Pascha

The Feast of Feasts, the Resurrection of Christ, and with it the raising of the whole human race.

Pascha, Orthodox Easter, is the feast of the Resurrection of Christ, which the Church calls the Feast of Feasts. It falls on a spring Sunday reckoned by the older Julian rule, so it is often later than Western Easter, and its date sets the whole moveable year, from the Triodion to Pentecost.

Also called the Feast of Feasts, Orthodox Easter.

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Pascha is not one feast among many; it is the feast the whole year turns on. On this night the Church proclaims that Christ, having died on the Cross, has risen from the tomb, and that death itself, the last enemy, has been trampled down. Everything the Old Testament carried and everything the Gospels record is gathered into this single announcement: He is risen.

The name is the Greek Pascha, from the Hebrew Pesach, the Passover: as Israel was led out of Egypt through the sea, so Christ leads humanity out of death through His own rising. The Church keeps the feast not as the memory of a distant event but as a present reality entered again each year, the midnight service, the procession, the cry “Christ is risen!” answered by “Truly He is risen!”

The date of Pascha moves. It is reckoned from the paschalion, the ancient rule that sets it on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox, computed on the Julian reckoning shared by the whole Orthodox Church. Because the date is calculated, not fixed, every other movable feast of the year, Palm Sunday, the Ascension, Pentecost, is measured from it.

Pascha is not a single day but a season. The feast opens a period of forty days of rejoicing, during which the paschal greeting continues and the faithful do not kneel, for it is the season of the Resurrection.

Questions about Pascha

What does Pascha mean?

Pascha means Passover. Pascha (Πάσχα) is the Greek form, through Aramaic, of the Hebrew Pesach, the feast that remembers Israel's Exodus from Egypt. St Paul applies the word to Christ: "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Corinthians 5:7, King James Version). The Church keeps the Resurrection as its Passover, the passing over from death to life.

When is Orthodox Easter?

On the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, reckoned by the rule of the Julian calendar. On the civil calendar that places it between April 4 and May 8.

What is the Paschal greeting?

"Christ is risen!", answered "Truly He is risen!" It is used in the services and among the faithful from Pascha until the leave-taking of the feast, the day before the Ascension.

Why is Orthodox Easter often later than Western Easter?

The West reckons Easter by the Gregorian calendar, the Orthodox Church by the older Julian rule. Some years the two fall on the same Sunday; otherwise the Orthodox Pascha comes one, four or five weeks later.

Is there fasting after Pascha?

No. Bright Week, the week after Pascha, is fast-free, even on Wednesday and Friday.

Is Pascha the same as Easter?

Yes. Pascha is the feast English calls Easter: the Resurrection of Christ. The English word Easter comes from Old English, while Greek and Latin call the feast Pascha, and most languages name it from that word. The date often differs, because the Orthodox Church reckons Pascha by the older Julian rule: some years it falls on the same Sunday as Western Easter, otherwise one, four or five weeks later.

What are the readings for Pascha?

For the feast:

The Epistle is Acts 1.1-8 and the Gospel is John 1.1-17.
At Vespers, the reading is John 20.19-25 (Gospel).

What is the troparion of Pascha?

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down Death by death, and upon those in the tomb bestowing life.

More questions about the Orthodox Church, answered ›

The troparion of the feast

“Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down Death by death, and upon those in the tomb bestowing life.”

Troparion · Hapgood, Service Book (1906) · public domain

In Orthros

Orthros carries Paschal dates and its liturgical calendar offline, with the selected calendar shown. The Paschal hours and the readings of the season are kept in the app, each with its source shown.