Easter Date Calculator
Find the date of Easter for any year.
The moveable feast
Easter is a moveable feast, falling on a different date each year rather than a fixed one, which is why it needs calculating. This finds the date of Easter for any year, and the reason it moves is a fascinating piece of calendar history.
Enter a year to find the date of Easter.
Why Easter moves around
Easter's date is set by a rule tied to both the sun and the moon: it falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. Because this combines the solar calendar with the lunar cycle, the date drifts across a range of several weeks in spring from year to year, unlike fixed holidays. The calculation to pin it down is genuinely intricate — there is a famous algorithm for it — because it must reconcile these different cycles. This lunar link is also why several other dates in the calendar, which are defined relative to Easter, move with it each year. The moveable nature of Easter is one of the more curious survivals of how our calendar blends ancient solar and lunar reckoning, and working out its date is a small triumph of calendar mathematics.
Common questions
Why does Easter fall on a different date each year?
Because its rule ties it to the moon — the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox — so it drifts across several weeks in spring.
Why is calculating it complicated?
Because it must reconcile the solar calendar with the lunar cycle, which requires a famously intricate algorithm to pin down the exact date.
Is anything uploaded?
No. The calculation happens in your browser.