Most Christians around the world began observing this year’s Lent on February 14, 2024, but Christians in denominations that follow the Julian calendar will celebrate the 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 discrepancy is due to differences in how churches calculate holidays, which change each year, Proto-Deacon Patrick Mitchell told FOX News Digital.
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Mitchell is chief deacon of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Washington, D.C.
Mitchell said there are other differences in how the Orthodox Church observes Lent compared to other denominations.
Patrick Mitchell, deacon of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital why Orthodox Christians (usually) have a different date for Easter than other Christians. (Courtesy of Brian Patrick Mitchell/iStock)
“We’ll start it on the Monday after ‘Forgiveness Sunday,'” he told Fox News Digital in a phone interview.
The Orthodox Church also “counts days differently,” but “both are roughly the same length: 40 days.”
Mitchell said practices around fasting during Lent also vary by faith.
While Catholics are obligated to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays during Lent, Orthodox Christians observe a much stricter fast.
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“It’s more like a typical fasting where you cut out meat and dairy,” he says. “Of course, it depends on people’s abilities. I don’t think anyone expects kids to keep going this fast.”
But because so many people do it, he said, the celebration of Easter (called Pasha, the Greek word for Passover) becomes “quite an event.”
In Orthodoxy, it is tradition to fast from all animal products during Lent. (St. Petersburg)
Mitchell said the Pasha date is a unifying factor for the world’s Orthodox Church.
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“There are many Orthodox churches on the calendar, but we all celebrate Pasha on the lunar calendar,” he said.
There are over 200 million Orthodox Christians around the world. (iStock, provided by user Tsyb Oleg)
Easter, he said, is “the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.”
The Church uses the Julian calendar, which is 13 days later than the Gregorian calendar used in most countries around the world.
In some cases, the date of Easter is the same in both calendars. This has happened most recently 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, worldly things, that we don’t want to engage in,” Mitchell says.
“We are spending more time in church, praying, and reading better books than usual.”
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He added: “In order to maintain a more peaceful attitude, we strive to avoid unnecessary arguments and disputes during Lent.”
“It’s about focusing more on the resurrection, the love of Christ, and our salvation.”
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