While most of the world’s Christians were beginning their observance of Lent This year, on February 14, 2024, those whose faiths follow the Julian calendar will observe their first day of Lent on March 18, 2024.
These include, but are not limited to, Orthodox Christians, Coptic Christians, and some Eastern Catholic churches.
The reason for the inconsistency, Protodeacon Patrick Mitchell told Fox News Digital, is due to differences in how churches calculate feast dates that change each year.
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Mitchell is protodeacon of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Washington, D.C.
There are other differences in how Orthodox Church observes Lent compared to other faiths, Mitchell said.
Protodeacon Patrick Mitchell of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Washington, D.C., explained to Fox News Digital why Orthodox Christians (usually) have a different date for Easter than other Christians. (Courtesy of Brian Patrick Mitchell/iStock)
“We start the Monday after Forgiveness Sunday,” he told Fox News Digital in a phone interview.
The Orthodox Church also “counts days differently,” but “they are both about the same length: 40 days.”
The customs surrounding fast during Lent are also different across denominations, Mitchell said.
While Catholics are obligated to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays during Lent, Orthodox Christians observe a much stricter fast.
“It’s pretty much a general fast from meat and dairy,” he said. “Of course it depends on what people are capable of doing. I don’t think anyone expects kids to stay that fast.”
But, he says, many people do it – which makes celebrating Easter (called “Pascha,” which is the Greek word for “Passover”) “quite an event.”
In Orthodoxy, it is traditional to fast from all animal products during Lent. (iStock)
The date of Easter is a unifying factor for the world’s Orthodox churches, Mitchell said.
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“Even though there are many Orthodox churches on the calendar, we all celebrate Easter according to the old calendar,” he said.
There are more than 200 million Orthodox Christians worldwide. (iStock, courtesy of user Tsyb Oleg)
Easter, he said, is “the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox,” he said.
The Church uses the Julian calendar, which is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar – which is used by most countries around the world.
Sometimes the Easter date is the same for both calendars. This last happened in 2017 and will happen again in 2025.
During Lent, Orthodox Christians place special emphasis on forgiveness and remain focused on the upcoming Easter.
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Lent “often means fasting from a lot of other activities that we might not want to participate in — just worldly things,” Mitchell said.
“We’re just spending more time in church, more time in prayer, and reading better things than we normally could.”
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Additionally, “we try to avoid any unnecessary disputes or controversies during Lent in order to preserve a more peaceful attitude,” he said.
“Focus more on the resurrection, on the love of Christ and on our salvation.”
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