The Paschalion — Why Easter Dates Still Differ
Two churches can agree on 25 December and still differ on Pascha by up to five weeks. The reason is that the Paschal computation uses its own solar and lunar tables, untouched by the fixed-feast question.
Two sources of difference
First, the Orthodox Paschalion treats the equinox as fixed at 21 March on the Julian calendar, which currently corresponds to 3 April on the civil calendar. Second, it uses the older Metonic lunar tables, which have themselves drifted from the astronomical moon. Both push Orthodox Pascha later.
The observed pattern
Orthodox Pascha coincides with Western Easter in some years and falls one, four or five weeks later in others. It never falls earlier. In 2025 both traditions kept Easter on 20 April — a coincidence widely noted because it fell on the 1,700th anniversary of Nicaea.
The reunification question
Proposals for a common date recur, usually either by adopting a purely astronomical calculation based on the meridian of Jerusalem, or by mutual agreement on a fixed Sunday. Nothing has been agreed. Nicaea's goal of a common Pascha remains, on the evidence, unfinished business.