Thank you all for support me during one of the most difficult times in my life, although I did a lot of preparation with converting all those “Busy Bee” diaries into 2026 diaries with Easter Sunday on March 22nd, I knew that from early February onwards (before Shrove Tuesday), I would inevitably see signs for “Easter Sunday – 5th April” which were really triggering for me because it conflicted with my personal Easter date of 22nd March 2026.
I came across a timeanddate.com post yesterday from March 2008, claiming that “Easter 2008 was the earliest in nearly a century” after the previous March 23rd Easter in 1913 - that fact in itself is not entirely true, as Orthodox Easter fell on the Julian date of March 22nd (April 4 NS) in 1915, March 23rd (April 5 NS) in 1942/1953 and March 24th (April 6 NS) in 1980. It even claimed that the next occurrence of March 23rd was in 2160 and the next March 22nd Easter in 2285, again these fact are not entirely true for those following the Julian calendar, as Julian March 22nd occurred just two years later in 2010 and Julian March 23 in 2037 and 2048 so even that timeanddate.com post ignores Orthodox Easter!
In fact, an Orthodox Christian born on 1st September 1913 and dying exactly 100 years later got to see their absolute earliest and second-earliest Easter dates while still in their 20s, their second-earliest date again while still in their 30s (April 5 1953) and their absolute earliest date again in 2010 with many other interesting dates!
Many people believe that 1943 was the last time Easter fell on April 25th, that fact again is false. The Gregorian date of April 25th was the date for Orthodox Easter in 1943, 1954, 1965 and 1976 (corresponding to April 12th on the Julian Calendar) and of course, April 25th was the Julian Calendar date for 1983 (May 8 NS).
Although I envy the Orthodox community due to the fact extremely early and late Easter dates occur more often than in the West, my own March 22nd 2026 celebration has made me realise just how difficult it is for Orthodox Christians in countries like the UK and just how alienating it must be for them for Easter events and eggs to have gone long before their celebrations actually get underway so I really want to help these people.
As I always say, the 5-week date gap in years like 2024 is NOT the issue itself, the real problem is how Western society behaves (such as retailers clearing out Easter treats such as Easter eggs and hot cross buns) and outdoor venues moving on from Easter-related events such as egg trails and hunts once the Western date passes which is exacerbated in such years.
Aside from the UK alone which is primarily a Protestant country, London itself is home to numerous Orthodox Christians and there is even a Greek Orthodox church in my local borough so it’s not as if these churches don’t exist in these countries, rather these holidays are just not officially recognised by the government as the UK as a whole follows Western traditions.
The Republic of Ireland (predominantly a Catholic country), the USA, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia (like the UK) all fail to officially recognise Orthodox and Coptic holidays disadvantaging Orthodox residents living in these regions so this needs to change and is a major secondary aim of this petition, we can make Britain and all these other Western nations a better place for the Orthodox population.
https://www.change.org/p/observance-and-formal-recognition-of-christian-orthodox-holidays - a 2024 petition explaining how the US fails to recognise these holidays.
Albania is one of the few countries in the world to officially recognise and have public holidays for Western and Orthodox Easter, similarly Moldova is one of the few countries to have official public holidays for Christmas on December 25th and Orthodox Christmas. Although seeing the 28th March date in shops will not be a personal trigger, I would also like to see the 2nd May date in addition to the March date as this is more inclusive to the Orthodox community.
Although the primary aim of this petition is to officially move Western Easter to March 22nd within the next 30 years, one of the main reasons I created this petition is to get my very personal and unique story about my Easter celebration on March 22nd 2026 heard by the general public so I felt less alone (which is why I bought all those diaries on Amazon) so thank you all for helping me during one of the most difficult times in my life and my real first name begins with the letter R.
I made my aunt and uncle a personalised 2026 calendar marking own personal Easter/Mothering Sunday/Shrove Tuesday dates and the official Easter dates which I started creating as early as August 2025 and one of the people who received one of my homemade 2026 diaries is a devoted Catholic!
I was born in a boring year (1993) and since then there has been 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2015, 2017, 2020 (despite the COVID lockdown), 2022 and 2023 where neither Western nor Orthodox Easter was within a week of its earliest or latest Easter dates, or the exact middle date!
It would have been the late Queen’s 100th birthday yesterday and her 70-year reign alone contained a wide array of interesting Orthodox Easter dates, include the second-earliest date in the year of her coronation (1953) and the fourth-latest date in the year of her Golden Jubilee (2002).
Despite being in the Land of the Extreme Easter Dates, Athens hosted the Olympics during a “boring year”, 2004!
Apart from my April ordeal this year, generally my least favourite month of the year is August because that’s when you start noticing it getting darker earlier (for me that’s worse than November, January and the darkest December). Most people thing January is the longest month, for me this month has felt like the longest and I will still keep promoting my petition in May, June, July and beyond!
It was those customisable month images that I used to mark March 22nd 2026 as Easter Sunday and I have a timeanddate.com account and customised the page to include my Easter on my preferred date – I was also dreading New Year’s Day 2026 because it would signal the “wrong date” signs in “danger zones” like shops and parks I would inevitably see!
As a homage to the Land of the Extreme Easter Dates, I gave up flushing toilet roll for Lent and used a bin instead during that time (between February 4th and March 21st excluding Sundays)!