We will be closed on Sunday, April 5th in observance of Easter Sunday. Do you often wonder why the date changes so much for this particular holiday? Well, we did too, so where do we go for information?
The good old-fashioned Farmer’s Almanac gives us this insight into the seemingly random dates each year for Easter.
Here, The Old Farmer’s Almanac explains when Easter is celebrated, why its date changes from year to year, how the Moon helps determine Easter Sunday, and where the holiday’s name and customs originated.
Easter’s date in 2026 is Sunday, April 5. While many Christian churches follow the Gregorian calendar, some Eastern Orthodox churches continue to use the Julian calendar, which results in a later Easter date.
Easter is known as a “movable feast,” meaning it does not fall on the same calendar date each year. Unlike Christmas, which is fixed to the solar calendar, Easter is determined by the Moon.
Easter Sunday is observed on the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon. The Paschal Full Moon is the Full Moon that occurs on or after the Church’s fixed date for the spring equinox, March 21.
Because Easter is tied to lunar cycles, its date changes from year to year. Our Moon Phase Calendar shows how the Moon’s phases shift throughout the year.
Because lunar months last about 29.5 days and do not align neatly with our calendar months, Easter’s date shifts from year to year. In the Gregorian calendar, Easter can fall on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25.
Easter is a “movable feast,” meaning it does not fall on the same date each year. In the Gregorian calendar, Easter Sunday is always observed on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, which follows the Julian calendar, Easter can fall later—between April 4 and May 8 when converted to the Gregorian calendar.
Over a 500-year period (from 1600 to 2099), Easter most often falls on March 31 or April 16.
The rarest date for Easter is March 22. Other uncommon dates include April 24 and March 23.
The method used to calculate Easter dates was established in A.D. 325. To simplify the process, the Christian Church fixed the spring equinox at March 21, even though the astronomical equinox can vary slightly from year to year.
This fixed date is known as the ecclesiastical equinox. As a result, the Paschal Full Moon used to determine Easter does not always coincide with the astronomical Full Moon closest to the true equinox.
When the Full Moon falls on the same day as the astronomical spring equinox, Easter is not always observed on the following Sunday. Because the Church observes the equinox as March 21, a Full Moon that occurs earlier may not qualify as the Paschal Full Moon.
This occurred in 2019, when the astronomical equinox and Full Moon both fell on March 20. Since the Church’s equinox is March 21, that Full Moon did not count, and Easter was instead observed on Sunday, April 21, following the next Full Moon.
Easter is the most important feast in the Christian calendar. It commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and marks the end of Holy Week and Lent, as well as the beginning of the Easter season.
We’ve almost finished with this year! That means we will close an hour early, at 4 pm instead of 5 this Saturday, December 31st and remain closed on New Year’s Day 2023!
