When is Easter?

What Date is Easter Sunday?

Most of our Western festivals are simple to predict. They either occur on the same date each year or at a fixed position such as "the first Sunday". Easter on the other hand is what is called a moveable feast. As such the date changes every year. Easter Sunday can fall on any date from March 22 to April 25.

The reason for this variation in the date of Easter is its origins in pagan festivals. The date is actually based on the lunar calendar rather than our more well-known solar one. There have been some attempts to change the date of Easter away from the old pagan-inspired lunar calendar, however these have met with little support.

The official definition of Western Easter is that it takes place on:

The first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox.

When is Easter 2008?

The Western date for 2008 Easter Sunday will be March 23rd.

Western Easter dates for the next few years are:

2008 March 23
2009 April 12
2010 April 4
2011 April 24

Note that these are the dates for the Western Easter Sunday.

Computus

The method of calculating the date of Easter Sunday is known as "computus", which is simply the Latin for "computation". This can become very complex - for more information, see this article on Wikipedia.