Easter 2026 is on Sunday, April 5
Orthodox Easter is on Sunday, April 12.
| Western churchesCatholic and Protestant | Orthodox churchesEastern Orthodox | |
|---|---|---|
| Lent beginsForty days of prayer, fasting and giving that lead to Easter.About Lent | Ash Wednesday | Clean Monday |
| Palm SundayJesus rides into Jerusalem, and Holy Week begins.About Palm Sunday | ||
| Good FridayThe day Jesus was crucified and died.About Holy Week | Holy Friday | |
| EasterJesus rises from the dead: the oldest and greatest feast of the Church.About Easter | Pascha | |
| AscensionForty days after Easter, Jesus is taken up into heaven. Always a Thursday. | ||
| PentecostFifty days after Easter, the Holy Spirit comes upon the apostles.About Pentecost | Pentecost (Trinity) | |
| Advent beginsThe weeks of waiting and making ready for Christmas.A prayer for each day of Advent | First Sunday of Advent | Nativity Fast |
| ChristmasThe birth of Jesus.Why December 25? | Nativity of Christ |
2026 to 2028, as all-day events.
Pray through Lent
A short prayer each morning from Ash Wednesday, February 10, to Easter.
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Why are there two Easters?
Both keep Easter on the Sunday after the first full moon of spring. Orthodox churches reckon it by the older Julian calendar, so their Easter falls on the same day or one, four or five weeks later. Orthodox Easter explained
The Orthodox dates for Advent and Christmas are those of the Russian, Serbian and Georgian churches, which keep the old calendar. The Greek, Antiochian and Romanian churches begin the Nativity Fast on November 15 and keep Christmas on December 25.
How the date of Easter is set
Easter is kept on the Sunday after the first full moon of spring. The rule goes back to the fourth century: the Council of Nicaea in 325 asked every church to keep Easter on the same Sunday, and the tables that set the date were worked out in Alexandria. Churches do not watch the sky for it. They count the moon by those tables and fix the first day of spring on March 21, so Western Easter always falls between March 22 and April 25.
Orthodox churches keep the same rule on the older Julian calendar, which now runs thirteen days behind the one on our walls. Their Easter falls between April 4 and May 8. In a little more than one year in four the two Easters fall on the same day, as they will in 2028; otherwise the Orthodox Easter comes one, four or five weeks later.
The days that move with Easter
Most of the season moves with Easter. Ash Wednesday comes 46 days before it: the forty days of Lent, with the six Sundays left out, since every Sunday keeps the feast of the Resurrection. Palm Sunday is a week before Easter and Good Friday two days before. The Ascension comes on the fortieth day counting Easter Day itself, so always on a Thursday, and Pentecost on the fiftieth, seven weeks after Easter. In the Orthodox churches Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, seven weeks before Pascha, after Forgiveness Sunday.
The days that stay put
Christmas is fixed on December 25, and Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before it, between November 27 and December 3. Orthodox churches that keep the old calendar mark the same days thirteen days later on ours: the Nativity Fast from November 28, and Christmas on January 7.
Easter dates, 2026 to 2036
| Year | Western Easter | Orthodox Easter |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | April 5 | April 12 |
| 2027 | March 28 | May 2 |
| 2028 | April 16 | April 16 (the same day) |
| 2029 | April 1 | April 8 |
| 2030 | April 21 | April 28 |
| 2031 | April 13 | April 13 (the same day) |
| 2032 | March 28 | May 2 |
| 2033 | April 17 | April 24 |
| 2034 | April 9 | April 9 (the same day) |
| 2035 | March 25 | April 29 |
| 2036 | April 13 | April 20 |