Millions of Christians to Mark Easter This Sunday

Christians throughout the world will celebrate Easter this Sunday.

This may surprise some who thought Easter was last Sunday. And, for Roman Catholics and Protestants, it was. But for more than 450 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, and perhaps 4 million in the United States, Easter Sunday is celebrated a week later this year.

Although the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 established that Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox, under the Orthodox system Easter is always set after the Jewish Passover.

The reason is that Orthodox Christians consider it important to maintain the sequence of events recorded in the Bible. According to New Testament accounts, Jesus celebrated the Passover feast with his apostles the night before he was crucified--the day that Christians commemorate as Good Friday during the week before Easter.

Easter Resurrection services in the Orthodox churches begin on Holy Saturday at 11 p.m. At midnight, the church is completely darkened and the bishop or priest comes forth carrying a white candle, chanting, “Come, receive the light from the unwaning light and glorify Christ who has risen from the dead.”

The light is passed to members of the congregation until the church is ablaze with the glow of candlelight.

For 40 days after Easter, Orthodox Christians greet each other with the words, “Christ is Risen,” and the response is, “Truly he is risen.”