When Is Easter 2024? | How Is Easter's Date Determined? (2023)

Easter 2024 will be observed on Sunday, March 31. The most important Christian holiday, Easter, is a “movable feast.” Why does it change everyyear?

What are the commonest and rarest Easter dates? How is the date determined? Where did the word “Easter” come from? Find answers to these questions on our Everything-Easterpage.

When Is Easter2024?

This year, Easter Sunday will be observed on Sunday, March 31.This is based on the Gregorian calendar. However, many Eastern Orthodox churches follow the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian. In 2024, Eastern Orthodox Easter will occur on Sunday, May 5(the Julian calendar date converted to the Gregoriancalendar).

Is Easter Always in March orApril?

Easter is a “movable feast,” so it doesn’t happen on the same date from year to year. In the Gregorian calendar, it is always observed on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25. However, in the Eastern Orthodox church, Easter can be observed between April 4 andMay8.

What Is the Most Common EasterDate?

Over a 500-year period (from 1600 to 2099 AD), it just so happens that Easter will have most often beencelebrated on either March 31 or April16.

What is the Most Unusual EasterDate?

According to long-term averages, the most unusual Easter date is March 22. The second place goes to April 24, and the third place goes to March23.

How Is The Date of EasterDetermined?

Easter Sunday always occurs on the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon.What is the Paschal Full Moon? This is specifically the first Sunday following the full Moon that occurs on or after the March or spring equinox.

While Christmas is fixed to a solar calendar (and near the winter solstice), Easter is based on the lunar cycles of the Jewish calendar. In the Christian religion, the Last Supper (the final meal Jesus shared with his apostles before his crucifixion) was a Passover feast. It’s because Easter is based on a lunar month (which is 29.5 days) that the date of Easter canvary.

Note that the spring equinox date used by the Christian Church is always March 21 to simplify matters. In fact, the astronomical date of theequinox can shift by a day or so. In 2023, the astronomical date of the equinox is Monday, March 20. So, you’ll often see this called the “ecclesiastical”equinox (i.e., the date used by theChurch).

What Happens When the Full Moon and Spring Equinox Occur on the SameDay?

Generally, if the full Moon occurs on the same day as the spring equinox, Easter is observed on the subsequentSunday. However, there is acaveat:

As mentioned above, the Christian Church decided to simplify calculating Easter’s date by always observing the spring equinox on March 21, despite the fact that the equinox date changes over time and is actually gettingearlier.

This discrepancy between the astronomical equinox date and the Church’s observed equinox date can sometimes cause confusion, as in 2019 when the full Moon and the astronomical equinox occurred on the same day—Wednesday, March20.

According to the formula above, this should have meant that Easter would be observed on Sunday, March 24. However, because the Church observes the equinox on March 21, the full Moon technically did not occur “on or just after” the equinox, meaning that the next full Moon would determine Easter’s date instead. Thus in 2019, Easter was held on Sunday, April 21, after the full Moon on Friday, April19.

What Is the Paschal FullMoon?

The word “Paschal,” which is used inthe ecclesiastical (Christian church) calendar, comes from “Pascha,” a transliteration of the Aramaic word meaning“Passover.”

In reference to the full Moon, Paschal refersto the date of the full Moon determined many years ago as the 14th day of a lunar month. Ancient calculations (made in a.d. 325)did not consider certain lunarmotions.

So, the Paschal Full Moon is the 14th day of a lunar month occurring on or after March 21 according to a fixed set of ecclesiastical calendar rules, which does not always match the date of the astronomical full Moon nearest the astronomical springequinox.

It sounds complicated, but the basic idea is to make it simpler to calculate the date for modern calendars. Rest assured, the dates for Easter are calculated long in advance. See past and future Easter dates here.

What Is the GoldenNumber?

Readers often ask us about the Golden Number, traditionally used in calculations for determining the date ofEaster.

The Golden Number is a value used to show the dates of new Moons for each year, following a 19-yearcycle.

The Moon repeats the dates of its phases approximately every 19 years (the Metonic cycle), and the Golden Number represents a year in that cycle. The year of the cycle can then be used to determine the date ofEaster.

To Calculate the GoldenNumber:

Add 1 to any given year and divide the result by 19, ensuring that you calculate to the nearest whole number; the remainder is the Golden Number. If there is no remainder, the Golden Number is19.

For example, to calculate the Golden Number for 2022, we take 2022 and add 1, resulting in 2023, then divide it evenly by 19, giving us 106 with a remainder of 9. Therefore, the Golden Number for 2022is 9, meaning 2022 is the 9th year of the Metoniccycle.

What IsEaster?

Easter is the holiest day in the Christian calendar. It observes the most central tenet of the Christian faith—that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead. The resurrection represents the triumph of good over evil, sin, death, and the physicalbody.

Easter Sunday marksthe end of Holy Week, the end of Lent, and the last day of the Easter Triduum (starting from the evening of Maundy Thursday through Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday), as well as the beginning of the Easter season of the liturgicalyear.

Where Did the Word “Easter” ComeFrom?

Easter, also called Pascha or Resurrection Sunday, is a festival and holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from thedead.

Let’s start with Pascha (Latin), which comes directly from Pesach, the Hebrew word for Passover. Going back to the Hebrew Bible and the story of the first Passover, Moses tells the Israelites to slaughter a Passover lamb and paint its blood on their door. The Lord protected the Israelites from death by passing over their doors and would not “allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down” (Ex.12:23).

Paul connects the resurrected Christ to Passover in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 5:7). He refers to Jesus as the paschal lamb sacrificed for his people’s salvation. Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples during Passover, so it makes sense that the Feast of the Resurrection is connected with the Jewish holiday. Today, Christians celebrate the “Paschalmystery.”

So, where did the word “Easter” come from?The exact origin of the word “Easter” is unclear. It’s not as simple as saying it has religious origins or paganorigins.

Some historians suggest that it came from the phrase hebdomada alba, Latin for “white week,” used to describe the white garments new Christians wore when they were baptized during Holy Week. In Old German, the word became esostarum and, eventually,Easter.

The Venerable Bede, a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon historian also known as Saint Bede, writes that the word Easter comes from the Anglo-Saxon dawn goddess of fertility Eostre, also the goddess of the dawn, who originated in what is now Scandinavia. Over time, early Christians started referring to the Feast of the Resurrection by the name of the month in which it was celebrated—Eosturmonath (what we now callApril).

Alternatively, Eastermay have from an old German word for “east,” which in turn is derived from a Latin word for “dawn.” In the past, the word eastercould mean “to turn toward the east” or “rising” and didn’t necessarily have any implied religious meaning.(Note: It was the Germans who invented the “Easter Bunny” who visited “good” children’s homes, much like they invented SantaClaus.)

Bottom line, no one truly knows the etymologicalorigins of the word, “Easter.” It is one of the oldest Old Englishwords.

In the end, it is unimportant whether Easter comes from the goddess of the dawn or the Latin word for dawn. In whatever language,Easter today is a Christian holiday tocelebrate Christ’s resurrection—and the reminder that death bringslife.

Our Favorite EasterRecipes

Traditional Easter dishes include seasonal produce as well as symbols of spring such as lamb, ham, eggs, asparagus, spring peas, hot cross buns and sweet breads, and a carrotcake.

We have all the traditional Easter recipes and more! Check out our Favorite Easter Recipes.

HappyEaster!

From all the Editors here at The Old Farmer’s Almanac, we wish you a Happy Easter and a joyous springseason!