Today, Sunday, the Orthodox Church celebrates Easter. The different date of Easter in the Orthodox Church compared to the Western Church is due to divergent calculation methods. Easter liturgies take place in all federal states.
The Eastern churches determine the date of Easter according to the old Julian calendar and according to a different method than the Western churches, which adhere to the Gregorian calendar reform of the 16th century.
The dates of Easter can, therefore, be up to five weeks apart. There will be an expected Easter date again next year. The number of Orthodox Christians in Austria can only be estimated. It is probably around 500,000.
Church services throughout Vienna
Metropolitan Arsenios (Kardamakis), the chairman of the Orthodox Bishops’ Conference in Austria, presided over the solemn Easter liturgy lasting several hours in the Greek Orthodox Holy Trinity Cathedral in Vienna’s first district on Saturday night (from 10:00 pm). The service ended with a resurrection procession.
Easter is also celebrated in the Syrian Orthodox Church on 5 May.
On Saturday night, Bishop Aleksij (Zanochkin) presided over the solemn Easter service in the Russian Orthodox St. Nicholas Cathedral in Vienna. The service began shortly before midnight, at 11.45 pm. The solemn Easter liturgy began at midnight in the Serbian Orthodox Sava Cathedral in Vienna’s third district.
In the Romanian Orthodox St. Andrew’s Church in Vienna-Simmering, the grand Easter procession began at 11 p.m. on Easter night, followed by the liturgy. In the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Dunklergasse (1120 Vienna), the festive Easter Vigil service begins at 9.30 pm. Easter vespers on Sunday begin at 11 am.
Easter liturgies in all federal states
Numerous Orthodox Easter liturgies take place not only in Vienna but in all federal states. The Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox, Bulgarian Orthodox, Georgian Orthodox Churches, and the Patriarchate of Antioch have official church structures in Austria.
Easter is also just around the corner in some of the ancient Oriental churches represented in Austria. For example, the Coptic and Syrian Orthodox churches and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church also celebrate Easter on 5 May.
- source: orf.at/picture: Bild von Dimitris Vetsikas auf Pixabay
This post has already been read 6593 times!
