Coptic Easter
Coptic Easter is the Feast of the Resurrection of Christ as the Coptic Orthodox Church keeps it: in the Coptic Encyclopedia's words, the greatest and earliest festival of the church. It is a movable feast, with no fixed day in the Coptic calendar but dated by the Julian reckoning, so that it usually falls later than Easter in the Western churches. Great Lent, 55 days ending with Holy Week, leads up to it, and the Monday after it is Sham El Nessim, a public holiday in Egypt. Its counterpart in winter is Coptic Christmas.
Key facts
- The Sunday after the Paschal full moon, by the Julian reckoning
- 2 May 2027, then 16 April 2028
- Great Lent, 55 days, with Holy Week as its last week
- On the eve, at St Mark's Cathedral in Abbassia
- Sham El Nessim, an official holiday in Egypt
The date
The Council of Nicaea in 325 decreed, as the Coptic Encyclopedia summarises it, that Easter be kept on the Sunday that followed 14 Nisan, after the full moon of the vernal equinox. The Church of Alexandria was entrusted with computing the date, which its patriarch proclaimed in a paschal letter issued at Epiphany. Before the council, Patriarch Demetrius I (189 to 231) had devised the epact method of calculating it.
The rule is still the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon on or after 21 March; what divides the churches is the calendar on which 21 March is counted. The Julian calendar, which the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches follow for Easter, runs thirteen days behind the Gregorian in the years 1900 to 2099. In the civil calendar, Western Easter falls between 22 March and 25 April, and Easter by the Julian reckoning between 4 April and 8 May. In some years the two coincide, as they next do in 2028.
| Year | Coptic Easter | Sham El Nessim | Western Easter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 12 April | 13 April | 5 April |
| 2027 | 2 May | 3 May | 28 March |
| 2028 | 16 April | 17 April | 16 April |
| 2029 | 8 April | 9 April | 1 April |
| 2030 | 28 April | 29 April | 21 April |
Great Lent
Great Lent is 55 days: the forty days that Christ fasted, Holy Week as the final week, and an introductory week whose origin is disputed. In the early church Lent began the day after Epiphany and Holy Week was a separate fast; Demetrius I joined the two into one unbroken period. Fish is not eaten in Lent, Palm Sunday excepted.
Holy Week
Palm Sunday, the seventh Sunday of Lent, opens Holy Week, which the Copts call the week of suffering and often the Week of Pascha. At the end of the Palm Sunday liturgy a general funeral service is held, because no memorial service is held during the week.
From Palm Sunday the church is decked in black, prayers are chanted in a mournful tone, and the sanctuary curtains are drawn. The readings follow a lectionary arranged by Pope Gabriel II (1131 to 1145). On Maundy Thursday, the one day of the week exempt from its mourning, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated in the sanctuary after the washing of feet. On Good Friday, a day of total abstinence, the twelfth hour ends with Kyrie eleison chanted a hundred times toward each of the four directions, then the burial service, in which the whole Psalter is read. On Holy Saturday, also called the Saturday of Joy, the entire Book of Revelation is read and the liturgy is celebrated again.
The feast
The Resurrection liturgy begins late on Saturday evening and ends in the early hours of Sunday. After the reading from Acts the sanctuary door is closed and the lights put out; deacons outside chant "Christ is risen" three times, in Coptic and then in Arabic, and the chief priest answers from within, "He is risen indeed". The door is opened, the lights come on, and the clergy carry the icon of the Resurrection in seven circuits of the altar and the church.
The liturgy the Pope leads at St Mark's Cathedral in Abbassia is the one the state attends and television carries. On the evening of 11 April 2026 Pope Tawadros II prayed it there, with a representative of the President, members of parliament and the Minister of Health, representing the Prime Minister, attending; Egyptian television carried it live. The fifty days that follow are kept without fasting; Ascension is the fortieth day and Pentecost the fiftieth.
Sham El Nessim
The Monday after Coptic Easter is Sham El Nessim, a spring festival that Egyptians of all religions keep and an official public holiday. Its exact origin is not well documented, though it is held to go back to ancient Egypt. The day is spent outdoors; the customary foods are fesikh, a salted and dried mullet, with onions, lettuce and coloured eggs.
The Council of Nicaea fixes the rule for Easter and entrusts the computation to Alexandria.
The papacy of Gabriel II, who arranged the Holy Week lectionary, ends.
Pope Tawadros II leads the Resurrection liturgy at St Mark's Cathedral in Abbassia.
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