Spring is on the horizon, and it’s time for that perennial question: When is Easter? Much like the Easter Bunny, this holiday hops around. But it’s always on a Sunday somewhere from March 22 to April 25. This year, the holiday is on the early side—April 5.
Why does Easter’s date change? It’s not random. The rule that determines the date of Easter stretches all the way back to the Council of Nicaea in 325 and is tied to an annual solar event as well as the lunar calendar. In other words, the calendar date may change, but the system behind it is as reliable as the mechanism of a pocket watch.
Here’s everything you need to know about it.
How is the Easter date determined every year?
Easter always occurs on the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon, which is the first full moon after the spring equinox. At the moment of the equinox, the sun sits directly over the Earth’s equator, and the day it happens (always March 19, 20, or 21) marks the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
In 2026, the spring equinox falls on March 20. The first full moon after that happens the night of April 1. The 1st is a Wednesday, and Easter follows the Sunday after. That gives us Easter on April 5.
This way of determining Easter’s date was established at the Council of Nicaea in 325, and it eventually became the standard. Even in 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII switched the Catholic Church to the Gregorian calendar to fix an error in the leap year formula, the method of determining Easter stayed the same. (Though the change did require cutting 10 days from October that year to realign the calendar with the seasons!)
The Catholic Church’s adoption of the Gregorian calendar is also the origin of the sometimes different dates for Catholic and Protestant Easter versus Orthodox Easter. Most Orthodox Christian religions remain on the Julian calendar, which is now 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. The two Easters do coincide sometimes, though, depending on the lunar cycle. This year, Orthodox Easter falls on April 12.
When is Easter in relation to Lent?
Easter Sunday on April 5, 2026, marks the end of the Lenten season in the Christian faith. Though the celebration of the resurrection of Christ on Easter is the main event, there are several important commemorations leading up to the holy day.
Lent itself is 40 days long, not including Sundays. (So, technically, it’s 46 days long, or six-and-a-half weeks.) Why is it 40 days, you might wonder? The United Methodist Church states, “It is a time of preparation and focus, reminiscent of Jesus’ time in the wilderness before he started his public ministry.”
The first day of Lent is Ash Wednesday, which fell on February 18, 2026 (it’s always the day after Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras). On Ash Wednesday, churchgoers head to their local congregations. There, priests and pastors rub ashes from the previous year’s Palm Sunday palms on attendees’ foreheads. They do this while reciting Genesis 3:19, which says, “...for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Many people choose to give up something or give themselves to charity during the 40-day observance of Lent, which is traditionally a season of “prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.”
The last week of Lent is Holy Week, which leads up to Easter. It begins with Palm Sunday (March 29, 2026), marking Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem where he was greeted with palm branches. Next is Holy Wednesday (April 1), which recognizes Judas Iscariot and his plot to betray the savior. Holy Thursday (April 2) is the day of the Last Supper. Good Friday (April 3) commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Easter Sunday (April 5), celebrates the day that Jesus rose from the tomb and also marks the end of Lent.
More Easter date trivia
Q. How often does Easter fall in March?
A. Easter falls in March 23% of the time, according to a list of Easter dates from the years 1600 to 2099 published by census.gov. Easter happens in March 116 years out of 500, according to the data. The other 77% of Easter Sundays occur in April, or 384 out of 500.
Q. When is Easter 2027?
A. Someone's a planner! Easter 2027 is an early one—it falls on March 28. (And before you ask, Easter 2028 occurs on April 16.)
Q. When is Orthodox Easter?
A. The Eastern Orthodox Church follows the Julian calendar (versus the Gregorian calendar), which often means a different date for Easter Sunday, though the calendars do sometimes coincide. This year, it falls on April 12.
Terri Robertson has been an editor and storyteller for more than 20 years. As Senior Digital Editor at Country Living, she curates daily newsletters and has found a niche writing about odd corners of the internet and people embracing American life off the beaten path. She’s passionate about gardening and nature, writing about everything from super monarchs to supermoons. She also contributes to Country Living’s entertainment coverage, including HGTV stars, popular TV shows, and music.
Terri began her career proofreading Southern Living cookbooks—a first job befitting an English major with a childhood penchant for reading her mom’s cookbooks—and went on to edit many food, garden, and lifestyle titles. She later worked for the University of Alabama’s marketing and communications division, capturing the stories of students and faculty.
Returning to lifestyle media in 2017, she covered local arts, culture, and business news in Birmingham, Alabama, for Bham Now and later served as digital media manager for Flower magazine, a luxury home, garden, and lifestyle publication, before finding her home at Country Living. She and her husband live with their four cats in Birmingham.
