THANK GOODNESS ITS FRIMAY!
Its here at last, May, a month I have been waiting for so long (April felt like Groundhog Day) and the 25th of this month will mark the anniversary of coming across that infamous Reddit post which triggered my “Earliest Easter Obsession”!
Making my very unique story public about being “two weeks ahead” of everyone else, celebrating Easter on March 22nd 2026 and simply creating this petition has been an achievement on its own and has helped me cope with a very difficult spring season.
Because April 5th 2027 will naturally be an un-Easter, I have no intention whatsoever to watch Alice in Wonderland that day and it will just be another boring insignificant Monday!
Because I had to manually amend all of those birthday books which I turned into “2026 diaries” which I was doing all throughout October 2025, all my Christmas shopping was completed and handed out to my recipients before the start of November so I used that month as a time to unwind before the Christmas festivities got underway and take charge of promoting another unrelated change.org campaign which actually won in early February 2026 shortly before this one went live (I declared victory).
Although I came across that infamous Reddit post on May 25th 2025, I did not discover that Orthodox Easter fell on its earliest possible date (2010) until August 2025, nearly three months later. That fact did provide me a sense of relief, as it reassured me that millions of living people have seen a “different version” of the earliest possible Easter date despite it being an “unfair advantage” for the Orthodox community which ultimately prompted me to launch this campaign and share my story just after my 33rd birthday.
Despite all the preparation and efforts however, I knew I would inevitably see signs, hear conversations and hear rail announcements for “Easter on the wrong date”!
At least next year, I will be hearing announcements for and seeing signs for “Easter on the right date” in shops (March 28th, 2027) which will be a relief in a more normal year although I would also like to see the additional May date advertised for Orthodox Easter and I even avoided the news so I would hear anything Easter related on the “Alice date” (April 5)!
By creating this petition, I have let the world know that an Easter celebration really did happen on March 22nd 2026 and over a quarter of a thousand people have heard my story (and not just in the UK) so I have (kind of) given the March 22nd 2026 date some kind of public legitimacy even if it is not officially recognised by any church!
On Sunday 22nd March 2026, I enjoyed my Easter celebration with having hot cross buns for breakfast, had a lamb roast for lunch with my family and watched two religious films, King of Kings (1961) and Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954, a boring year despite Orthodox Easter falling on April 25th) and I finished all my chocolate eggs before the end of March. In most years around Easter (not necessarily on Easter Sunday itself), I do not go to church but watch related religious films with family and on Easter Monday (Monday 23rd March), I had a daytrip with my family to the south coast.
My paternal grandmother, who is still alive though not in the best of health, was born on April 27th 1943 and I can remember her telling me about Easter 1943 falling on its latest possible date though at the time she told me I didn’t give a monkeys about Easter but I thought I’d share that information on this update and looking back (she had no idea Orthodox Easter fell on her 60th birthday in 2003) and I wish I had known about Orthodox Easter back in 2010.
Aside from the extreme Orthodox dates, 1983 and 2010 were also UK general election years and in both years, a Conservative Party prime minister won the election though intriguingly for Western Easter, the dates in 1983 and 2010 were only one day apart.
The lack of recognition extends even to Western Christian feasts such as Twelfth Night (January 5th) and the feast of the Epiphany on January 6th, so January 3rd is too early for schools to return after the Christmas break (which happened in 2022) and even regular Easter Monday is not a public holiday in Scotland.
Every year, people ponder about when the right time to remove Christmas decorations is, my advice is to keep them up until January 8th (“Orthodoxing” Day – a portmanteau of Orthodox and Boxing)!
I have spent a record amount of money throughout March and April, often chipping in £40 at a time so my “Earliest Easter Obsession” has been costly costing me £1.5K including all of those diaries but has been absolutely worth it, has saved my life and has allowed me to share my unique story during the “Alice Date” I was absolutely dreading and one of the darkest times in my life!
I kept watching this YouTube video on the Alice Date to help me cope – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iG-wSkU55M
I have no dread whatsoever and am actually looking forward to a normal April 2027 but in the meantime I really don’t like the month of August (it worse than December) because that’s when you start noticing the days getting shorter, “Awful April” will soon be “Awful August”, though at least then there will be no more wrong dates in shops!
Despite the official Easter date in 2028 falling in April, I have no aversion to seeing that date in shops whatsoever even though it will be “boring year” and because Easter 2025 (April 20th) came before encountering that Reddit post, seeing that date in shops was NOT a neurodivergent trigger back then.
Although I manage multiple petitions on the change.org platform (one of which was recently declared victorious) and I want to campaign in secret from my closest family members, I will reveal that the first two letters of my real first name are “Ro”, it could be Roy. It could be Ronald, it could be Roland or it could be Roger (it is definitely NOT Ralph, Richard, Rupert or Ryan) and my real surname begins with the letter A.
Although I have kept this campaign secret from my closest family members, they know just how difficult April and the buildup to it really has been for me and would obviously find out I am the campaigner if they stumble across it accidentally.
I encourage my supporters to use Google’s AI mode and type “autism Easter petition” or “Earliest Easter Campaign on change.org” to gain more unadvertised signatures and after coming across that Reddit post in May 2025, I used tippex to cover the “future 2026 dates” in my TGJones (then WHSmith) 2025 diary!
While Western Christians unfairly miss out on seeing extreme Easter dates, Orthodox Christians simultaneously unfairly miss out on Easter festivities and rarely receive bank holidays/time off for their religious observance in seven shameful English-speaking countries and although I acknowledge change.org is a private platform, I urge all my UK supporters to contact and write to local MPs ASAP to get the issue of the “unfairness” of the Western Easter date cycle debated in the House of Commons, which is the primary goal and what I am campaigning for!
Quite simply, creating this deeply personal and poignant campaign has allowed my story to be heard without having to publish it in a news article so thank you all. While I will revert back to the standard calendar next year and every year thereafter, Sunday March 22nd 2026 is and always be ‘my’ Easter Sunday.
It was the fact that I was celebrating on March 22nd 2026 and nobody else knew about it was a real struggle, but my story has been heard. We crossed 200 signatures on April 13th (Orthodox Easter Monday) and 250 signatures on the all-important latest date, April 25th!
Halloween fell on April 5th 2026, the scary day! Good riddance April 2026!
MY STORY ABOUT CELEBRATING EASTER ON MARCH 22ND 2026 IS NOW A KNOWN STORY, AN EASTER CELEBRATION ON THE GREGORIAN DATE OF MARCH 22ND 2026 REALLY DID HAPPEN AND BY CREATING THIS PETITION I’VE MADE AN UNOFFICIAL DATE “OFFICIAL” AND HAVE ANNOUNCED IT TO THE WORLD!
THANK YOU ALL, MY QUARTER THOUSAND SIGNERS AS WELL AS MY COMFORTABLE ALICE IN WONDERLAND BEDSHEETS I GOT FOR CHRISTMAS, FOR SUPPORTING AND HELPING ME DURING AN AWFUL ALICE MONTH! I AM PARTYING TODAY!