Celebrating Easter on April 12, 2026

Greek Orthodox celebrating Easter

The Greek Orthodox Church is the second-largest Christian denomination in Lebanon, comprising approximately 8–10% of the population. While the Maronite Church is larger, the Greek Orthodox community is a major, influential, and highly urbanized group, particularly prominent in Beirut, Mount Lebanon, and the Koura region, quoting Wikipedia.

Tomorrow, on April 12, 2026, the adherents to the Greek Orthodox denomination in Lebanon, will be celebrating Easter. This is one week after Western Easter (April 5, 2026). The Greek Orthodox Church uses a hybrid system, employing the Revised Julian Calendar (or New Calendar) for "fixed" feasts (like Christmas on December 25) and the traditional Julian Calendar for "moveable" feasts, most importantly Easter/Pascha. This means they usually celebrate Christmas with Western churches but Easter at a different time

The Armenians celebrated Easter last Sunday, on April 5, 2026. The Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates Easter (Surb Zatik) on Sunday, April 5th. Unlike many Eastern Orthodox churches that follow the Julian calendar, the Armenian Church generally uses the Gregorian calendar for calculating holidays, often aligning its Easter celebration with the Western (Catholic/Protestant) date, which the adherents of the Armenian Catholic and Armenian Protestant communities follow. Consequently, all Armenians, irrespective of their denominations, celebrate Easter on the same day, but Armenian Orthodox celebrate Christmas on January 6.

 However, the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem celebrates Easter according to the Julian calendar, which often differs from the Western Gregorian date and sometimes even from other Orthodox traditions. While the Armenian Church elsewhere often uses the Gregorian calendar, in Jerusalem, they follow the Julian Calendar, typically celebrating on the same day as other Orthodox churches in the city.  Consequently, the Armenians in Jerusalem will celebrate Easter on Sunday, April 12, 2026. 

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Julian vs Gregorian Calendars.

According to Wikipedia:

The Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE, is a solar-based dating system that replaced the Roman lunar calendar. It established a 365-day year with an extra leap day every four years, resulting in an average year of 365.25 days. While it stabilized timekeeping, it was replaced by the Gregorian calendar in 1582 due to a slight over-calculation. The Gregorian calendar is the internationally accepted civil calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 to correct the Julian calendar's inaccuracy. It is a solar calendar with 365 days, plus a leap day every four years (except for centurial years not divisible by 400), making it more precise, with an average year of 365.2425

The primary difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars is how they calculate leap years to align with the solar year. The Julian calendar adds a leap day every four years, while the Gregorian calendar skips leap years on centurial years not divisible by 400 (e.g., 1700, 1800, 1900). This makes the Gregorian calendar more accurate (1 day off in 3,030 years) compared to the Julian calendar (1 day off in 128 years).