The TWO Easters, explanation needed

[1inICXC]

For those celebrating Easter tomorrow, what’s to be done next week which is Holy Week and Easter for the Eastern Churches? Do we celebrate one Good Friday and ignore the other?

Do those belonging to the Eastern Churches not believe that Christ resurrects tomorrow?

Is this completely nonsensical and therefore without a practical answer? If Easter is not just a commemoration of the events, how can there be two seperate celebrations?

 

[juno24]

There are 2 separate celebrations of Holy Week and Easter because the Eastern Churches base their calculation of the date for Easter on the Julian calendar, while the Western Church bases its calculation of the date on the Gregorian calendar. It is not that one or the other is ignoring the actual event (After all, EVERY Sunday is Easter Sunday), but that each has calculated the date of the annual celebration from different starting points.

 

[dnicoll]

The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the northern hemisphere’s vernal equinox.

Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned to be on March 21 (even though the equinox occurs, astronomically speaking, on March 20 in most years), and the “Full Moon” is not necessarily the astronomically correct date. The date of Easter therefore varies between March 22 and April 25.

Eastern Christianity bases its calculations on the Julian calendar whose March 21 corresponds, during the 21st century, to April 3 in the Gregorian calendar, in which the celebration of Easter therefore varies between April 4 and May 8.

There is of course only one Easter - but there are many calendars and ways of measuring time.

 

[Verbum]

Well, the Greeks use our calendar, and the reason Easter does not always fall on the same day is that, like all Eastern Churches, they celebrate this feast on the Sunday after Passover, like it happened when Jesus died and resurrected.

Since there is only one Passover a year, those who use the Julian calendar and those who don’t have Easter on the same day, but at a different liturgical date.

Verbum

 

[GraceSofia]

The Catholics living in Greece and Cyprus have permission from the Holy See to celebrate with the Orthodox when Easter falls on different dates, and have been doing this for 30 or 40 years. Possibly from next year, the Catholics in the Holy Land will celebrate with the Orthodox, too. Next year, the Easters fall 5 weeks apart, which is particularly awkward in mixed communities.

Catholic Church in Holy Land plans switch to Orthodox calendar for Easter

Well, the Greeks use our calendar

Yes, Greeks use the Gregorian calendar, but the Greek Orthodox CHURCH uses the Julian to calculate Easter.

 

[1inICXC]

None of these actually answer my question. Easter is not simply a celebration of the Resurrection like every Sunday. The Church teaches, that in Christ’s mystical body, these events actually reoccur every year. As such, we have no masses on Good Friday ( or if we do they’re with the pre-sanctified Gifts" and on Easter Sunday we proclaim that Christ is Rise, that day!!!

So, for one, that means that Christ’s mystical body goes through the agony twice and that the resurrection also happens twice. This in itself is a huge problem!! But then, do we add nsult to injury by ignoring one or by celebrating both? I simply don’t understand how the Church leaders accept and tolerate this kind of division regarding the DATE OF EASTER no less!

 

[juno24]

None of these actually answer my question. Easter is not simply a celebration of the Resurrection like every Sunday. The Church teaches, that in Christ’s mystical body, these events actually reoccur every year. As such, we have no masses on Good Friday ( or if we do they’re with the pre-sanctified Gifts" and on Easter Sunday we proclaim that Christ is Rise, that day!!!

So, for one, that means that Christ’s mystical body goes through the agony twice and that the resurrection also happens twice. This in itself is a huge problem!! But then, do we add nsult to injury by ignoring one or by celebrating both? I simply don’t understand how the Church leaders accept and tolerate this kind of division regarding the DATE OF EASTER no less!

I guess I do not understand then. Are you saying that the Church teaches that Jesus is recrucified every year? If so, please show some documentation to that effect. If that’s not what you are saying, then please clarify what you mean when you say the Church teaches that “these events reoccur every year”.
In either event, please show something from the Church to clarify what you are asking about. It would probably help me to at least understand your question.

 

[Saintlucy]

I guess I do not understand then. Are you saying that the Church teaches that Jesus is recrucified every year? If so, please show some documentation to that effect. If that’s not what you are saying, then please clarify what you mean when you say the Church teaches that “these events reoccur every year”.
In either event, please show something from the Church to clarify what you are asking about. It would probably help me to at least understand your question.

I am also very confused about this. I have never heard anything of the sort. It sounds like an anti-Catholic tract about Jesus being re-sacrificed at every Mass or Divine Liturgy.

 

[GraceSofia]

I am also very confused about this. I have never heard anything of the sort. It sounds like an anti-Catholic tract about Jesus being re-sacrificed at every Mass or Divine Liturgy.

Ah… this gives me an idea that I hope will be helpful.

The Catechism explains and is beautifully written on this topic, so I will quote rather than use my own words:

**1163 “Holy Mother Church believes that she should celebrate the saving work of her divine Spouse in a sacred commemoration on certain days throughout the course of the year. Once each week, on the day which she has called the Lord’s Day, she keeps the memory of the Lord’s resurrection. She also celebrates it once every year, together with his blessed Passion, at Easter, that most solemn of all feasts. In the course of the year, moreover, she unfolds the whole mystery of Christ. . . . Thus recalling the mysteries of the redemption, she opens up to the faithful the riches of her Lord’s powers and merits, so that these are in some way made present in every age; the faithful lay hold of them and are filled with saving grace.”

1164 From the time of the Mosaic law, the People of God have observed fixed feasts, beginning with Passover, to commemorate the astonishing actions of the Savior God, to give him thanks for them, to perpetuate their remembrance, and to teach new generations to conform their conduct to them. In the age of the Church, between the Passover of Christ already accomplished once for all, and its consummation in the kingdom of God, the liturgy celebrated on fixed days bears the imprint of the newness of the mystery of Christ.

1165 When the Church celebrates the mystery of Christ, there is a word that marks her prayer: “Today!” - a word echoing the prayer her Lord taught her and the call of the Holy Spirit.34 This “today” of the living God which man is called to enter is “the hour” of Jesus’ Passover, which reaches across and underlies all history:

Life extends over all beings and fills them with unlimited light; the Orient of orients pervades the universe, and he who was “before the daystar” and before the heavenly bodies, immortal and vast, the great Christ, shines over all beings more brightly than the sun. Therefore a day of long, eternal light is ushered in for us who believe in him, a day which is never blotted out: the mystical Passover.35

1170 At the Council of Nicaea in 325, all the Churches agreed that Easter, the Christian Passover, should be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon (14 Nisan) after the vernal equinox. Because of the different methods of calculating the 14th day of the month of Nisan, the date of Easter in the Western and Eastern Churches is not always the same. For this reason, the Churches are currently seeking an agreement in order once again to celebrate the day of the Lord’s Resurrection on a common date. **

scborromeo.org/ccc/p2s1c2a1.htm#1168

 

[ConstantineTG]

None of these actually answer my question. Easter is not simply a celebration of the Resurrection like every Sunday. The Church teaches, that in Christ’s mystical body, these events actually reoccur every year. As such, we have no masses on Good Friday ( or if we do they’re with the pre-sanctified Gifts" and on Easter Sunday we proclaim that Christ is Rise, that day!!!

So, for one, that means that Christ’s mystical body goes through the agony twice and that the resurrection also happens twice. This in itself is a huge problem!! But then, do we add nsult to injury by ignoring one or by celebrating both? I simply don’t understand how the Church leaders accept and tolerate this kind of division regarding the DATE OF EASTER no less!

The Church definitely does not teach that Jesus Christ resurrects again every year nor does he goes through the agony again every year. That is the wrong teaching.