How is the date of Easter calculated?
Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after 21 March. This rule, set by the early church, means Western Easter always falls between 22 March and 25 April. The dates on this page are calculated with the standard Gregorian computus algorithm.
Orthodox churches calculate Easter the same way but on the older Julian calendar, so Orthodox Easter is usually one to five weeks later; in some years, such as 2025 and 2028, both fall on the same Sunday.
Dates linked to Easter
- Ash Wednesday (start of Lent): 46 days before Easter.
- Good Friday: 2 days before Easter, a public holiday in many countries.
- Easter Monday: the day after, a public holiday in much of Europe, Australia and Canada.
- Ascension Day: 39 days after Easter; Pentecost: 49 days after.
Use the date calculator to work any of these out from the Easter date in the table below.
Easter dates for the coming years
| Year | Date | Day of the week |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | April 5, 2026 | Sunday |
| 2027 | March 28, 2027 | Sunday |
| 2028 | April 16, 2028 | Sunday |
| 2029 | April 1, 2029 | Sunday |
| 2030 | April 21, 2030 | Sunday |
| 2031 | April 13, 2031 | Sunday |
Frequently asked questions
What is the earliest and latest date for Easter?
Western Easter can fall as early as 22 March and as late as 25 April. The last 22 March Easter was in 1818 and the next is in 2285; the next 25 April Easter is in 2038.
Why is Easter on a different date every year?
Its date depends on the moon: it's the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after 21 March, so it moves with the lunar cycle.
The countdown runs to midnight at the start of the day in your own time zone. Dates of religious and lunar holidays can differ by a day between countries.