The rule
The US Naval Observatory states the rule in its precise form: Easter is the Sunday after the tabular full moon that occurs on or after March 21. Two words carry the weight. The equinox is fixed on March 21 regardless of where the sun actually is that year, and the full moon is the 14th day of a tabular lunation, a date from the church's tables, which stay more or less in step with the astronomical moon but are not the same thing. The popular version, "the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring", is only approximately true; in some years the astronomical full moon and the tabular one fall on different days and the rule follows the table.
The tables were set in 1582 by the calendar reform under Pope Gregory XIII, and they are what the arithmetic below reproduces. Because the moon is tabular, the whole thing reduces to remainders: where the year sits in the 19-year cycle of the moon, where it sits in the 4-year leap cycle, and the century corrections that the reform added.
Why March 22 is the earliest and April 25 the latest
The tabular full moon that counts is the first one on or after March 21. The earliest it can be is March 21 itself. If that day is a Saturday, Easter is the next day, Sunday, March 22. That is the floor.
The ceiling comes out of the algorithm. The number of days from March 21 to the tabular full moon, h below, is a remainder after dividing by 30, so it runs from 0 to 29 and the full moon is never later than April 19. In the two cases where that would push Easter past April 25, the tables move the full moon one day earlier, which the algorithm applies through the correction m, so the latest full moon that counts is April 18. If April 18 is itself a Sunday, Easter is the Sunday after, April 25. The Naval Observatory confirms both ends: Easter can never occur before March 22 or later than April 25. In the 25 years of the table below, the earliest Easter is March 25, 2035, and the latest is April 25, 2038. The floor is rare: the last March 22 was in 1818 and the next is in 2285. April 25 was last Easter in 1943 and comes again in 2038.
The algorithm, with 2026 worked through
The computation below is the anonymous Gregorian algorithm, often credited to Meeus, Jones and Butcher. Every line is integer arithmetic: "div" keeps the whole part of a division, "mod" its remainder. It works for any year in the Gregorian calendar with no tables and no exceptions.
| Step | For 2026 | Result |
|---|---|---|
| a = year mod 19 | 2026 mod 19 | 12 |
| b = year div 100 | 2026 div 100 | 20 |
| c = year mod 100 | 2026 mod 100 | 26 |
| d = b div 4 | 20 div 4 | 5 |
| e = b mod 4 | 20 mod 4 | 0 |
| f = (b + 8) div 25 | 28 div 25 | 1 |
| g = (b − f + 1) div 3 | 20 div 3 | 6 |
| h = (19a + b − d − g + 15) mod 30 | 252 mod 30 | 12 |
| i = c div 4 | 26 div 4 | 6 |
| k = c mod 4 | 26 mod 4 | 2 |
| l = (32 + 2e + 2i − h − k) mod 7 | 30 mod 7 | 2 |
| m = (a + 11h + 22l) div 451 | 188 div 451 | 0 |
| month = (h + l − 7m + 114) div 31 | 128 div 31 | 4 |
| day = (h + l − 7m + 114) mod 31 + 1 | 128 mod 31 + 1 | 5 |
Month 4 is April, so Easter 2026 is April 5, a Sunday. The day of the week finder shows the weekday of any date with its own steps, which is a quick way to check a computed Easter: if it is not a Sunday, something went wrong. A few of the variables have a meaning. a is the year's place in the 19-year lunar cycle, h is the number of days from March 21 to the tabular full moon (in 2026: April 2), and l is the number of days from that full moon to the next Sunday. m is the correction that keeps the result at or below April 25; it is 0 in most years and 1 in 2049.
The days that move with it
Several dates are fixed offsets from Easter Sunday, so they are found by adding or subtracting days. The add or subtract days tool does the same move for any date.
| Day | Offset | 2026 | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ash Wednesday | -46 days | February 18 | 46 days before Easter, always a Wednesday |
| Palm Sunday | -7 days | March 29 | The Sunday before Easter |
| Good Friday | -2 days | April 3 | The Friday before Easter |
| Easter Sunday | 0 days | April 5 | The Sunday the computus gives |
| Pentecost | +49 days | May 24 | 7 weeks after Easter, so always a Sunday |
Easter dates 2026 to 2050
Every row is computed from the year with the two algorithms. The weekday column is a check, taken from the calendar rather than from the computus; all 25 Western and all 25 Orthodox dates come out as a Sunday. 5 of the 25 Western Easters fall in March, 20 in April.
