When is Easter Sunday?
Easter is a moveable feast celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In 325 Constantine,
the Christian emperor of Rome decreed that it’s date should be set as the first Sunday after
the first full moon on or after the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere (which was decreed
by Pope Gregory to be March 21st because the equinox fell on this day in the Julian calendar in
the year 325, the year in which the Council of Nicaea was held) The lunar calendar was a
pre-Christian custom and the origin of Easter is a springtime pagan fertility festival named
after the Germanic goddess of fertility, Oestre, according to the historian Bede.
The Easter bunny, Easter eggs and yellow chicks hark back to the old tradition.
Enter the year when you want to find the date for Easter Sunday.
The date will be given in both the Western
Gregorian (Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant) and in the Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions: