Easter Dates 2025–2045 (Western and Orthodox)

Last reviewed on May 4, 2026

Easter is the most movable major holiday on the calendar. In the Western Christian tradition, it can fall on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the window is shifted later — between April 4 and May 8 in Gregorian-calendar terms. The two traditions agree in some years and not in others. This page lists every Western and Orthodox Easter date from 2025 through 2045, side by side, and explains the rule.

Easter dates 2025–2045

The rule, in one sentence

Easter is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after the ecclesiastical spring equinox.

"Ecclesiastical" matters because the rule uses a fixed church-defined equinox (March 21) and a tabulated lunar cycle, not the actual astronomical events. Astronomical full moons and equinoxes drift slightly from year to year; the ecclesiastical versions are computed from a deterministic table. The result is that Easter can be calculated centuries in advance from arithmetic alone. The algorithm is called the computus.

Why Western and Orthodox dates differ

Both traditions use the same first-Sunday-after-the-spring-full-moon rule. They differ on which calendar to use for the calculation:

• Western (Gregorian) computus. Uses the Gregorian calendar — the calendar introduced in 1582 to fix accumulated drift in the older Julian calendar. The Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant churches use this date.
• Eastern Orthodox computus. Uses the older Julian calendar to define the spring equinox and the Paschal full moon. The Julian calendar currently runs 13 days behind the Gregorian, which means the Orthodox spring equinox falls on April 3 in Gregorian terms, pushing the eligible full-moon window — and Easter — about a week or more later.

When the Julian-defined Paschal full moon happens to land in the same week-long window as the Gregorian one, both traditions celebrate Easter on the same Sunday. When they don't, the Orthodox date is one, four, or five weeks later. They never coincide by accident more than four or five times in any 19-year cycle.

What other dates depend on Easter?

Easter anchors a chain of moveable dates on the Christian liturgical calendar. The most widely observed in secular life:

• Ash Wednesday — 46 days before Easter, the start of Lent.
• Palm Sunday — the Sunday before Easter.
• Good Friday — the Friday before Easter; a public holiday in much of the UK, most Commonwealth countries, and many EU member states. The NYSE is closed on Good Friday even though it is not a US federal holiday.
• Easter Monday — the day after Easter; a public holiday across most of Europe and the Commonwealth, but not in the US.
• Pentecost — 49 days after Easter.

For the year-by-year Easter Sunday page, see the Easter 2026 page (or any other year via the relevant year overview, e.g. 2026 calendars).

The earliest and latest possible Easter

In the Gregorian computus:

• The earliest Easter can fall is March 22. This last happened in 1818 and will next happen in 2285.
• The latest is April 25. This last happened in 1943 and will next happen in 2038, then again in 2190.

Within the range covered by this Site (2025–2045), the earliest Western Easter is March 25, 2035, and the latest is April 25, 2038. The Orthodox window in this range runs from April 5 (2037) to May 8 (which doesn't occur in this range; the latest within 2025–2045 is May 6, 2040).

Why does Easter move at all?

Easter is anchored to the Jewish festival of Passover, which is itself anchored to the lunar cycle. Passover begins on the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, which is the night of the first full moon after the spring equinox. The first Christians, who were Jewish, marked Easter relative to that date. When the early church standardized the date in 325 CE at the Council of Nicaea, they kept the lunar relationship but tied it to a fixed table rather than to actual astronomical observation, which is why the dates now seem to drift from any specific natural cycle.

Common mistakes

• Assuming Easter is always in April. It can fall in March in either tradition.
• Assuming Western and Orthodox Easter fall on the same date. They coincide in some years (2025, 2028, 2031, 2034, 2037, 2038, 2041, 2045 in this range) and not in most.
• Assuming Good Friday is a US federal holiday. It isn't, though it is observed by many employers and the NYSE.
• Assuming Easter Monday is observed in the US. It isn't.
• Booking international meetings the week of Easter without checking which Easter applies in each location.

Related

• Easter Sunday 2026 — date, history, and traditions.
• 2026 US federal holidays — Easter is not on this list.
• Months of the year — March and April context.
• Disclaimer — religious dates set by religious authorities.