How is the date of Easter calculated?

Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox (March 21 in the Western church's calculation). The algorithm — called the Computus — was settled at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 and produces a date between March 22 and April 25.

Lent is 40 days, traditionally not counting Sundays. It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Saturday, the evening before Easter. Including Sundays, that's 46 days from Ash Wednesday to the eve of Easter.

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The liturgical calendar, calculated.

Q: When is Easter 2026?

Easter Sunday 2026 falls on April 5. Ash Wednesday is February 18. Pentecost is May 24.

Q: Why does Easter move each year?

Easter is a lunar feast pegged to the Hebrew Passover, which uses a lunisolar calendar. Christmas is fixed to a solar date (December 25); Easter is tied to the moon's phase, so it drifts within a five-week window each year.

Q: What's the difference between Western and Orthodox Easter?

Orthodox churches use the Julian calendar for Easter calculations, which is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar the West uses. The two Easters coincide every few years; otherwise Orthodox Easter is typically one to five weeks after Western Easter.

Enter any year. The calculator finds Easter using the Computus algorithm — the same one the church has used since AD 325 — and derives the rest of the liturgical year from that single Sunday. Useful for planning Lent, Advent, family devotions, or just knowing when the next holy day falls.

Year:

How to use this calculator

Type any year between 1900 and 2100 in the input field, or use the quick buttons. Every liturgical date for that year appears below — colour-coded by the season's liturgical colour. The calculator works entirely in your browser; no data leaves your device.

How Easter is calculated

Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox (taken to be March 21 in the Western reckoning). This rule was settled at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 to ensure the whole church kept the feast together rather than on the day of the local Passover.

The mathematical procedure — known as the Computus — produces an Easter date between March 22 and April 25 each year. From that single Sunday, the rest of the moveable feasts are derived: Ash Wednesday is 46 days before Easter, Lent is the 40 weekdays after that, Holy Week is the seven days before Easter, Ascension is 40 days after, and Pentecost is 50 days after.

What each liturgical season means

Advent — The four Sundays before Christmas. Penitential preparation. Liturgical colour: violet (with rose on Gaudete Sunday).
Christmas season — From Christmas Eve through Epiphany (January 6) and on to the Baptism of the Lord. Liturgical colour: white.
Lent — Forty days of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, beginning on Ash Wednesday. Liturgical colour: violet.
Holy Week — Palm Sunday through Holy Saturday. The most concentrated liturgical week of the year — the Passion of Christ told in real time.
Easter season — The Great Fifty Days from Easter Sunday through Pentecost. Liturgical colour: white. The longest continuous celebration in the Christian year.
Ordinary Time — The two long stretches (Epiphany to Lent, Pentecost to Advent) where the lectionary reads through the Gospels semi-continuously. Liturgical colour: green.

Why this matters

The liturgical calendar is the church's way of letting the year teach the gospel. Each season carries a different colour, a different set of readings, a different mood — penitential in Lent and Advent, exuberant in Easter and Christmas, reflective in Ordinary Time. Knowing where you are in the year shapes what you read, when you fast, and what you celebrate. Even for traditions that don't follow it strictly, the calendar offers a structure for slow, attentive Bible reading across a full twelve months.

FAQ

When is Easter 2026?

Easter Sunday 2026 falls on April 5. Ash Wednesday is February 18; Palm Sunday is March 29; Pentecost is May 24. (Use the calculator above for any other year.)

Why does Easter move each year, but Christmas doesn't?

Christmas is pegged to a fixed solar date (December 25). Easter is pegged to the moon — the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after March 21. Because the lunar cycle doesn't divide evenly into the solar year, Easter drifts within a five-week window between March 22 and April 25.

What's the difference between Western and Orthodox Easter?

Orthodox churches use the older Julian calendar to compute Easter, which currently runs thirteen days behind the Gregorian calendar used in the West. The two Easters coincide every few years; otherwise Orthodox Easter typically falls one to five weeks after Western Easter. This calculator uses the Western (Gregorian) reckoning.

How long is Lent, exactly?

Forty days, not counting Sundays. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Saturday, the eve of Easter. From Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday is forty-six calendar days; the six Sundays in that span are not fast days, hence the count of forty.

What does the "Great Fifty Days" mean?

The Easter season — from Easter Sunday through Pentecost Sunday — runs fifty days. In the early church it was treated as one continuous feast day, the longest of the liturgical year. Each Sunday of those fifty days is "in" Easter, not "after" Easter.

Related tools

Read the year, slowly.

Kerygma builds Bible trivia rounds for every season — open the app on Ash Wednesday, Easter morning, or Pentecost and play the season's questions. Free for seven days.

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