When Is Easter 2026?
Easter is a movable feast: its date changes every year, and the holidays tied to it move along with it. Here you can see when Easter Sunday falls in the coming years and how the related feasts line up.
Easter Sunday 2026: 5 April 2026
- Easter Sunday
- 5 April
| Feast | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easter Sunday | 31/03 | 20/04 | 05/04 | 28/03 | 16/04 | 01/04 | 21/04 |
How the date of Easter is worked out
Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox (fixed by convention at 21 March). Because that full moon shifts from year to year, the date is not fixed and can land anywhere between 22 March and 25 April.
Once Easter Sunday is known, every other movable feast follows from it: Good Friday is two days before and Easter Monday the day after, while Ash Wednesday is counted back 46 days. Ascension Day falls 39 days after Easter, Pentecost (Whit Sunday) 49 days after, and Corpus Christi 60 days after — so when Easter moves, all of these dates move with it.
Examples: how the other feasts are derived
- In 2026 Easter Sunday falls on 5 April. Every other movable feast is simply counted from that date.
- Good Friday: 5 April − 2 days = Friday 3 April. Easter Monday: 5 April + 1 day = Monday 6 April.
- Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent: 46 days before Easter, so 18 February 2026; Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter, 29 March.
- Ascension Day: 39 days after Easter, Thursday 14 May; Pentecost (Whit Sunday) follows 49 days after, on Sunday 24 May, with Whit Monday on 25 May. Corpus Christi is 60 days after Easter, Thursday 4 June 2026.
- In the following years the date keeps moving: Easter falls on 28 March 2027, 16 April 2028 and 1 April 2029.
Why the date of Easter matters
Because it follows the Moon, Easter can shift by more than a month: the earliest it can fall is 22 March and the latest is 25 April. The swing between nearby years is striking — Easter was on 31 March in 2024, 20 April in 2025 and comes back to 5 April in 2026.
The date of Easter is not just a religious marker: a whole run of public holidays hangs off it. Good Friday and Easter Monday are bank holidays across much of the English-speaking world, and the long Easter weekend is one of the busiest of the year for travel and time off.
Knowing well in advance when Easter falls makes it easier to plan holidays, school breaks and trips. That is why it helps to see it alongside the other holidays of the year and the lunar calendar that sets its date.
The reason the date is so hard to predict is that the spring full moon arrives about 11 days earlier each year and then "jumps" back by a lunar month, so Easter swings to and fro rather than drifting steadily. The table above already lists every year, and the calculator at the top works for any year you enter.
In practice you never have to work the tangled lunar cycle out by hand: the date of Easter and of every feast that depends on it is already fixed for each year, ready to use for planning holidays and travel.
See also: Holidays 2026 · Leap year explained
Frequently asked questions
- What date is Easter in 2026?
- Easter Sunday falls on 5 April 2026. Good Friday is on 3 April and Easter Monday on 6 April.
- Why does the date of Easter change every year?
- Because Easter is not tied to a fixed calendar date but to the Moon: Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. Since the full moon falls on a different day each year, Easter shifts too — always between 22 March and 25 April.
- What are the earliest and latest dates Easter can fall on?
- Easter Sunday can fall as early as 22 March and as late as 25 April. Both are rare: the last 22 March Easter was in 1818 and the next is in 2285, while 25 April last occurred in 1943 and returns in 2038.
- When are Ascension Day and Pentecost in 2026?
- Ascension Day falls 39 days after Easter Sunday, always on a Thursday, and Pentecost (Whit Sunday) 49 days after. In 2026, with Easter on 5 April, Ascension is on 14 May and Pentecost on 24 May, with Whit Monday on 25 May.
- Why does Orthodox Easter often fall on a different date?
- The Orthodox churches calculate Easter using the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian one. The two calendars now differ by 13 days, so Orthodox Easter usually falls later — though in some years the two dates coincide. The dates shown here are for Gregorian (Western) Easter.
- What is the difference between Easter Sunday and Easter Monday?
- Easter Sunday is the feast day itself, always a Sunday; Easter Monday is the public holiday that follows it. Together with Good Friday they form the long Easter weekend, a peak period for travel and family gatherings.