Easter Date Calculator


Easter Date Calculator
Enter a year between 1583 and 4099:

In the Western Christian Church, Easter falls on the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon (PFM). Easter can be as early as March 22 or as late as April 25. The PFM is an ecclesiastical full moon that does not necessarily correspond to a true astronomical full moon, but rather its date depends on lunar months. The Paschal Full Moon may occur as many as two days before or after an actual full moon.

You can compute the date of Easter by using the tables given below, or you can use the convenient calculator on the left. The tables will give you the date of Easter for any year between 326 AD and 4099 AD, while the calculator only gives Easter dates from 1583 to 4099.

See also the calculators for Good Friday, Palm Sunday, and Ash Wednesday.

Tabular Method for Computing Easter Sunday

The first step is to divide the year by 19 and take the remainder. Then look up the PFM date in the table below by finding where the remainder row and year range column intersect. For example, if want to find the Paschal Full Mood date for 2003, we first compute 2003/19, which gives a remainder of 8. This means the PFM is on April 16.

Paschal Full Moon Dates by Year
Divide year by 19 to find remainder (blue column) and cross-reference with year range.
Year
mod
19
Year Range
326
to
1582
1583
to
1699
1700
to
1899
1900
to
2199
2200
to
2299

2400
to
2499
2300
to
2399

2500
to
2599
2600
to
2899
2900
to
3099
3100
to
3399
3400
to
3499

3600
to
3699
3500
to
3599

3700
to
3799
3800
to
4099
0 A5 A12 A13 A14 A15 A16 A17 A18 A18 M21 M22 M23
1 M25 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 A10 A11
2 A13 M21 M22 M23 M24 M25 M26 M27 M28 M29 M30 M31
3 A2 A9 A10 A11 A12 A13 A14 A15 A16 A17 A18 A18
4 M22 M29 M30 M31 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8
5 A10 A17 A18 A18 M21 M22 M23 M24 M25 M26 M27 M28
6 M30 A6 A7 A8 A9 A10 A11 A12 A13 A14 A15 A16
7 A18 M26 M27 M28 M29 M30 M31 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5
8 A7 A14 A15 A16 A17 A18 A18 M21 M22 M23 M24 M25
9 M27 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 A10 A11 A12 A13
10 A15 M23 M24 M25 M26 M27 M28 M29 M30 M31 A1 A2
11 A4 A11 A12 A13 A14 A15 A16 A17 A17 A18 M21 M22
12 M24 M31 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 A10
13 A12 A18 M21 M22 M23 M24 M25 M26 M27 M28 M29 M30
14 A1 A8 A9 A10 A11 A12 A13 A14 A15 A16 A17 A17
15 M21 M28 M29 M30 M31 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7
16 A9 A16 A17 A17 A18 M21 M22 M23 M24 M25 M26 M27
17 M29 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 A10 A11 A12 A13 A14 A15
18 A17 M25 M26 M27 M28 M29 M30 M31 A1 A2 A3 A4


Next, we need to figure out the next Sunday after PFM. To do this, we must find three numbers A, B, and C from the tables below. The value of A is determined by the PFM date. The value of B depends on the first two digits of the year number. And the value of C depends on the last two digits of the year number.

Find the number between 0 and 6 that corresponds to your PFM date. Call this number A.
    M21 M22 M23 M24 M25
M26 M27 M28 M29 M30 M31 A1
A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8
A9 A10 A11 A12 A13 A14 A15
A16 A17 A18        
0 1 2 3 4 5 6


Find the number between 0 and 6 that corresponds to the first two digits of the year. Call this number B.
        03 04 05
06 07 08 09 10 11 12
13 14 15*     15** 16
  17   18   19 20
  21   22   23 24
  25   26   27 28
  29   30   31 32
  33   34   35 36
  37   38   39 40
6 5 4 3 2 1 0
* 1500-1582: select 4          ** 1583-1599: select 1


Find the number between 0 and 6 that corresponds to the last two digits of the year. Call this number C.
00 01 02 03   04 05
06 07   08 09 10 11
  12 13 14 15   16
17 18 19   20 21 22
23   24 25 26 27  
28 29 30 31   32 33
34 35   36 37 38 39
  40 41 42 43   44
45 46 47   48 49 50
51   52 53 54 55  
56 57 58 59   60 61
62 63   64 65 66 67
  68 69 70 71   72
73 74 75   76 77 78
79   80 81 82 83  
84 85 86 87   88 89
90 91   92 93 94 95
  96 97 98 99    
0 1 2 3 4 5 6


For example, using the PFM date of April 16, 2003, we get

A = 0
B = 0
C = 3

Now add up A, B, and C to get a number between 0 and 18, and use the table below to find the value of D that corresponds to your sum. In this example, our sum is 3, which corresponds to D = 4.

Compute A + B + C. Find the number between 1 and 7 that corresponds to the sum.  Call this number D.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18    
7 6 5 4 3 2 1


Finally, add the value of D to your Paschal Full Moon date to calculate the date of Easter. Using the example, since our PFM is April 16 and D = 4, the date of Easter Sunday in 2003 is April 20.

Note that if your PFM is in late March, adding D to the PFM date will put you in April. For example, if the PFM is March 29 and D = 7, the Easter Sunday falls on April 5.


© Had2Know 2010