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Easter dates: Western and Orthodox
Easter moves from year to year, and Western and Orthodox Christians usually celebrate it on different days. Enter a year to see both dates and the days that depend on them, from the start of Lent to Pentecost.
In 2026 Orthodox Easter falls 7 days after Western Easter.
| Event | Western | Orthodox |
|---|---|---|
| Start of Lent | Wed, Feb 18 | Mon, Feb 23 |
| Palm Sunday | Sun, Mar 29 | Sun, Apr 5 |
| Good Friday | Fri, Apr 3 | Fri, Apr 10 |
| Easter Sunday | Sun, Apr 5 | Sun, Apr 12 |
| Easter Monday | Mon, Apr 6 | Mon, Apr 13 |
| Ascension | Thu, May 14 | Thu, May 21 |
| Pentecost | Sun, May 24 | Sun, May 31 |
| Whit Monday | Mon, May 25 | Mon, Jun 1 |
Ash Wednesday (Western) / Clean Monday (Orthodox)
Easter is always a Sunday.
How to use it
- Enter the year. Type a year between 1900 and 2200, or use the arrows to move one year at a time.
- Read the two dates. Western Easter is the one celebrated by Catholic, Protestant and Anglican churches. Orthodox Easter is celebrated by most Orthodox churches, including the Romanian, Greek, Serbian and Russian ones.
- Check the related days. The table shows the start of Lent, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension, Pentecost and Whit Monday for both traditions.
How the date of Easter is calculated
Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon that falls on or after the spring equinox, with the equinox fixed at 21 March and the moon taken from church tables rather than from the sky. The method of working this out is called the computus. It uses only whole-number arithmetic on the year, so no table of dates is needed and the answer is exact for any year.
Western churches use the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582. This page uses the well-known algorithm published by Jean Meeus in *Astronomical Algorithms* (the anonymous Gregorian computus). Most Orthodox churches keep the older Julian calendar for the computus. They find Easter in the Julian calendar and then the date is shown in the civil calendar, 13 days later between 1900 and 2099 (14 days from 2100).
That is why the two Easters often differ, by one, four or five weeks. They fall on the same day in some years: 2025, 2028, 2031, 2034, 2037 and 2038. The Western Easter is never later than the Orthodox one. Both are always on a Sunday.
The results are checked against known dates and against an independent implementation for every year from 2000 to 2100.
Easter dates from 2024 to 2040
| Year | Western Easter | Orthodox Easter | Days apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | March 31 | May 5 | 35 |
| 2025 | April 20 | April 20 | 0 |
| 2026 | April 5 | April 12 | 7 |
| 2027 | March 28 | May 2 | 35 |
| 2028 | April 16 | April 16 | 0 |
| 2029 | April 1 | April 8 | 7 |
| 2030 | April 21 | April 28 | 7 |
| 2031 | April 13 | April 13 | 0 |
| 2032 | March 28 | May 2 | 35 |
| 2033 | April 17 | April 24 | 7 |
| 2034 | April 9 | April 9 | 0 |
| 2035 | March 25 | April 29 | 35 |
| 2036 | April 13 | April 20 | 7 |
| 2037 | April 5 | April 5 | 0 |
| 2038 | April 25 | April 25 | 0 |
| 2039 | April 10 | April 17 | 7 |
| 2040 | April 1 | May 6 | 35 |
Western Easter always falls between 22 March and 25 April. Orthodox Easter, written in the civil calendar, falls between 4 April and 8 May in the years 1900 to 2099.
Worked examples
2026
Western Easter is Sunday, April 5, 2026 and Orthodox Easter is Sunday, April 12, 2026, one week later. Orthodox Great Lent begins on February 23 and Pentecost falls on May 31.
2027
Western Easter is Sunday, March 28, 2027. Orthodox Easter is Sunday, May 2, 2027, five weeks later. Orthodox Pentecost is June 20.
A year when they coincide
In 2025 both Easters fall on Sunday, April 20, 2025. This happens when the two calculations land on the same Sunday, as in 2028, 2031 and 2034.
Easter as a public holiday
Easter Monday is a public holiday in most of Europe and Good Friday in many countries, but the combination varies. Italy has Easter Monday (Pasquetta); Germany, and England, Wales and Northern Ireland, have Good Friday and Easter Monday; Spain has Good Friday; France has Easter Monday; the United States has no federal holiday for Easter. Romania has Good Friday and the first two days of Orthodox Easter, plus Pentecost (Rusalii) and the following Monday.
The business days calculator uses these dates for each country, so you can count the working days around Easter without looking anything up.
Frequently asked questions
When is Easter this year?
Why do Western and Orthodox Easter fall on different dates?
When do Western and Orthodox Easter coincide?
What is the earliest and latest possible date of Easter?
How is Orthodox Great Lent counted?
Is this calculation reliable for old and far future years?
Last updated Wednesday, October 14, 2026