| Year | Ash Wed. | Good Fri. | Easter | Weekday | Pentecost | Orthodox |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Feb 18 | Apr 3 | Apr 5 | Sunday | May 24 | Apr 12 |
| 2027 | Feb 10 | Mar 26 | Mar 28 | Sunday | May 16 | May 2 |
| 2028 | Mar 1 | Apr 14 | Apr 16 | Sunday | Jun 4 | Apr 16 (same) |
| 2029 | Feb 14 | Mar 30 | Apr 1 | Sunday | May 20 | Apr 8 |
| 2030 | Mar 6 | Apr 19 | Apr 21 | Sunday | Jun 9 | Apr 28 |
| 2031 | Feb 26 | Apr 11 | Apr 13 | Sunday | Jun 1 | Apr 13 (same) |
| 2032 | Feb 11 | Mar 26 | Mar 28 | Sunday | May 16 | May 2 |
| 2033 | Mar 2 | Apr 15 | Apr 17 | Sunday | Jun 5 | Apr 24 |
| 2034 | Feb 22 | Apr 7 | Apr 9 | Sunday | May 28 | Apr 9 (same) |
| 2035 | Feb 7 | Mar 23 | Mar 25 | Sunday | May 13 | Apr 29 |
| 2036 | Feb 27 | Apr 11 | Apr 13 | Sunday | Jun 1 | Apr 20 |
| 2037 | Feb 18 | Apr 3 | Apr 5 | Sunday | May 24 | Apr 5 (same) |
| 2038 | Mar 10 | Apr 23 | Apr 25 | Sunday | Jun 13 | Apr 25 (same) |
| 2039 | Feb 23 | Apr 8 | Apr 10 | Sunday | May 29 | Apr 17 |
| 2040 | Feb 15 | Mar 30 | Apr 1 | Sunday | May 20 | May 6 |
| 2041 | Mar 6 | Apr 19 | Apr 21 | Sunday | Jun 9 | Apr 21 (same) |
| 2042 | Feb 19 | Apr 4 | Apr 6 | Sunday | May 25 | Apr 13 |
| 2043 | Feb 11 | Mar 27 | Mar 29 | Sunday | May 17 | May 3 |
| 2044 | Mar 2 | Apr 15 | Apr 17 | Sunday | Jun 5 | Apr 24 |
| 2045 | Feb 22 | Apr 7 | Apr 9 | Sunday | May 28 | Apr 9 (same) |
| 2046 | Feb 7 | Mar 23 | Mar 25 | Sunday | May 13 | Apr 29 |
| 2047 | Feb 27 | Apr 12 | Apr 14 | Sunday | Jun 2 | Apr 21 |
| 2048 | Feb 19 | Apr 3 | Apr 5 | Sunday | May 24 | Apr 5 (same) |
| 2049 | Mar 3 | Apr 16 | Apr 18 | Sunday | Jun 6 | Apr 25 |
| 2050 | Feb 23 | Apr 8 | Apr 10 | Sunday | May 29 | Apr 17 |
The countdown timer counts down to any of these dates and can be shared as a link; the days between dates tool gives the number of days and weekdays from today to the next one.
Why the Orthodox date differs
The Naval Observatory notes that the Eastern churches still determine Easter with the older Julian calendar method. Their rule reads the same, but their March 21 is the Julian March 21, which in this century is April 3 on the civil calendar, and their lunar tables have drifted a few days from the Gregorian ones. The Orthodox column above is computed with the Julian computus and then moved 13 days forward, the gap between the two calendars from 1900 to 2099. The two Easters coincide in 8 of the 25 years (2028, 2031, 2034, 2037, 2038, 2041, 2045, 2048); in the other years the Orthodox date is one week or 5 weeks later. Practice varies among the Eastern churches, so for a particular church check its own calendar.
Checking a date by hand
- Find h: the days from March 21 to the tabular full moon. March 21 plus h days is the full moon date; for 2026 that is April 2.
- Find the weekday of that date with the day of the week finder and move forward to the next Sunday. If the full moon is a Sunday, Easter is the Sunday after, not the same day.
- Compare with the table. If the year's m is 1, the tabular full moon is one day earlier than March 21 plus h, because the tables shift it to keep Easter at or before April 25; the algorithm allows for this by taking a week off, and a hand count that ignores it lands seven days late.
Frequently asked questions
What is the rule for the date of Easter?
Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon that falls on or after March 21. The church calendar fixes the spring equinox on March 21 and takes the full moon from tables, not from the sky, so the date can be worked out for any year with whole-number arithmetic. The result always falls between March 22 and April 25.
When is Easter in 2026?
Western Easter 2026 is Sunday, April 5. Ash Wednesday is February 18, Good Friday April 3 and Pentecost May 24. Orthodox Easter 2026 is April 12.
Why is Orthodox Easter on a different day?
Most Orthodox churches keep the older tables built on the Julian calendar, while Western churches use the Gregorian tables introduced with the calendar reform of 1582. Both say "the Sunday after the full moon after March 21", but their March 21 and their full moon tables differ, so the civil date usually differs by a few weeks. In some years the two coincide; between 2026 and 2050 that happens in 2028, 2031, 2034, 2037, 2038, 2041, 2045, 2048.
What is the earliest and the latest date Easter can fall on?
March 22 and April 25. If the tabular full moon falls on Saturday, March 21, the next day is Easter, March 22. The latest tabular full moon that counts is April 18, and when that is a Sunday the following Sunday is April 25. The last March 22 Easter was in 1818, the next is in 2285; April 25 was last Easter in 1943 and comes next in 2038.
How do I count the days to Easter?
Take the date from the table and use the days between dates tool, which counts the calendar days and the weekdays from today to that Sunday. For a date a fixed number of days before or after the feast, such as 46 days back for Ash Wednesday, the add or subtract days tool moves a date by that count.