Most name days fall on the same date every year. One group of feasts, however, follows Easter, whose date changes every year, and moves with it.
The movable name days
- Saturday of Saint Theodore (the first Saturday of Lent, 43 days before Easter): Theodore and Theodora.
- Lazarus Saturday (8 days before Easter): Lazaros and Lazaria.
- Palm Sunday (one week before Easter): Vaios, Vaia and Daphne.
- Easter Sunday: Lambros, Lamprini, Anestis, Anastasios, Anastasia, Paschalis and Paschalina.
- Easter Tuesday (Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene): Raphael.
- The Friday after Easter (Life-giving Spring): Zoe.
- Thomas Sunday (the Sunday after Easter): Thomas and Thomais.
- Monday of the Holy Spirit (50 days after Easter): Triada.
- All Saints' Sunday (56 days after Easter): names without a saint of their own, such as Electra. See the guide to names without a saint.
Saint George's day
Saint George is commemorated on 23 April. When that date falls before Easter — during Lent or Holy Week — or on Easter Sunday itself, the feast is moved to Easter Monday. In the same way the feast of Saint Mark (25 April) moves to the Tuesday after Easter.
The calendar works out the correct date for every year: each name's page shows when it falls this year and in the coming years.
How Orthodox Easter is calculated
The Church of Greece calculates Easter with the Julian paschalion: it falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring, as defined by the traditional cycle. Because the Julian calendar currently runs 13 days behind the civil calendar, Orthodox Easter always falls between 4 April and 8 May.
We use Jean Meeus' algorithm for the Julian paschalion and convert the result to the civil calendar. You can find this year's Easter and movable feasts in the calendar.
Sources
- Jean Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms (2nd ed.), ch. 8 “Date of Easter” · Willmann-Bell, 1998