Only a few more days until this awful and horrible Alice in Wonderland month is over!
MAY I thank you all, my QUARTER THOUSAND signers, for signing my deeply personal, poignant and beautiful campaign. It has truly helped me get through a really difficult spring which I had been very anxious about, as well as my 2010 Alice in Wonderland bedsheets I received for Christmas.
Although my addiction to promoting this petition has been costly, it has been absolutely worth all the money as it has allowed me to make March 22nd 2026 an “official” date for Easter and for me, ultimately, to get my story about celebrating Easter on March 22nd 2026 heard and known.
For me, a man whose real first name begins with R, has a February birthday, is a talented musician and an aspiring horticulturist; this campaign is much more than urging governments and religious authorities to move the official date of Easter Sunday to March 22nd in 2043, 2054 or 2065. It has been a way to share my story about celebrating Easter on 22nd March 2026 (a date no church officially recognises) to the world so it was the awful feeling of being in an isolated and almost non-existent minority that nobody else knew about that was the real struggle (being just 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of all Christians celebrating Easter on March 22nd 2026) beside my date fixation so simply by creating this petition and sharing my story, I have made 2026 the Year of Three Easters!
This April has been a crisis month, I’ve needed counselling sessions, this has been just as difficult as a bereavement and I couldn’t sleep the night before Alice in Wonderland Day (hence I posted that update the moment the clock struck midnight on April 5th). I also watched this YouTube video on Alice in Wonderland Day to help me cope about making an Alice in Wonderland apron https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iG-wSkU55M despite being uploaded in a boring year!
Because of a lack of recognition here in the UK and the fact Orthodox Easter hits extreme dates more frequently, the April 12th 2026 date was NOT a personal trigger and I met one of my fellow petition signers that day in Kingston.
My other point, addressing the complete non-existent recognition of Orthodox and Coptic holidays in countries like the UK:
Aside from my personal reflection, the lack of official recognition for Orthodox and Coptic holidays in the “shameful seven” nations is a known problem and is a serious issue that needs to be looked into, hence there are multiple existing change.org petitions about this, with one even acknowledging the United States as a country that fails to recognise these holidays!
The six other “shameful” nations beside the UK are the Republic of Ireland, the USA, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and Australia and all of these countries (despite not having official public holidays for them) have taken great strides and efforts into recognising many non-Christian religious holidays and observances such as Eid, Diwali, Yom Kippur, Hanukkah and Chinese Lunar New Year, yet all seven of these SHAMEFUL nations generally DON’T EVEN TRY OR BOTHER to recognise Orthodox or Coptic Christian holidays despite a growing number of Orthodox Christians residing in these regions, which is wrong!
This fact is even stated in the description of other existing change.org petitions about addressing the lack of formal recognition for these holidays and many UK supermarkets now provide treats for observances like Lunar New Year, yet they clear out seasonal stock like Easter eggs long before Orthodox Christians get to celebrate their most sacred holiday.
As I always say, the date gap between Western and Orthodox Easter in years like 2024 is NOT an issue at all, the REAL ISSUE is how Western society behaves like ceasing all Easter-related events in parks/other outdoor venues and shops clearing out Easter treats long before Orthodox Easter thats the problem – as well as a lack of bank holidays and the failure of retailers to display the additional Orthodox Easter date.
London alone (aside from the UK as a whole) is a diverse multicultural and multireligious city which is home to hundreds of Orthodox Christians plus many other religious groups (there is even a Greek Orthodox church in my local borough), so WE NEED TO GROW UP and officially recognise these “forgotten” holidays for the greater good for these innocent people and despite envying them for their extremely early and late Easter dates, we need formal recognition for these holidays - making the Early May bank holiday moveable to always land on Orthodox Easter Monday is something that is certainly not beyond reach and can easily be implemented and simply by implementing these measures, we can end the regular problems Orthodox Christians have to “suffer” from in Western nations!
I also point to this existing 2026 campaign https://www.change.org/p/shorten-the-summer-holidays-lengthen-the-christmas-holidays?source_location=my_petitions_list (with far fewer signatures) about extending the Christmas break while reducing the summer break, even the traditional carol “The Twelve Day of Christmas” should be called “The Fourteen Days of Christmas” to include January 7.
Definition of a “boring year”:
A boring year is a year where neither Western nor Orthodox Easter falls within a week of it’s earliest or latest extremes and also does not hit the exact middle dates (April 8th or 21st), for example 2018 is NOT a boring year because Orthodox Easter fell on its fifth-earliest date (April 8 NS) but 2020 was despite the lockdowns!
Definition of a “problem year”:
A “problem year” is a year with a 5-week gap between the Easter dates with no accompanying bank holiday for Orthodox Easter Monday, for example 2024 was NOT a “real” problem year because the Early May bank holiday coincided with Orthodox Easter Monday. This happens when either Western Easter it near its earliest extreme or Orthodox Easter near its latest extreme and its only a “problem” because of the lack of recognition, not the date difference itself!