What's the earliest and latest Easter can fall?

Under this Gregorian computus, Easter can fall as early as March 22 and as late as April 25.

Is this the same date Orthodox churches observe?

Not usually — Orthodox Easter uses a genuinely separate Julian-calendar calculation and typically falls on a different date, sometimes by several weeks. See this site's Orthodox Easter Date Calculator.

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Easter Date Calculator

Western/Gregorian Easter Sunday for any year, via the Meeus/Jones/Butcher computus.

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About the Easter Date Calculator

Computes Western/Gregorian Easter Sunday for any year, using the Meeus/Jones/Butcher computus algorithm.

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How to use it

Enter a year.
Read the Easter Sunday date.

Formula

The Meeus/Jones/Butcher algorithm — a deterministic integer arithmetic implementation of the Council of Nicaea's rule (325 CE): Easter is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon following the ecclesiastical spring equinox (fixed astronomical approximations, not the exact astronomical moon/equinox for that specific year).

Worked example

Easter 2026 falls on April 5; 2024 on March 31; 2025 on April 20 (matching Orthodox Easter that year).

Interpreting your result

This computes Western/Gregorian Easter, used by Catholic and most Protestant churches. Orthodox churches compute Easter differently, using the Julian calendar — see this site's separate Orthodox Easter Calculator. The two dates coincide only in some years (matching exactly in 2025) and differ, sometimes by several weeks, in most others.

Recommendations

• For the full movable liturgical calendar (Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Pentecost, and more) derived from this date, see this site's Liturgical Calendar (Movable Feasts) tool.

Frequently asked questions

Because it's tied to a lunar cycle (the first full moon after the spring equinox), not a fixed solar calendar date — like Ramadan or Passover, its date shifts within a roughly month-long window.