As the Coptic Orthodox Church is celebrating the Holy Week reaching Easter on Sunday, many people wonder why the church is late celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ since the Catholic Church usually celebrate Easter 13 days earlier.
There are mainly two reasons behind such difference. The first reason is the calendar since the Christian Orthodox Church continues to follow the Julian calendar when calculating the date of Easter, while the rest of Christianity uses the Gregorian calendar and the difference comes here since the Julian calendar is 13 days behind the Gregorian.
Second, the First Ecumenical Council, held in Nicea in 325 AD, set a rule, which requires that Pascha must take place after the Jewish Passover in order to maintain the Biblical sequence of Christ s Passion. The Orthodox Churches continue to follow this rule, while the rest of Christians ignores it.
I think it is time to consider a unified date for celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and let the Christian family celebrate the feast together truly as one body.
