feasts

Hopko lists twelve major feasts "which are universally celebrated." Nine are fixed; three move with Pascha.⁴

Feast	Date
Nativity of the Theotokos	September 8
Exaltation (Elevation) of the Cross	September 14
Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple	November 21
Nativity of Christ	December 25
Theophany, the Baptism of Christ	January 6
Meeting of the Lord in the Temple	February 2
Annunciation	March 25
Transfiguration	August 6
Dormition of the Theotokos	August 15
Palm Sunday (Entry into Jerusalem)	Sunday before Pascha
Ascension	Fortieth day after Pascha
Pentecost	Fiftieth day after Pascha

Four honor the Mother of God; for what the Dormition does and does not claim, see the Assumption and the Dormition. Local churches add their own great days: Hopko mentions St. Sergius in Russia, St. Spyridon in Greece and St. Herman in America.⁵

How the date of Pascha is set

Before Nicaea

In the second century the churches of Roman Asia kept Pascha on the fourteenth of the Jewish month Nisan, whatever the weekday, while Rome and others kept it on Sunday. That story is told in our article on the Quartodeciman controversy. By the fourth century Sunday had won, and the question was which Sunday. Churches around Antioch kept the Sunday after the Jewish Passover as their Jewish neighbors calculated it; Alexandria and others worked out the date themselves and insisted it fall after the spring equinox.⁶

What Nicaea decided, and what survives

The First Ecumenical Council (325) settled the matter, but no canon on Pascha survives. Herbert Thurston wrote in the Catholic Encyclopedia that "the text of the decree of the Council of Nicaea which settled, or at least indicated a final settlement of, the difficulty has not been preserved to us."⁷ Archbishop Peter (L'Huillier), in a study published by the Orthodox Church in America, doubts there ever was a written decree.⁸ {{very-strong: What survives are two letters from the council's own time.}}

The council's synodal letter to Alexandria announces that "all our brethren in the East who formerly followed the custom of the Jews are henceforth to celebrate the said most sacred feast of Easter at the same time with the Romans and yourselves and all those who have observed Easter from the beginning."⁹ Constantine's letter, preserved by Eusebius, says the bishops resolved "that this feast ought to be kept by all and in every place on one and the same day," and that it was "an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews."¹⁰ The letter also speaks of Jews in hostile language no Christian needs to defend; its practical point is to stop depending on the synagogue's calculation.

From these and slightly later texts, Archbishop Peter reconstructs the decision: one Sunday for all the churches, a date governed by the full moon after the spring equinox, and an end to following the Jewish reckoning. But "the council did not enter into details of the method of calculation." The nineteen-year Alexandrian cycle was only later credited to Nicaea.¹¹

"After the Jewish Passover"? A careful answer

Many Orthodox Christians have heard that Pascha must always follow Passover. Two later canons are cited. Apostolic Canon 7, from a late fourth-century Syrian collection, reads: "If any bishop, presbyter, or deacon, shall celebrate the holy day of Easter before the vernal equinox, with the Jews, let him be deposed."¹² Canon 1 of a council at Antioch condemns clergy who set aside Nicaea's decree "by observing Easter [at the same time] with the Jews"; the bracketed words are the English translator's.¹³

{{debated: Whether these canons forbid coinciding with Passover, or depending on the Jewish calculation, is the point in dispute.}} Archbishop Peter argues for the second: the prohibition "in no way was aimed at avoiding an accidental celebrating of Pascha and Passover together," and the two feasts coincided several times in the fourth century. He traces the "Passover first" rule to medieval commentators such as Zonaras and Matthew Blastares, writing when the Julian calendar's drift had made coincidence impossible.¹⁴ The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation agreed in 1998: the prohibition "was directed against making the calculation of the date of Easter depend upon contemporary Jewish reckoning, not against a coincidence of date between the two festivals."¹⁵

The popular view runs deep; even Hopko's table heads the movable feasts "Calculated according to the Spring Equinox and the Jewish Passover."¹⁶ The fair summary: the Orthodox date in practice nearly always falls after Passover, but the fourth-century evidence does not show that Nicaea made this a rule.

