Second Day in Church

This morning, I went to Church for the second time.

It is Orthodox Palm Sunday, which is different from the Catholic Palm Sunday. Even the Easter holidays are not the same. This itself is a clear indication that there is a deep division between the Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic Churches. Apparently, we can't even agree on when to celebrate Easter.

The Easter date is based on a formula, and there are some complicated interpretations of the Easter formula.

The formula is - The first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox.

Both Easter and Western Christian Churches agree that this is the correct formula; however they use different calendars. The Western Church uses the Gregorian Calendar to calculator the date of Easter, and the Easter Church uses the Julian Calendar. Most of the world uses the Gregorian Calendar which says that:

" an ordinary year consists of 365 days. A leap year of 366 days occurs in every year whose number is exactly divisible by 4 except centenary years whose numbers are not exactly divisible by 400, as 1700, 1800, and 1900."

The Julian Calendar states that:

"established by Julius Caesar in 46 b.c., fixing the length of the year at 365 days and at 366 days every fourth year. There are 12 months of 30 or 31 days, except for February (which has 28 days with the exception of every fourth year, or leap year, when it has 29 days)."

In order to arrive at the Easter date, the formula considers ecclesiastical moons, paschal full moons, astronomical equinox, and the fixed equinox plus the differences between the two calendars. (I am actually lost at this point). The two Churches have different definitions of vernal equinox. The Eastern Church uses the actual, astronomical full moon and the actual equinox as observed along the meridian of Jerusalem, which is the site of the Ressurrection and Cruxifiction.

Why are there two Easters? Really, it's because the Eastern Orthodoxy has maintained the old and traditional way of calculating Easter, while the Western Churches use the modified Gregorian Calendar. There was an attempt to reconcile the two ways of calculating Easter, but nothing really came of it.

I sent an email to the Father of the Church inquiring about our meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to go over the procedures in becoming a catechumen and then an Orthodox. With my husband and my busy schedule, I hope he is flexible enough to accommodate us.