Pick a year and the calculator returns Western Christian Easter Sunday — the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after March 21. Easter is a moveable feast: it can fall as early as March 22 or as late as April 25. The calculator uses the Anonymous Gregorian computus (Meeus/Jones/Butcher algorithm), which gives the same answer as any modern Christian almanac for years from 1583 onward. For the per-country detail page, see Easter Sunday in the US or Good Friday in the UK. For the broader holiday calendar, see public holidays.
Common use cases
- Planning an Easter weekend trip. Easter Sunday is a public holiday in much of Europe and Latin America, and Good Friday (two days earlier) is a holiday in the UK, Germany, and many Commonwealth countries. Enter a future year to see when the four-day Easter weekend (Good Friday → Easter Monday) falls.
- Scheduling around school holidays. School Easter break in many countries straddles Easter Sunday. Knowing the date months ahead lets you book travel before peak pricing kicks in. Easter dates for 2024–2030: 2024-03-31, 2025-04-20, 2026-04-05, 2027-03-28, 2028-04-16, 2029-04-01, 2030-04-21.
- Computing related Christian feast dates. Many Christian feasts are anchored to Easter: Ash Wednesday is 46 days before, Palm Sunday is 7 days before, Ascension is 39 days after, Pentecost is 49 days after, Trinity Sunday is 56 days after. Look up Easter for the year, then add or subtract.
- Tracking the Easter / Passover overlap. In some years Easter and the Jewish Passover fall in the same week (the original historical relationship); in other years Easter falls a month after Passover. Both rely on Paschal Full Moon definitions but diverge under the Gregorian Easter rule. 2025 is a non-overlapping year.
How it works
The calculator runs the Anonymous Gregorian computus — a closed-form algorithm published anonymously in Nature (1876) and codified in Jean Meeus's Astronomical Algorithms. It computes the Paschal Full Moon date (the first ecclesiastical full moon after the vernal equinox, fixed as March 21) using a sequence of integer divisions and modular arithmetic over the input year. Easter Sunday is then the next Sunday. The algorithm is exact for the Gregorian calendar; valid years are 1583 (after the Gregorian reform) through 9999 (a soft upper bound where calendar drift is negligible).
Worked examples
Easter 2025
Enter the year 2025.
Result: Easter Sunday 2025-04-20.
Late Easter — within a week of the latest possible date (April 25). Good Friday is April 18, Easter Monday April 21.
Easter 2026
Enter the year 2026.
Result: Easter Sunday 2026-04-05.
Early Easter — falls within the first week of April. Good Friday is April 3, Easter Monday April 6. School holidays in many EU countries straddle these dates.
Easter 2024
Enter the year 2024.
Result: Easter Sunday 2024-03-31.
A March Easter, less than 10 days after the earliest possible date (March 22). Good Friday is March 29, Easter Monday April 1.
Edge cases & gotchas
- Eastern Orthodox Easter is different. Most Eastern Orthodox churches use the Julian-calendar Easter date (still called "Pascha"), which usually falls 1–5 weeks after the Gregorian Easter. The calculator returns Western (Catholic/Protestant) Easter only. For Orthodox Easter you need a separate computus (the Meeus algorithm has a Julian variant) or look it up in an Orthodox almanac.
- The earliest and latest possible dates. Easter can fall on any Sunday from March 22 through April 25 inclusive — a 35-day window. The earliest March 22 last happened in 1818; the next is in 2285. The latest April 25 happened in 1943; the next is in 2038. Most years fall in the middle of the window.
- Pre-1583 dates use the Julian Easter rule. Before the Gregorian reform of 1582, Easter was computed under the Julian calendar with a slightly different rule. The calculator throws an error for years below 1583 to prevent silently returning the wrong date. If you need a Julian-rule Easter for historical reconstruction, use the Julian computus separately.
- The "ecclesiastical" full moon ≠ the astronomical one. Easter is fixed by the ecclesiastical (computed) full moon, not the actual astronomical full moon. They usually agree to within a day; occasionally they differ by more, which can shift Easter by a week. The discrepancy is intentional — the ecclesiastical date is calendar-based and computable centuries in advance.
Frequently asked questions about Easter Date Calculator
How is the Easter date determined?
Easter is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after March 21 (the fixed church definition of the vernal equinox). The "ecclesiastical" qualifier means the date is computed from a tabulated lunar calendar, not measured astronomically. Same Sunday-after-full-moon rule, but predictable centuries in advance.
Why does the date change every year?
Because the rule depends on the lunar full moon, which doesn't synchronize with the solar year. The lunar cycle is ~29.5 days, so the full moon date shifts by about 11 days each solar year, then jumps back when the lunar count re-aligns. Easter follows that drift, ranging from March 22 to April 25.
Why doesn't the calculator work before 1583?
The Gregorian Easter rule was introduced as part of the 1582 calendar reform. Before that, Western Easter was computed under the Julian rule, which is similar but differs by 1 to 13 days for any given pre-Gregorian year. Returning a Gregorian-Easter date for, say, the year 800 would be historically misleading.
When is Eastern Orthodox Easter?
Eastern Orthodox Easter (Pascha) uses the Julian calendar and an additional rule that it must fall after the Jewish Passover. Result: typically 1, 4, or 5 weeks after Western Easter; occasionally the same date. For the actual Orthodox Easter dates, use a Julian computus.
What's Easter Monday?
The day after Easter Sunday. A public holiday in many European, Caribbean, and Commonwealth countries, but not in the United States. To find Easter Monday, enter the year and add 1 day to the result.
How many days between Easter and Good Friday?
Two — Good Friday is always the Friday before Easter Sunday. Both are public holidays in many countries. The 4-day weekend (Good Friday + Saturday + Easter Sunday + Easter Monday) is widely observed in Europe, Australia, and Canada.
Glossary
- Easter Sunday
- The principal Christian feast commemorating the Resurrection. Defined as the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after March 21. Falls between March 22 and April 25 in any given year.
- Anonymous Gregorian computus
- The closed-form algorithm for computing Western Easter, published anonymously in Nature (1876). Codified in Jean Meeus's Astronomical Algorithms; this calculator uses that exact form.
- Paschal Full Moon (PFM)
- The first ecclesiastical full moon on or after March 21. Easter is the next Sunday after the PFM. The "ecclesiastical" version is tabulated and computable in advance, distinct from the astronomical full moon.
- Good Friday
- The Friday two days before Easter Sunday, commemorating the Crucifixion. Public holiday in the UK, Australia, Germany, and many other countries.
- Easter Monday
- The day after Easter Sunday. Public holiday in much of Europe, Australia, Canada, and the Caribbean — but not in the United States.
- Eastern Orthodox Easter (Pascha)
- Easter computed under the Julian calendar with an additional Passover-after rule. Falls 1, 4, or 5 weeks after Western Easter (occasionally the same date). Distinct from the date this calculator returns.