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When I lived in Romania, I often got homesick during the Christmas holidays. But once we moved back to the States, Corina and I often got homesick for Romania around Easter.

Spending five Easters in Romania has had a profound effect on me theologically. I now recognize (in a way I did not before) the importance of Jesus’ resurrection as the central event of human history and the crux of the Christian faith.

The Church Calendar

Part of what makes Easter special in Romania is the time of spiritual preparation that precedes the holiday. Most evangelical churches in America celebrate Christmas, Good Friday and Easter. Many churches choose not to meet on Christmas Day (unless it falls on a Sunday). Most of the other “Sunday” celebrations are secular, such as Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.

Liturgical traditions (such as the Eastern Orthodox Church) have a calendar replete with important church events:

  • In January, Romanians celebrate Jesus’ baptism.
  • Usually in February or March, the Lenten fast begins.
  • The Thursday night of Holy Week brings the church together in solemn remembrance of the Lord’s Supper.
  • Good Friday services are held both in the morning and evening.
  • No services are held on “The Saturday of Silence.”
  • The Orthodox church holds an Easter vigil at midnight, and Easter services are held twice on Sunday and twice on Monday.
  • The Sundays following Easter continue to focus on the Resurrection of Jesus.
  • 40 days after Easter, the Ascension is celebrated.
  • Just a little over a week after the Ascension, on the 50th day after Easter, the church devotes two full days of worship (Sunday and Monday) to Pentecost – commemorating the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Christian church.

Although bypassing most of the less-important events, the evangelical churches in Romania hold tightly to the Orthodox church calendar when it comes to celebrating Christmas, Jesus’ baptism, Easter, the Ascension and Pentecost. Many evangelicals choose to keep the Lenten or Advent fasts. Thus, the evangelical church of Romania takes what is best from the liturgical tradition and still maintains a strong free-church style of worship.

Growing up in America, Christmas always seemed like the biggest holiday of the year. I was not accustomed to celebrating holidays like Jesus’ Baptism, the Ascension, or Pentecost. The Romanian celebration of other important events deepened my appreciation for major moments for the Christian church.

Before moving to Romania, I had never reflected on how the church orders its time. I had never thought about why Pentecost is such an important date. Neither had I given much thought to Jesus’ Ascension or to the spiritual significance of his baptism. But it was the Romanian emphasis on Easter that gave shape to my understanding of Jesus as the Conquering King.

Why Two Dates?

The Eastern Church and Western Church have separate dates for Easter. Occasionally, Easter falls on the same Sunday (in 2010 and 2011, we will celebrate together), but usually the celebrations are separated by a week or two. This means that in any given year, you might find Roman Catholic Hungarians in the area celebrating Easter one Sunday, while the Orthodox Romanians might be celebrating a week or two later. In 2005, the dates were spread very far apart: the Western churches celebrated on March 27 and the Orthodox churches on May 1.

Romanian evangelicals go with the majority of Romanians and choose to celebrate with the Orthodox. But Romanian evangelical churches in the West (in the United States or Great Britain) generally celebrate together with the majority of Christians in their area.

Why the different dates? Both the Eastern and Western churches claim to celebrate Easter on “the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox.” The problem is that Western church uses the Gregorian calendar to establish this Sunday, while the Eastern church uses the older, Julian calendar. When the different definitions of “vernal equinox” and “full moon” are taken into consideration, it is no wonder that the two church traditions do not come to a mutual understanding.

Furthermore, the Orthodox Church always places Easter after the Jewish Passover, which means that the date may sometimes be the first Sunday in May. Easter observance in the Western Church often precedes the Passover by weeks.

For me, the only downside to Easter in Romania was not always being able to celebrate on the same Sunday with my friends and family back in the States. Aside from the difference in dates, Easter quickly became my favorite Sunday of the year.

Tomorrow, I’ll write about my experience at an Eastern Orthodox midnight Easter vigil.

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