What date is Easter? Why does the date of Easter change every year?

Easter is a big holiday of the year around the world. Here are the things you need to know about Easter .

Even if you know what Easter is, you may not know when it is. Easter is always on a Sunday, but sometimes that Sunday falls in March and the weather is very cold. Sometimes it is in late April, and everyone can wear their best clothes without having to put on a bulky winter coat. So when is Easter in 2025, and why does it change every year?

Things to know about Easter

• What date is Easter 2025?
• What is the rarest day for Easter?
• What are the most popular Easter holidays?
• Why does Easter always fall on Sunday?
• Why is Easter a different day every year?
• What happens when a full moon and vernal equinox occur on the same day?

What date is Easter 2025?

In 2025, Easter falls on Sunday, April 20. But depending on the year, it can fall on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25.

Easter dates for the next six years:

• Easter 2026: April 5, 2026
• Easter 2027: March 28, 2027
• Easter 2028: April 16, 2028
• Easter 2029: April 1, 2029
• Easter 2030: April 21, 2030
• Easter 2031: April 13, 2031

What is the rarest day for Easter?

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which has calculated Easter dates from 1600 to 2099, the rarest Easter is March 24. In nearly 500 years, Easter has only occurred on that day twice.

And here's another fun fact about that March date: The last time Easter fell on March 24 was 1940—and it won't happen again until 2391.

What are the most popular Easter holidays?

The most common Easter dates are March 31 and April 16. Easter has fallen on or will fall on each of those dates 22 times over the 500-year period noted above.

Why does Easter always fall on Sunday?

One thing about Easter never changes: it falls on a Sunday. That’s because the holiday was born around the death and resurrection of Jesus. According to Christian doctrine, Jesus died on what we call Good Friday and rose from the dead a few days later, on Sunday, before ascending to heaven.

But which Sunday? All of these events happened about 2,000 years ago, and we don't have the exact date. However, one common time frame is the "milestone" that determines the date of Easter, which is the Jewish Passover.

Why is Easter a different day every year?

The date of Passover changes every year, due to the lunar cycle on which the Jewish calendar is based, and Easter is related to it to some extent. But it's more complicated than that. The Christian calendar is actually tied to the solar calendar, and the timing of major holidays is related to the seasons and the light. This is why Christmas falls around the winter solstice, after the longest night, when the 'Light of the World' appears .  Not because Jesus' birth date was actually December 25.

The exact date of Easter seems arbitrary, but it is always the Sunday after the first full moon (also known as the Easter Full Moon) that occurs after the spring equinox. This means that Easter can fall anytime between March 22 and April 25.

Why a full moon? Easter is all about the Moon's maximum light. So Sunday, the day immediately following the spring equinox (12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness), plus a full moon (lots of light), means maximum light—the perfect day for the holiest festival of the Christian year.

The decision about when to celebrate Easter—and whether it should coincide with Passover—was a topic discussed by bishops at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. A more standard calendar, the Gregorian calendar, was established in the 16th century under Pope Gregory XIII, and it is the internationally accepted civil calendar that most of the world follows today. However, Orthodox Christians still follow the Julian calendar, the previous calendar created by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, which means that for them, Easter falls between April 4 and May 8.

What happens when a full moon and vernal equinox occur on the same day?

As a general rule, if the full moon occurs on the same day as the vernal equinox, Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after. But note: Easter is calculated using the church holiday, which is the day of the full moon and the vernal equinox (not the astronomical date). The church holiday is used by the Christian church and may differ from the astronomical date.

For example, in 2019, when the full moon and astronomical equinox occurred on the same day—Wednesday, March 20—Easter was celebrated on Sunday, April 21, instead of Sunday, March 24. Why? Because the church always celebrates the vernal equinox on March 21, and in that case, the full moon did not occur on or after the vernal equinox. The next full moon, on April 19, was then used to determine the date of Easter.