Why East and West usually differ

The Catholic Church adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582, and other Western churches followed later. Most Orthodox churches still calculate Pascha with the Julian calendar, now thirteen days behind, and the old lunar cycle, so the Orthodox spring equinox, March 21, falls thirteen days later on the civil calendar.¹⁷ In 2025, the 1700th anniversary of Nicaea, the dates coincided, and Pope Francis appealed for "a decisive step forward towards unity around a common date for Easter."¹⁸

Great Lent and Holy Week

Lent is old. Nicaea's canon 5 already mentions a synod held "before Lent."¹⁹ The pilgrim Egeria, describing Jerusalem late in the fourth century, wrote: "Just as with us forty days are kept before Easter, so here eight weeks are kept before Easter," because Jerusalem did not fast on Saturdays or Sundays. She notes that the last week was called "the Great Week."²⁰

Today, pre-Lenten Sundays (the Publican and the Pharisee, the Prodigal Son, the Last Judgment or "Meatfare," and "Cheesefare") lead into forty days that end on the Friday before Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday. On Lenten weekdays the full Divine Liturgy is not served; the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served instead, often on Wednesday and Friday evenings. Saturdays and Sundays stay eucharistic days.²¹ Holy Week has services every day: the "Bridegroom" Matins of the first three days, then the Passion services, and finally the Paschal night, with a midnight procession around the church and Matins and the Liturgy sung together in the dark hours.²² Our beginner's guide to the Divine Liturgy explains the service at the heart of that night.

The traditional Lenten fast excludes meat after Meatfare Sunday and eggs and dairy after Cheesefare Sunday. Hopko calls these rules "an ideal to be striven for": "Each person must do his best in the light of the given ideal."²³ The translators of the Lenten Triodion, Mother Mary and Archimandrite Kallistos Ware, add that "Neither in ancient nor in modern times has there ever been exact uniformity," and that "in practice today these rules are commonly relaxed."²⁴ Most families work out their fast with their priest. For why Christians fast at all, see our guide to prayer, fasting and the Jesus Prayer.

The four fasts

The Orthodox Church in America's liturgical outline names four fasting seasons:²⁵

• Great Lent and Holy Week, from the first Monday of Lent to Holy Saturday.
• The Apostles' Fast, ending before Sts. Peter and Paul (June 29). It begins after All Saints' Sunday, so its length changes with Pascha.
• The Dormition Fast, August 1 to 14.
• The Nativity Fast (St. Philip's Fast), November 15 to December 24.

Most Wednesdays and Fridays are also fast days, as are the Eve of Theophany, the Beheading of St. John the Baptist and the Exaltation of the Cross. Some weeks are fast-free, such as the days after Christmas and Bright Week after Pascha. The outline itself notes "many local variations in the allowances of wine and oil (and sometimes fish)."²⁶ On how old the Wednesday and Friday fast is, see Fasting Was Ordinary Christian Practice.

Old calendar and new calendar

In May 1923 a congress in Constantinople, called by Patriarch Meletios IV, considered a Revised Julian calendar proposed by the Serbian scientist Milutin Milanković. The congress dropped thirteen days (Julian October 1, 1923 was to become October 14, though each church changed over on its own date) and adopted a leap-year rule that matches the Gregorian calendar until 2800. The congress also proposed an astronomical rule for Pascha, which the churches did not adopt.²⁷ One critic of the change notes that Antioch and Jerusalem sent no delegates, Alexandria did not reply, and Bulgaria was not invited.²⁸

The result today, in broad terms (some dioceses and parishes differ from their mother church):

• Revised Julian ("new calendar") for fixed feasts: among others, the churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria (from 1968), and most of the Orthodox Church in America. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine switched from September 1, 2023.²⁹³⁰
• Julian ("old calendar") throughout: among others, the churches of Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Georgia and Poland, and the monasteries of Mount Athos. Their Christmas, Julian December 25, falls on January 7 of the civil calendar.³¹³²
• Pascha: both groups keep the Julian Paschalion and celebrate together. The Orthodox Church of Finland is the best-known exception; Metropolitan Ambrosius of Oulu wrote in 2001 that "the Orthodox and Lutherans have experienced the power of the Resurrection on a common date of Easter since the early 1920s."³³

In Greece and elsewhere the change produced Old Calendarist groups that broke from their own churches. Between the canonical churches, though, the two calendars have not broken communion.

Honest questions

"Isn't the old calendar simply out of date?"

Supporters of the new calendar say the Julian calendar is inaccurate, that Nicaea used the best science of its day, and that a shared Christmas helps mixed families and minority churches. The 1998 Orthodox-Catholic consultation argued that modern astronomy would "allow our churches to adhere more exactly to the mode of calculation mandated by the First Council of Nicaea."³⁴

Defenders of the old calendar answer that accuracy was never the point. Andrew Bond, in an essay posted by a Russian Orthodox parish in Edmonton, writes: "It is indeed fortunate that the liturgical order of the Church does not depend on astronomical accuracy. Far more important to us is the unbroken unity of the Church."³⁵ For them, praying on the same days as the saints before them matters more than precision. No council has settled the question, so believers keep their own church's calendar without condemning the other.

"Why not simply join the Western Easter?"

