Why Is Easter 35 Days Late?
Did you know that there are two Easter dates? One date is 35 days late this year. The reasons are lunar cycles and calendar computations.
Easter 2024 is Sunday, March 31. Easter is also on Sunday, May 5, a difference of five weeks or 35 days. How can this be true?
There are two dates for Easter: Western Christian churches, such as the Roman Catholic Church, celebrate Easter Sunday on March 31, 2024; Eastern churches, like the Greek Orthodox Church, celebrate Orthodox Easter on May 5, 2024. Both holidays celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and both are the most important holiday for each church.
If both holidays are the same, why are they 35 days apart? Because they use different calendars: Western churches calculate their Easter date based on the Gregorian calendar, while Eastern churches use the Julian calendar.
The Julian calendar is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. Since the Orthodox Christian churches use the Julian calendar to calculate Easter, it would only be logical to assume that eastern Easter is 13 days behind the western Easter—both calendars are in sync and both holidays are on a Sunday.
