There is no event in the Orthodox Christian calendar that approaches what happens at midnight on Holy Saturday. The church stands in total darkness. The faithful wait in silence. And then, from a single candle held by the priest, a flame passes from person to person until the entire building, and then the street outside, is alive with light. “Christ is risen!” the priest cries out. “He is risen indeed!” the people thunder back. It is the most joyful moment in the Orthodox year, and it has been enacted this way, in essentially the same form, for nearly two thousand years.
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What Is Pascha?
In the Orthodox Church, the feast of Easter is officially called Pascha, a word meaning the Passover. It is the new Passover of the new and everlasting covenant: the eternal Passover from death to life and from earth to heaven. It is the Day of the Lord, the day of His final and everlasting victory, the Day of the Kingdom of God, which has no night, for its light is the Lamb.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the centre of the Orthodox Christian faith. Twelve weeks of preparation precede it, made up of pre-Lenten Sundays, Great Lent, and Holy Week. The faithful try to make this long journey with repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and study.
The word Easter itself, used widely in English, carries complicated etymological baggage, possibly derived from a pagan goddess of spring. Pascha is taken from Passover, the Jewish feast on which the true Paschal Lamb, Jesus Christ, was offered for the sins of the world. This is why many Orthodox Christians, particularly in the English-speaking world, prefer the word Pascha, and why the Greek greeting Christos Anesti (“Christ is risen”) and the Slavic Khristos Voskrese carry such weight.
The Ancient History of the Feast
The celebration of the Resurrection is as old as Christianity itself. From the very first generations of the Church, the community gathered each week on the first day, “the Day of the Lord”, specifically because it was the day of the Resurrection. But an annual, heightened celebration grew around it almost immediately.
The celebration of Pascha has roots deeply embedded in Jewish history, directly connected to the Jewish festival of Passover, commemorating the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt and their liberation from slavery. The Gospels of the New Testament place the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus around the time of the Passover festival. In those early years, early Christians were mostly Jewish and observed Passover, infusing it with a new layer of significance.
The dating of Easter has always been a complicated issue, going all the way back to the second century. At that time, the main divide was between those who celebrated on precisely the 14th day of Nisan, the Jewish Passover, and those who celebrated on the Sunday following the 14th of Nisan. This variance came to a head at the first Council of Nicaea in AD 325, when that assembly of bishops decided to regulate the celebration to always occur on a Sunday. A 19-year cycle of celestial calculations was developed, and this cycle, connected with the Julian calendar, has remained in use in the East.
Initially, Christians celebrated Pascha near the Jewish Passover, but as time passed the Church adopted the formula that Pascha would be the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox after the Jewish Passover. The universally accepted dating held until the Western Church adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1582, and the Orthodox world chose not to follow.
Why Orthodox Easter Falls on a Different Date
This is one of the most frequently asked questions about the Orthodox faith, and the answer lies in calendrical history. The Orthodox Church continues to base its calculations for the date of Pascha on the Julian Calendar, which was in use at the time of the First Ecumenical Council. As such, it does not take into account the thirteen-day difference between the Julian and Gregorian Calendars. Practically speaking, this means that Pascha may not be celebrated before 3rd April which was 21st March, the date of the vernal equinox, at the time of the First Ecumenical Council.
The result is that Orthodox Pascha can fall anywhere from one to five weeks after Western Easter, sometimes coinciding with it. All Orthodox Churches continue to calculate Easter according to the dates of the Old Calendar, meaning all Orthodox Churches observe Pascha on the same day, regardless of other calendar differences between them. In 2026, Orthodox Easter falls on Sunday, 12th April.
The Journey to Pascha: Forty-Eight Days of Preparation
Nothing in Orthodox liturgical life stands alone. Pascha is the destination of a journey that begins nearly twelve weeks before, with pre-Lenten Sundays of fasting preparation, then the forty days of Great Lent, and finally the concentrated intensity of Holy Week. The ten weeks before Pascha are known as the period of the Triodion, referring to the liturgical book that contains the services for this liturgical season.
