Unlike fixed celebrations like
Christmas, New Year or
Halloween, the dates for Easter move every year, which can easily cause confusion when working out days off work or school breaks. But there is perhaps more complexity that goes into working out when Easter falls every year than some might initially realise. The dates are decided via a set of calculations in a process known historically as “the computus”, which involves the cycles of the
moon and harkens back to the timekeeping of the Roman era. Some scholars believe that in the Early Roman Empire, as Christianity first began to take root as a religion, the routes of communication were so poor that it was impractical for the Pope to tell church leaders all over the world when to celebrate every year. As a result, they had to devise their processes. In fact, in the Dark Ages, it was not unheard of for people in
England to celebrate Easter on different dates, feasting while others were still fasting for Lent. The simplest explanation for the process of calculating Easter is that you work out the first Sunday after the full moon following the Spring Equinox. This means if the full moon falls on a Sunday, then Easter is pegged for next Sunday. However, this simple version can’t be relied on, and your best bet may be to check dates online. If you are set on calculating the dates yourself, you can use a fairly intimating formula put together by mathematicians over the years. It’s important to note that these dates only apply to the Protestant and Catholic Church, which use what is known as the Gregorian Calendar. Orthodox Christians, who mainly live in countries like
Russia,
Ukraine, Georgia, Greece and Macedonia, will be waiting well over a month for their Easter. Orthodox Easter Sunday is not until the 5 May in 2024. This is because the Orthodox Church uses what is known as the Julian Calendar, which
Britain used until 1752. Why does Easter move every year? Easter moves every year because of when the resurrection of Jesus was said to have happened in the New Testament. In the Gospel of John, it is said that Jesus died on the third day of the Jewish festival Passover. The festival of Passover, which commemorates the Jews fleeing
Egypt, also changes from year to year and is based on the traditional Jewish calendar. The traditional Hebrew calendar uses cycles of the moon rather than the Sun and doesn’t sync well with the traditional Western calendar. When is Easter 2025? Easter is set to fall much later in 2025 than in 2024. Good Friday is set to fall on Friday, 18 April; Easter Sunday is set to fall on 20 April, and Easter Monday is set to fall on 21 April. The dates for Orthodox Easter just happen to coincide with the dates celebrated by Western Christians in 2025, which is fairly unusual. Ascension Day , which is another Christian festival which commemorates Jesus ascending to heaven after his resurrection in the Easter story, is pegged for 29 May 2025. When did Jesus actually die? The day on which Jesus died has been the target of significant attention from scholars over hundreds of years. These scholars would try to cross-reference events from the New Testament with real historical records to try and get accurate estimates. These scholars have estimated that Jesus probably died between 30 to 33 AD. This is based on the facts in the New Testament, which says Jesus was ordered to be crucified by Governor Pontius Pilate. Pilate was a real historical figure who was written about by Jewish scholars at the time and can be seen on Roman coins and statues, and there are records about when he would have been governor of the area Jesus lived. The date is calculated based on when the Jews would have celebrated the changing holiday of Passover at year. A popular option for Jesus’s death among scholars is 7 April of the year 30 AD , based on when the Jews celebrated Passover that year. Another popular option among scholars is the 3rd of April 33 AD. Some scholars have even incorporated other ways of finding out the date of his death, including when the Jewish King Herod was said to have died and the life of Saint Paul. Despite all the uncertainty and complexity, the Bible is very clear about the time of day when Jesus is said to have died. The Gospel of Mark says he would have died in the 9th hour of the day in traditional Jewish timekeeping, which would be 3 pm local time.