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Easter
Pascha / Orthodox Easter
Also called: Resurrection of Christ, Feast of Feasts, Anastasis
12 April 2026
Eastern Orthodox
Orthodox Easter — called Pascha — is often a week or two after the Easter you get off school, because Orthodox churches calculate the date using the older Julian calendar. At midnight, churches go dark, then a single candle lights thousands more as the priest shouts 'Christ is Risen!' Feasting follows weeks of strict fasting; in Greece and Russia it is the biggest celebration of the year.
Same event as Western Easter — different calendar, just like families celebrating New Year on different dates.
At a glance
- Type
- feast
- Date type
- Moveable (changes with Easter)
- Regions
- Eastern Christianity
- Themes
- Resurrection
- Liturgical colour
- White, Gold, Red
Common questions
Pascha is observed on 12 April 2026. Moveable feasts shift each year; fixed feasts stay on the same calendar date.
In Eastern Orthodoxy, Pascha (Orthodox Easter) is not merely the most important feast — it is described as "the Feast of Feasts," standing apart from and above all the Twelve Great Feasts. The Paschal service begins at midnight on Holy Saturday, with the lighting of the Paschal candle and the proclamation "Christ is Risen!" (Christos Anesti! / Khristos Voskrese!), to which the congregation responds "Truly He is Ris
It is associated with Eastern Orthodox. It falls in the Easter season of the liturgical year.