The fast of Great Lent is among the strictest in Christianity, no meat, no dairy, no oil on most days, and no wine except on weekends. It is a bodily discipline that mirrors and supports an inner discipline of prayer, confession, and almsgiving. The fast does not end until the Paschal service begins. After weeks of restraint and solemnity, the explosion of joy at Pascha is not merely symbolic; it is physical, immediate, and overwhelming.
The Eve of Pascha: Darkness Before the Dawn
The divine services of the night of Pascha commence near midnight of Holy Saturday. At the Ninth Ode of the Canon of Nocturn, the priest, already vested in his brightest robes, removes the Holy Shroud from the tomb and carries it to the altar table, where it remains until the leave-taking of Pascha. The faithful stand in darkness.
This moment, the standing in darkness, is one of the most powerful liturgical images in all of Christianity. The church has been stripped of its Lenten austerity. The black vestments of Great Friday are gone. But the lights are out, and the people wait.
Then, one by one, they light their candles from the candle held by the priest and form a great procession out of the church. Choir, servers, priest and people, led by the bearers of the cross, banners, icons and Gospel book, circle the church. The bells are rung incessantly, and the angelic hymn of the resurrection is chanted.
This procession of the Christians on Easter night recalls the original baptismal procession from the darkness and death of this world to the light and the life of the Kingdom of God. It is the procession of the holy Passover: from death unto life, from earth unto heaven, from this age to the age to come, which will never end.
The Proclamation at the Closed Doors
The procession returns to the front of the church, and the doors are shut. The faithful stand outside in the darkness, their candles burning, the bells still ringing. And then it happens.
It is here that the Resurrection is proclaimed, sometimes with the Gospel reading of the empty tomb. The priest blesses the holy, consubstantial, life-creating and undivided Trinity, and for the first time, the joyous Easter troparion is sung: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!”
The doors are opened, and the faithful re-enter. The church is bathed in light and adorned with flowers, the heavenly bride and the symbol of the empty tomb. The vestments are now the bright robes of the Resurrection. The Easter icon stands in the centre of the church, showing Christ destroying the gates of hell and freeing Adam and Eve from the captivity of death, the image of the Victor “trampling down death by his own death.”
At the stroke of midnight, churches are plunged into darkness before being illuminated by the light of the Paschal candle, symbolising the Resurrection’s light. The contrast is total, deliberate, and devastating in its beauty.
The Paschal Matins: A Service of Pure Song
There is the continual singing and censing of the icons and the people, with the constant proclamation of the celebrant: “Christ is risen!” The faithful continually respond: “Indeed He is risen!” Everything is sung, nothing merely recited, in the Orthodox Church services of Pascha, representative of the complete joy of the occasion.
Following the entrance into the church, the Paschal canon ascribed to St John of Damascus is chanted with the Paschal troparion as the constantly recurring refrain. Matins ends with the Paschal stichera: “O day of resurrection! Let us beam with God’s own pride! Let everyone embrace in joy! Let us warmly greet those we meet and treat them all like brothers, even those who hate us! Let all the earth resound with this song: Christ is risen from the dead, conquering death by death, and on those in the grave bestowing life!”
The Sermon of Saint John Chrysostom
Before the Divine Liturgy begins, one of the most remarkable moments in the entire Orthodox liturgical year takes place, the reading of the Paschal Sermon of Saint John Chrysostom, the great fourth-century Archbishop of Constantinople.
The sermon was originally composed as a baptismal instruction. It is retained by the Church in the Paschal services because everything about the night of Pascha recalls the Sacrament of Baptism, the language and general terminology of the liturgical texts, the specific hymns, the vestment colour, the use of candles and the great procession itself. Now the sermon invites a great reaffirmation of baptism: to union with Christ in the receiving of Holy Communion.
The words of the sermon are among the most celebrated in all of Christian literature. According to the tradition of the Church, no one sits during the reading of the Paschal homily, and portions of it are often done with the interactive participation of the congregation. It opens with a sweeping invitation: “If any man be devout and love God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast… the table is fully laden; feast ye all sumptuously… Let no one fear death, for the Saviour’s death has set us free.”