The usual Orthodox answer is that any change to Pascha must be made by all the Orthodox churches together, since splitting Orthodox Pascha would be worse than differing from the West. The 1997 Aleppo proposal to recalculate the Nicene rule astronomically at the meridian of Jerusalem was welcomed by ecumenical dialogues but has not been adopted.³⁶

What we can say confidently

• Pascha is the center of the Orthodox year; the Twelve Great Feasts and four fasts are arranged around it and the fixed calendar.
• {{strong: Nicaea (325) required one common Sunday for Pascha, independent of the Jewish calculation, as its synodal letter and Constantine's letter attest.}}
• No Nicene canon on Pascha survives, and the council did not fix the detailed method of calculation.
• Lent before Pascha and a "Great Week" were established by the late fourth century.
• Since the 1920s Orthodox churches have differed over the calendar for fixed feasts but, with few exceptions, keep the same Pascha.

What remains disputed or varies

• Whether the ancient ban on keeping Pascha "with the Jews" forbade coinciding with Passover or depending on its calculation; the evidence favors the second, but the first is widely believed.
• Whether the churches should adopt the new calendar or an astronomical Pascha, and who may decide.
• How strictly fasts are kept: rules for wine, oil and fish vary by jurisdiction, monastery and parish, and people follow their priest's guidance.
• Which calendar a parish uses, and local feasts and customs.

Conclusion

The Orthodox calendar can look like a puzzle of dates and rules, but its purpose is simple. It walks the Church through the life of Christ each year and brings everything back to the night when the people sing that Christ has trampled down death by death. Even the debates over Nicaea and the calendar are, in the end, about how best to keep that feast together. If you are new, pick one season, perhaps the Nativity Fast or Holy Week, keep it with a parish, and let the year teach you the rest.

Notes

1. Thomas Hopko, The Orthodox Faith, vol. 2, Worship, "The Church Year: Church Year" (Orthodox Church in America), https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/worship/the-church-year/church-year. Back
2. Hopko, The Orthodox Faith, vol. 2, "Easter Sunday: The Holy Pascha," https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/worship/the-church-year/easter-sunday-the-holy-pascha. Back
3. See note 1 (Hopko). Back
4. Hopko, "The Church Year: Church Year," list of "Major Feasts of the Church," https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/worship/the-church-year/church-year. Back
5. See note 4 (Hopko). Back
6. Herbert Thurston, "Easter Controversy," The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 5 (New York: Robert Appleton, 1909), https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05228a.htm. Back
7. See note 6 (Thurston). Back
8. Archbishop Peter (L'Huillier), "Concerning the Date of Pascha and the 1st Ecumenical Council," Orthodox Church in America, Holy Synod statements, https://www.oca.org/holy-synod/statements/archbishop-peter/concerning-the-date-of-pascha-and-the-1st-ecumenical-council. Back
9. First Council of Nicaea (325), Canon 5 and Synodal Letter, trans. Henry R. Percival, NPNF2 vol. 14, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3801.htm. Back
10. Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.18, trans. Ernest Cushing Richardson, NPNF2 vol. 1, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/25023.htm. Back
11. See note 8 (Archbishop Peter). Back
12. Apostolic Canons, Canon 7 (8 in some numberings), trans. Henry R. Percival, NPNF2 vol. 14, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3820.htm. On the collection's date and Syrian origin, see Archbishop Peter (note 8). Back
13. Synod of Antioch, Canon 1, trans. Henry R. Percival, NPNF2 vol. 14, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3805.htm. New Advent dates the synod to 341; Archbishop Peter argues the paschal canon belongs to an earlier council at Antioch, about ten years before. Back
14. See note 8 (Archbishop Peter). Back
15. North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation, "Common Response to the Aleppo Statement on the Date of Easter/Pascha" (October 1998), https://www.usccb.org/resources/aleppo-response.pdf. Back
16. See note 4 (Hopko). Back
17. "Revised Julian Calendar," OrthodoxWiki, https://orthodoxwiki.org/Revised_Julian_Calendar (citing Milanković's 1924 account). Back
18. AC Wimmer, "Pope Sees 'Providential' Moment as Catholics, Orthodox Hope They Could Celebrate Easter Together in 2025," CNA / National Catholic Register, January 25, 2025, https://www.ncregister.com/cna/pope-sees-providential-moment-as-catholics-orthodox-hope-they-could-celebrate-easter-together-in-2025-u1ly94ip. Back
19. See note 9 (Nicaea, Canons and Synodal Letter). Back
20. Egeria, The Pilgrimage of Etheria, trans. M. L. McClure and C. L. Feltoe (London: SPCK, 1919), "Lent" and "Holy Week," https://archive.org/details/pilgrimageofethe00mccliala. Back
21. Hopko, The Orthodox Faith, vol. 2, "Lenten Fasting," https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/worship/the-church-year/lenten-fasting; on the end of the forty days, "Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday," same series. Back
22. Hopko, The Orthodox Faith, vol. 2, "Holy Week" and "Easter Sunday: The Holy Pascha," https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/worship/the-church-year/holy-week. Back
23. See note 21 (Hopko). Back
24. Orthodox Church in America, "Fasting & Fast-Free Seasons of the Church," https://www.oca.org/liturgics/outlines/fasting-fast-free-seasons-of-the-church, quoting The Lenten Triodion, trans. Mother Mary and Archimandrite Kallistos Ware (London: Faber & Faber, 1978), pp. 35-37. Back
25. See note 24 (OCA, Fasting). Back
26. See note 24 (OCA, Fasting). Back
27. See note 17 (OrthodoxWiki). Back
28. Andrew Bond, "The Calendar Question," posted by St. Vladimir's Russian Orthodox Church, Edmonton, December 27, 2023, https://stvladimirs.ca/the-calendar-question/. Back
29. See note 17 (OrthodoxWiki). OrthodoxWiki gives 1963 for Bulgaria; the change was in 1968: Frank Cranmer, "Refusal to Register a Religious Community: Bulgarian Orthodox Old Calendar Church," Law & Religion UK, May 21, 2021, https://lawandreligionuk.com/2021/05/21/refusal-to-register-a-religious-community-bulgarian-orthodox-old-calendar-church/. Back
30. RFE/RL, "Orthodox Church of Ukraine Approves Calendar Switch in Widening Diversion From Russia," May 24, 2023, https://www.rferl.org/a/orthodox-church-ukraine-approves-calendar-switch-russia/32426292.html. Back
31. See note 17 (OrthodoxWiki). Back
32. TASS, "Factbox: Orthodox Christian World Celebrates Christmas," January 7, 2025, https://tass.com/society/1896621. Back
33. Metropolitan Ambrosius of Oulu, "The Gift of a Common Calendar: Vital to Mission and Witness in Secular Society," World Council of Churches, April 9, 2001, https://oikoumene.org/resources/documents/the-gift-of-a-common-calendar-vital-to-mission-and-witness-in-secular-society. Back
34. See note 15 (Common Response to the Aleppo Statement). Back
35. See note 28 (Bond). Back
36. See note 15 (Common Response to the Aleppo Statement). Back

