Western Easter
Sunday, March 29, 1959
Gregorian computus. Golden number 3, epact 21, Paschal full moon March 23.
Easter 1959
Easter 1959: Sunday, March 29
In 1959 Western Easter, reckoned in the Gregorian calendar, falls on Sunday, March 29, 1959. Orthodox Easter (Pascha), reckoned in the Julian calendar, falls on Sunday, May 3, 1959, five weeks later.
Orthodox Easter
Sunday, May 3, 1959
Julian computus: April 20 in the Julian calendar, plus 13 days to reach the Gregorian calendar.
In 1959 the two Easters are 35 days apart: Orthodox Easter is five weeks after Western Easter. They last fell on the same day in 1957 (April 21). They next fall on the same day in 1960 (April 17).
Western · Mar 29
Orthodox · May 3
MarchAprilMayThe moving feasts of 1959
Western feasts, 1959
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Shrove Tuesday | Tuesday, February 10, 1959 | −47 days |
| Ash Wednesday | Wednesday, February 11, 1959 | −46 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, March 22, 1959 | −7 days |
| Maundy Thursday | Thursday, March 26, 1959 | −3 days |
| Good Friday | Friday, March 27, 1959 | −2 days |
| Holy Saturday | Saturday, March 28, 1959 | −1 day |
| Easter Sunday | Sunday, March 29, 1959 | Easter Sunday |
| Easter Monday | Monday, March 30, 1959 | +1 day |
| Ascension Day | Thursday, May 7, 1959 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, May 17, 1959 | +49 days |
Orthodox feasts, 1959
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Clean Monday | Monday, March 16, 1959 | −48 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, April 26, 1959 | −7 days |
| Great and Holy Friday | Friday, May 1, 1959 | −2 days |
| Pascha (Easter Sunday) | Sunday, May 3, 1959 | Easter Sunday |
| Ascension | Thursday, June 11, 1959 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, June 21, 1959 | +49 days |
Each date is Easter Sunday plus or minus a fixed number of days; the offsets and their sources are on the about page. Observance varies by church and by country. Whether a feast is a day off work is a matter of each country’s law.
How early is Easter in 1959?
March 29 is date 8 of the 35 that Western Easter can take, March 22 to April 25: 7 days after the earliest possible date and 27 days before the latest. Of the 201 Easters from 1900 to 2100, 22 fall on an earlier date than this one and 173 fall on a later date. 5 other years in that span share the date: 1964, 1970, 2043, 2054, 2065. Before 1959, Western Easter last fell on March 29 in 1891; after 1959 it next does in 1964.
Orthodox Easter on May 3 is April 20 in the Julian calendar; 13 days carry it to the Gregorian calendar in 1959. From 1900 to 2100 Orthodox Easter falls on an earlier Gregorian date in 179 years and on a later one in 18 years; it falls on the same date in 1964, 2043, 2054.
The earliest and latest Easters from 1900 to 2100, with how often each date occurs, are on their own page.
The arithmetic for 1959
3Golden number: the year’s place in the 19-year cycle of the moon, (1959 mod 19) + 1.
21Gregorian epact: the age of the reckoned moon at the start of the year.
March 23Paschal full moon of the Gregorian reckoning, a Monday. Easter is the Sunday after it.
April 26Paschal full moon of the Julian reckoning in Gregorian dates (Julian April 13), a Sunday.
The two algorithms, worked for 1959
- Western: the Anonymous Gregorian algorithm
a=2 b=19 c=59 d=4 e=3 f=1 g=6 h=2 i=14 k=3 l=5 m=0h + l − 7m + 114 = 121, and 121 ÷ 31 = 3 remainder 28: month 3, day 28 + 1. March 29- Orthodox: Meeus’s Julian algorithm
a=3 b=6 c=2 d=23 e=6d + e + 114 = 143, and 143 ÷ 31 = 4 remainder 19: Julian April 20. Plus 13 days: May 3
How the date of Easter is calculated explains each letter. The dates on this page agree with the US Census Bureau table (Western), the 5ko.free.fr tables (Western and Orthodox), each read September 28, 2026.