The Divine Liturgy and Holy Communion
The Liturgy of St John Chrysostom continues as usual. Holy Communion has, again and again, the troparion of the Resurrection sung while the faithful partake. To Orthodox Christians, receiving communion on Easter Sunday is very important. Many parishes take the Paschal Sermon of St John Chrysostom literally and commune all Orthodox Christians who are in attendance.
To the Orthodox, the celebration of Pascha reveals the mystery of the eighth day. It is not merely an historical reenactment of the event of Christ’s Resurrection. It is a way to experience the new creation of the world, a taste of the new and unending day of the Kingdom of God.
The Paschal Greeting and Bright Week
From the moment the Resurrection is proclaimed, a new way of greeting one another sweeps through the Orthodox world. In Orthodox churches, the greeting “Christ is risen!” and the response “Truly He is risen!” are exchanged, reflecting the joyous and communal nature of the celebration. In Greek it is Christos Anesti, Alithos Anesti. In Russian and Serbian, Khristos Voskrese, Voistinu Voskrese. In Arabic, Al-Masih Qam, Haqqan Qam. The same proclamation, in dozens of languages, rippling across the world.
The new day is conveyed to the faithful in the length of the Paschal services, in the repetition of the Paschal order for all the services of Bright Week, and in the special Paschal features retained in the services for the forty days until Ascension. The entire week following Pascha, Bright Week, is treated as a single extended feast day. Fasting is completely suspended. The Royal Doors of the iconostasis, which are ordinarily closed for much of the service, remain open throughout the entire week as a symbol of paradise opened by the Resurrection.
The Agape Vespers on Sunday afternoon includes the proclamation of the Gospel to all the ends of the earth, symbolised by the reading of the Gospel in various languages from the four corners of the church building.
How the World Celebrates: Food, Eggs, and the Breaking of the Fast
After weeks of strict Lenten fasting, the Paschal feast is a genuine, bodily rejoicing. The faithful also exchange red-dyed eggs. The egg symbolises the renovated life received through the Blood of Christ.
Around the Orthodox world, specific traditions have evolved that give Pascha its distinctive local character. In Greece, families roast lamb on a spit and crack red-dyed eggs, symbolising the blood of Christ and new life. In Russia, Orthodox Easter is celebrated with a midnight church service, joyful chants of “Christ is Risen,” and the blessing of festive foods like kulich (a tall, sweet bread) and paskha (a rich cheese dessert). In Lebanon, families gather for festive meals of stuffed turkey or chicken, and offer traditional sweets like maamoul cookies and sugared almonds. In Crete, villages prepare a bonfire to burn an effigy of Judas Iscariot, symbolising the triumph of good over evil.
Another tradition at the feast of Pascha is the consecration of a bread stamped with the image of the Cross or of the Resurrection, named Artos. This special bread is consecrated at the close of the Paschal Liturgy in memory of the Risen Christ, Who is the Bread of Life Eternal descended from Heaven. On the following Saturday, after the Liturgy, it is broken and distributed to the faithful.
The Theological Heart of It All
Beneath every candle, every red egg, every shouted greeting, every hymn of the Paschal night lies a single, total claim: that death has been defeated. Not softened. Not overcome in some metaphorical sense. Defeated, emptied of its power, by the God who entered into it and came out the other side.
It is not a dramatic representation of the first Easter morning. There is no “sunrise service.” The Easter Matins and the Divine Liturgy are celebrated together in the first dark hours of the first day of the week in order to give the faithful the experience of the “new creation” of the world, and to allow them to enter mystically into the New Jerusalem which shines eternally with the glorious light of Christ, overcoming the perpetual night of evil and destroying the darkness of this mortal and sinful world.
Shine! Shine! O New Jerusalem! The glory of the Lord has shone upon you! Exult and be glad, O Zion!
For the Orthodox Christian, Pascha is not a day. It is an experience of eternity breaking into time,, the moment when the sealed tomb opens, the darkness gives way, a flame passes from hand to hand through a crowd of waiting people, and the whole Church, from Greece to Russia, from Serbia to Lebanon, from America to Australia, erupts as one into the ancient cry:
Christos Anesti. Christ is risen.
Orthodox Easter, Holy Pascha, is observed on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox, calculated according to the Julian calendar. In 2026, it falls on Sunday, 12 April.
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