Change.org was founded by Ben Rattray in 2007 and in that specific year both the Easter dates actually coincided on 8th April (which is the exact middle date for Western Christians and the fifth-earliest for Orthodox Christians, corresponding to March 26th O.S). 

Change.org officially went live IN the year 2010 when Orthodox Easter hit that all-important earliest date!

As a tricenarian myself and having faced my 30th birthday, I know well that there are many things people want to achieve in their 20s before turning 30, such as getting married, renting a flat, buying a home or having children. For an Orthodox Christian born in 1981 or 1982, because of the way the Julian calendar works, they can experience both their earliest and latest Easter naturally while STILL IN THEIR TWENTIES with their whole life ahead of them and can enjoy their 30th birthday having already experienced this natural calendrical phenomenon while we would have to live to over 300 to have the same experience unless petitions are created! 

The only way we can change this for Western Christians is by creating petitions!

Although the earliest possible date for Easter in the Greek Orthodox Church is obviously later than 31st March on the Gregorian calendar and can never occur in March for that matter, it is still the earliest date within its respective date range and it the equivalent of March 22nd on the older Julian calendar. There is no theological reason why Easter cannot be moved on a one-off occasion to allow us also to experience both our latest and earliest dates just like the millions of Orthodox Christians have already done so worldwide, this is the core reason why I created this petition and to get my voice heard!

Not all Western Christians get to see Easter fall on April 25th (its latest date) either, indeed there are many people born after 1943 who are already dead, I know I am using celebrities names here but notable examples (assuming they were Western Christians) are the Harry Potter actors Robbie Coltrane and Alan Rickman, the Monkees singer Davy Jones (who saw his latest Easter in 2011 before he died on February 29 2012), the singer David Bowie and the late singer Chris Rea who died in late 2025 – all these people never saw an April 25th Easter in their lifetime!

Further to that, not everyone gets to see Easter as late as April 24th either, indeed the latest Easter in Michael Jackson and George Best’s lifetime was April 23rd 2000 assuming they were Western Christians. 

Because Orthodox Easter fell on its earliest possible date so recently, many of those Orthodox Christians born in 2008 or 2009 are STILL TOO YOUNG TO BUY ALCOHOL and under 18 and indeed an Orthodox Christian born in 2008 or 2009 gets to see both the earliest and second-earliest dates while they are STILL IN THEIR TWENTIES!! 

Not only that, they also get to see Easter on literally every single date within a week of their latest possible date (April 19-25 O.S/May 2-8 N.S) if they live to the age of 70!

Any Western Christian born after 2008 will never get to see Easter earlier than March 25th because even March 24th is extremely rare, this is why PETITIONS NEED TO BE CREATED!

The gap for the third-earliest Orthodox Easter date (March 24th Julian) from 1980 to 2143 may be long, but it is still significantly shorter than the nearly 500-year gap between 1940 and 2391.

One thing I find fascinating is that if the Julian calendar continues to drift over centuries to come, Orthodox Christmas will eventually start coinciding with Western Easter, eventually creating the unique phenomenon of Christmas and Easter celebrations taking place simultaneously!

Although I have achieved my personal goal of celebrating Easter on March 22nd in my lifetime along with my closest family and friends, the campaign is far from over as the UK official bank holidays remain in April and to make March 22nd the official date, we need to take further action and get as many signatures as possible!

I have presumably become the first, and probably, only person to celebrate the holiday on March 22nd in the 21st century, the first person to celebrate Easter in March in two successive years (2026 and 2027), the first person to celebrate Easter during a waxing moon phase and the first person to observe Easter on a date before the Catholics (as the Orthodox celebration is always on or after the Catholic date).

Next year, I will revert back to celebrating Western Easter at the same time as everybody else and every forthcoming year after that. Although I currently wish to remain anonymous as I am managing multiple campaigns on the platform, by creating this petition, I have shared my unique story about Easter 2026 globally! 

I have effectively been living in 2285 and have been observing Easter and its related feasts (Mothering Sunday and Shrove Tuesday) two weeks ahead of everyone else! I even deleted the calendar app off my mobile phone because I have been in denial about the official Easter date!

Although I was alive in the year 2010 when Orthodox Easter hit its earliest possible date (March 22 Julian), because I live in the UK where Western traditions are dominant, it was an event that passed me by and we observed the standard mid-range date. If I had been in Athens or Crete in 2010 it would have been the best Easter ever, as the vast majority of Greece follows the Orthodox calendar!

By creating this petition in 2026 this has also been a “wake up call” for the upcoming 2027 and the massive five-week gap between the two Easter dates, I have “raised the alarm” ahead of 2027 and the problem it will inevitably cause for a growing number of Orthodox Christians in Western countries like the UK, with no hot cross bus or Easter eggs by the time May 2nd arrives.

Contrary to popular belief, aside from my personal observance, the 21st Century does have an “official” March 22nd Easter - it was just disguised as April 4th 2010 on the Gregorian calendar, much how the note E-sharp is just disguised as “F” on a piano keyboard.

2010 and 2038 are “polar opposite” years for Western and Orthodox Christians:

Both years have the identical day-date layout and in both years Western and Orthodox Easter “use” the same Gregorian Sunday, however in 2010 Orthodox Easter is at its earliest extreme whilst for Western Christians it’s a mid-range date despite both celebrations taking place simultaneously – in 2038 the exact opposite effect happens, Western Easter falls on its absolute latest date whereas Orthodox Easter falls on a standard middle-to-late date. 

It’s not an April fool, I am the man who celebrated Easter on March 22nd 2026 and quite ironically, Johnny Depp’s adaptation of ALICE IN WONDERLAND actually came out around the time of Orthodox Easter 2010!

As we didn’t quite reach 100 signatures by my Easter on March 22nd 2026, more realistic signature target, I hope to reach 100 signatures by April 5th (un-Easter, the wrong day) and 120 by April 12th (Greek Easter).

Here is a current 2026 petition regarding Orthodox holidays.

https://www.change.org/p/recognize-orthodox-good-friday-as-a-school-holiday 

Hopefully, by the year 2285, change.org, Google’s AI overview and this petition will still exist!