It’s so unfair!
The last time Orthodox Easter fell on its earliest possible date (April 4th/March 22nd Old Style) was just 16 years ago in 2010, and will fall on its second-earliest date (April 5th/March 23rd Old Style) in just 11 years time (2037) and 11 years after that in 2048.
As well as the second-earliest date occurring twice within the next 30 years, Orthodox Easter will also fall on its second-latest (2051) and third-latest (2040) dates within that specific time period, so ITS NOT FAIR!
Given an average human lifespan of 80 years, an Orthodox Christian born in 1975 and dying in 2055 will witness their Easter on their earliest, second-earliest and third-earliest dates (Julian March 22nd/23rd/24th) as well as their latest, second-latest and third-latest dates (Julian April 23rd/24th/25th) so they have a fulfilling life of “extreme” Easter dates that we can’t equally experience!
Moreover Easter’s third-earliest date (March 24th) has a gap of almost 500 years between the years 1940 and 2391, yet Orthodox Christians have a significantly shorter gap between April 6th/March 24th O.S in 1980 and April 7th/March 24th O.S in the year 2143 with another “Orthodox March 22nd” in the meantime. The earliest Orthodox date occurs on average once per century so it’s no illusion, extremely early dates ARE much more common for the Greek Orthodox Church!
Not Western Christians get to experience Easter on its latest date either, indeed there are many people born after 1944 who are already dead, for example the late singer Chris Rea (who died aged 74 shortly before Christmas 2025).
For me, the real “salt on an open would” is that an Orthodox Christian born in 1982 and dying in 2011 would have experienced both their earliest and latest dates before dying at the age of just 29!
The year 2035 problem, a “double whammy”:
Taking on another forthcoming issue year 2035 (nine years from now) is going to cause significant problems for a growing number of Orthodox Christians in the UK with numbers expected to rise. Not only is there a massive five-week gap between the Protestant/Catholic and Orthodox Easter dates (meaning Easter eggs will have long been removed from shops, but there is also no bank holiday either for Orthodox Easter Monday on April 30th), leaving those Orthodox Christians ”forgotten” and “ignored”!
Many Orthodox Christians residing in the United States have already created petitions on this website about taking school off for their religious observances and the US (like the UK) fails to recognise Orthodox Christian holidays!
While the primary focus of this campaign is to force policymakers to create a March 22nd Easter within the next 30 years, its secondary purpose (ahead of 2027) is to highlight the lack of recognition for Orthodox Easter in English-speaking countries such as the UK, the USA, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia - the tertiary purpose of this campaign is to raise awareness about autism.
I also believe the Christmas break for UK schools should be extended to allow for Orthodox Christmas on January 7th (with an extra week of school in the summer holidays for Orthodox Christians to catch up) and that the early May bank holiday should be moveable and always land on Orthodox Easter Monday (with the late May bank holiday unchanged) so UK Orthodox Christians, this petition is for you too!