Easter in Jordan

Easter is a national holiday in Jordan – but it hasn’t always been so. Years ago the government excused Christians from coming to work on Sunday mornings, allowing them to attend church services if they wished. On the days of Christmas and Easter Arab Christians could have the entire day as a holiday. This set a precedence that was easy to abuse since the majority of Arab Christians in Jordan are either Greek Orthodox or Roman Catholic. According to the Roman and Greek Church calendars Christmas is on December 25th and January 7th respectively. Easter also falls on different dates three out of every four years. Then there is a substantial Armenian population who has Christmas on January 19th. So a Jordanian Christian could have three Christmases and two Easters every year and no one would be the wiser!

This might still be situation, but the government decided to organize the Christians officially. Of course they didn’t do this alone; the Church fathers were very much involved. In the Arabic language Easter is called ‘The Big Feast’ leaving Christmas as the little one. I think that possibly there are more Greek Orthodox Christians than Roman Catholic, so the orthodox were able to designate the ‘big feast’ according to their calendar. By default, Christmas is December 25th. This coming Sunday, April 23rd, is Easter and a Jordanian holiday for all; schools, offices, and all government agencies will be closed. The same applies on December 25th. Christians are a tiny minority in Jordan, somewhere between 3-6% of the population. The fact that their religious holidays are official is exceptional and truly remarkable.
ASH