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Apostolic Canons; First Council of Nicaea, Canons and Synodal Letter; Synod of Antioch, Canons. Trans. Henry R. Percival. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 14. Ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1900. Online at New Advent.
• Egeria. The Pilgrimage of Etheria. Trans. M. L. McClure and C. L. Feltoe. London: SPCK, 1919.
• Eusebius of Caesarea. Life of Constantine. Trans. Ernest Cushing Richardson. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 1. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890. Online at New Advent.
• The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982 (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Orthodox sources

• Ambrosius of Oulu, Metropolitan. "The Gift of a Common Calendar: Vital to Mission and Witness in Secular Society." World Council of Churches, 2001.
• Bond, Andrew. "The Calendar Question." Posted by St. Vladimir's Russian Orthodox Church, Edmonton, 2023.
• Hopko, Thomas. The Orthodox Faith, vol. 2, Worship: "The Church Year" (Church Year; Lenten Fasting; Great Lent; Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday; Holy Week; Easter Sunday: The Holy Pascha). Orthodox Church in America, online edition.
• Orthodox Church in America. "Fasting & Fast-Free Seasons of the Church." Quoting Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware, trans., The Lenten Triodion (London: Faber & Faber, 1978), pp. 35-37.
• Peter (L'Huillier), Archbishop. "Concerning the Date of Pascha and the 1st Ecumenical Council." Orthodox Church in America.
• "Revised Julian Calendar." OrthodoxWiki.

Other scholarship and reporting

• Cranmer, Frank. "Refusal to Register a Religious Community: Bulgarian Orthodox Old Calendar Church." Law & Religion UK, May 21, 2021.
• North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation. "Common Response to the Aleppo Statement on the Date of Easter/Pascha." 1998.
• RFE/RL. "Orthodox Church of Ukraine Approves Calendar Switch in Widening Diversion From Russia." May 24, 2023.
• TASS. "Factbox: Orthodox Christian World Celebrates Christmas." January 7, 2025.
• Thurston, Herbert. "Easter Controversy." The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton, 1909.
• Wimmer, AC. "Pope Sees 'Providential' Moment as Catholics, Orthodox Hope They Could Celebrate Easter Together in 2025." CNA / National Catholic Register, January 25, 2025.