Easter Calculator
The exact date of Easter for any year โ plus Lent, Pentecost and Pancake Day.
About this calculator
Type a year, get Easter Sunday โ computed with the anonymous Gregorian computus, the exact algorithm in church use since 1583 โ plus the whole train of moveable feasts that hang off it: Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Ascension and Pentecost, and the next eight Easters at a glance.
Why Easter wanders
The rule fixed at Nicaea in 325: Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after March 21. Sun, moon and week don't share a rhythm, so the date roams from March 22 to April 25 โ a 35-day window โ dragging Lent, Pentecost and Pancake Day with it, and making the computus one of history's most-computed calculations (Gauss wrote an algorithm for it; so did centuries of monks). The church's "full moon" is a calculated ecclesiastical one, not the astronomical sky โ usually agreeing, occasionally a day apart, and the moon tool shows the real one. Eastern Orthodox churches compute on the Julian calendar and usually land one to five weeks later โ a genuinely different calculation this tool doesn't cover. Count down to the result, and no, the 35-day window is not evenly distributed โ late March Easters are rare.
Frequently asked questions
How is the date of Easter decided?
First Sunday after the first (ecclesiastical) full moon on or after March 21 โ the rule since the year 325, computed by the algorithm this tool runs. The window is March 22 to April 25.
Why is Orthodox Easter usually later?
Eastern churches run the same rule on the Julian calendar, currently 13 days adrift, and usually land one to five weeks after Western Easter โ occasionally coinciding.
What other days move with Easter?
Everything anchored to it: Shrove Tuesday (Easter โ 47), Ash Wednesday (โ 46), Palm Sunday (โ 7), Good Friday (โ 2), Ascension (+ 39), Pentecost (+ 49). The tool lists each year's dates.
What are the earliest and latest possible Easters?
March 22 (last in 1818, next in 2285) and April 25 (last in 1943, next in 2038) โ both genuinely rare edges of the 35-day window.