My fellow supporters,
This is an unscheduled update to announce that this petition has passed 420 signatures, however we will still have a temporary pause once this active promotion finishes to maintain the long term health and success of the campaign and to jump-start momentum for our brand new next phase!
We have had a decent start to the first phase of our campaign in reaching our first 420 supporters however after four long non-stop months of campaigning this petition needs a break, though we have seen a slight uptick in momentum in recent days (we gained 3 new signatures today, July 21st) with no real week-long stalls compared to the start of the month. We will intentionally have a scheduled week-long stall but that is to maintain momentum, change tactics, and maintain the long-term health and success of the campaign following stagnant growth in late June/early July.
On Saturday July 18th, we hit the milestone of 417 signatures (exactly 50 short of my next intermediate goal), which means that we have only amassed 17 signatures in the month since reaching 400 on June 18th, though momentum has picked up somewhat after the two week-long stalls at 409 and 411, respectively. The recent slowdown in signature growth this last month has been a sign that this break was needed and I need to change tactics so change.org does not keep looping the petition back to my existing supporters who have already seen this petition, I feel really let down by change.org for continually localising/localizing my campaign.
The United Kingdom is just one of seven English speaking nations which fails to officially recognise Orthodox and Coptic holidays, therefore I do need to have some supporters in the UK to address bank holiday inequality for our Orthodox residents and for the rarity of the March 22 Gregorian date to be debated in the UK House of Commons, however in order for the petition to achieve its primary goal, we need a lot more signatures from overseas, to date we only have 25 international signatures (that’s a whopping 94% of supporters from the UK).
The United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and the Republic of Ireland are no different from the UK when it comes to the lack of official recognition for Orthodox holidays, this is why (as well as my primary goal) I need signatures from all of these nations as the lack of recognition for Orthodox Easter is actually worse in these nations as they don’t have the existing early May bank holiday as an accidental day off like the UK does – 2027 is only downgraded from “true disaster” into a “problem” year here in the UK because Orthodox Easter Monday accidentally aligns with the UK’s existing bank holiday, with the main problem being retail erasure.
My UK-centric classification system of years only applies to Orthodox Easter, every year is a “true disaster year” when it comes to the lack of official recognition for Orthodox Christmas, even more so because Orthodox Christmas is fixed to January 7th on our modern Gregorian calendar so the calendar is always split. Like with Orthodox Easter, the physical 13-day gap between Gregorian Christmas and Orthodox Christmas is completely harmless, it’s the fact that Western retailers aggressively clear out seasonal stock the moment (Gregorian) December 25th passes and ironically stock up for Chinese Lunar New Year (thinking they are promoting diversity), completely isolating the Orthodox community and even Protestant/Catholics who want to buy these seasonal items for feasts like Epiphany and Twelfth Night – that’s right, Christmas has become so commercialised in the last 100 years that even feasts like Twelfth Night and Epiphany are completely overshadowed (with school terms frequently restarting before these dates).
Because Orthodox Christmas is fixed to January 7th every year, Orthodox Christians NEVER get a year off from this blatant lack of recognition and even in years where the two Easter dates happen to align (e.g. 2025), I urge retailers to list the date and then put in brackets (Western/Orthodox) to formally acknowledge both celebrations taking place simultaneously.
This lack of recognition unfairly harms mental health, as Orthodox students constantly worry about failing exams and missing school if they take time off for Orthodox Christmas even if they are given an excused absence, while I had a mental health crisis due to my autism, this lack of recognition is completely harmful for the mental health and wellbeing of these students who just want to live their lives like everybody else.
Even Western workplaces and educational institutions have taken strides to allow Jewish employees time off for Yom Kippur and Muslim workers time off for Eid, so this unfair double standard goes beyond retailers stocking up for events like Chinese Lunar New Year and Diwali.
In UK parks, we can bring traditional British May Day events such as Maypole dancing in early May every year and can also include egg hunts for Orthodox Easter in large gap years like 2027, a simple solution to parks completely halting seasonal activities after the Western Easter weekend concludes though in one-week gap years (next instance 2029), as the gap is only seven days between the two dates it is more practical and sensible to extend Western Easter trails and egg hunts to cover the Orthodox date, then have the traditional May Day events for early May.
This lack of recognition affect all age groups, even the elderly. Care/nursing homes cease Christmas and Easter activities/events after the Western date and “biological” grandparents cannot participate in Easter egg trails in outdoor public spaces with their grandchildren because Western society pulls the plug on these activities after the Western dates (again, I am using the term “biological” because that’s what we are really referring to when we talk about our grandparents). While Orthodox Christians have a long life of ‘extreme’ happy Easters, their lives are simultaneously constantly blighted by this lack of recognition for their distinct holidays in the “shameful seven” English-speaking Western nations.
‘Mature Moldova’ and ‘Adult Albania’ officially recognise both Western and Orthodox Christmas and Easter respectively, therefore these nations don’t ever have ‘disaster years’ like Western nations do, we need to GROW UP and officially recognise these holidays as we are ‘babyish Britain’ at the moment by not officially recognising these holidays despite a growing Orthodox population!
This May 2024 US-based petition is evidence that this problem affects adults and all year round (with total days taken off for annual leave), not just students/pupils.
The ‘dementia’ analogy:
This lack of recognition is so bad and problematic I was completely blinded by it and didn’t even know it existed until nearly a year ago, now that I am aware of the recognition problem it is so obvious and TRULY BAD, much like a person who has end stage dementia has it so bad they are completely unaware they have the disease!
My old 2025 WHSmith (now TGJones) diary planner included Jewish and Muslim holidays but completely left out and omitted Orthodox holidays, wall calendars/academic planners completely omit Orthodox holidays and even smartphone calendars completely fail to display Orthodox holidays by default! This lack of recognition, now that I know about it, is SO OBVIOUS!
Outro:
I opened up about my past neurodivergent fixations in my May 2026 updates to educate the neurotypical public about autistic fixations as an expert by experience to help the neurotypical public understand how my brain and thought processing works and after discovering and signing all these similar Orthodox-led petitions in late 2025/early 2026, advocating for better recognition for the Orthodox community in the West unexpectedly became the MAJOR SECONDARY GOAL of my entire movement!
One thing I have also noticed is that compared to the petition’s peak momentum in the spring, my promotions have also been taking longer to complete (several of my £40 promotions back in “Alice April” completed all its views within six hours).
My rival petition unrelated to Easter which was started just three weeks and had already hit 100 signatures before this one was launched has also surpassed 200 signatures (I can confirm that at least one supporter of this Easter petition has also signed the rival campaign which has surpassed 200).
The singer Bonnie Tyler and former England captain Kevin Keegan have both died and are now new exclusive members of the “never saw a Western Easter on April 25th” club as they were both born after 1943, I specifically refer to “Western” Easter on April 25th because Orthodox Easter fell on the Gregorian date of April 25th as recently as 1976 (ironically a ‘boring year’ because neither Western nor Orthodox Easter fell within a week of their earliest/latest extremes or hit the exact middle date), and Orthodox Easter fell on it’s latest possible date just seven years later in 1983 (a “true disaster” year for UK Orthodox residents not because of the date date, but because of the UK's failure to officially recognise the later date).
I will update you all once this petition closes for its scheduled 'fallow week' and my new spinoff petition has successfully crossed the 5 signature visibility milestone after a slow start (with one of my early supporters singing my new spinoff petition) which is seeing a strong uptick in momentum.
Mr Easter.