Eastern Orthodox Palm Sunday Services in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Jerusalem, 28 April, 2024 (TPS) -- Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, for the Eastern Orthodox Christian churches falls today, Sunday, April 28. Here people are seen holding services in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Old City.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is considered to be the holiest site for Christians in the world and has been the most important pilgrimage site for Christians since the fourth century.

It is said to be built on the site where Jesus was crucified and later buried.

Eastern Orthodox Easter, also called Pascha, celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s the most important holiday in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Unlike Western Easter, which follows the Gregorian calendar, Eastern Orthodox Easter follows the Julian calendar. This means it falls on a different Sunday each year between April 4 and May 8. In 2024, Eastern Orthodox Easter fell on Sunday, May 5.

The Easter holiday for most Protestant Christians and Roman Catholics does not have a set date. It is observed on the first Sunday, after the first full moon after the first day of spring on March 21. This is why it usually falls out during the week-long Passover holiday which always begins on the night of a full moon and after the start of spring.

However, this year was a leap year on the Hebrew calendar – a lunar calendar – in which an entire month is added, so Easter fell before Passover.