Orthodox Holy Saturday – April 19, 2025

History of Orthodox Holy Saturday

Orthodox Holy Saturday is the day between the death of Jesus and his resurrection. Many Orthodox churches ponder the mystery of Jesus Christ’s ascension into Hell, the world of the dead, as part of their worship. As told in the account of Christ’s death and resurrection, death is ultimately vanquished from the inside out. Observant anticipation leads to delight on this day, which marks the transformation of grief into celebration. Holy Saturday is considered to be a component of the Easter season, which is commemorated by both Orthodox and Western churches, however, the dates of Easter vary from one church to the next.

Even after the Council of Nicaea established Easter as a universal celebration for churches around the world in 325 A.D., not all Christian churches commemorated Easter according to the Gregorian calendar, which was first used in 1582. Many Orthodox churches still observe Easter according to the Julian calendar, which is used by the Romans. To accommodate this, the Orthodox Easter season takes place later than the traditional Easter period, which comes around the time of the March equinox.

There is a rift in Orthodox circles between New Calendarists, those who use the revised Julian calendar to calculate the feasts of the ecclesiastical year, and Old Calendarists, those who continue to use the original Julian calendar as a result of the revision of the Julian calendar. Several proposals have been made to change the date of Easter. The World Council of Churches recommended a reform in 1997 to address the Easter date disparity between churches that use the Gregorian calendar and churches that use the Julian calendar. The plan was turned down. There has been no implementation of this reform as of yet.