Western Easter
Sunday, April 4, 2021
Gregorian computus. Golden number 8, epact 16, Paschal full moon March 28.
Easter 2021
Easter 2021: Sunday, April 4
In 2021 Western Easter, reckoned in the Gregorian calendar, falls on Sunday, April 4, 2021. Orthodox Easter (Pascha), reckoned in the Julian calendar, falls on Sunday, May 2, 2021, four weeks later.
Orthodox Easter
Sunday, May 2, 2021
Julian computus: April 19 in the Julian calendar, plus 13 days to reach the Gregorian calendar.
In 2021 the two Easters are 28 days apart: Orthodox Easter is four weeks after Western Easter. They last fell on the same day in 2017 (April 16). They next fall on the same day in 2025 (April 20).
Western · Apr 4
Orthodox · May 2
MarchAprilMayThe moving feasts of 2021
Western feasts, 2021
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Shrove Tuesday | Tuesday, February 16, 2021 | −47 days |
| Ash Wednesday | Wednesday, February 17, 2021 | −46 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, March 28, 2021 | −7 days |
| Maundy Thursday | Thursday, April 1, 2021 | −3 days |
| Good Friday | Friday, April 2, 2021 | −2 days |
| Holy Saturday | Saturday, April 3, 2021 | −1 day |
| Easter Sunday | Sunday, April 4, 2021 | Easter Sunday |
| Easter Monday | Monday, April 5, 2021 | +1 day |
| Ascension Day | Thursday, May 13, 2021 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, May 23, 2021 | +49 days |
Orthodox feasts, 2021
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Clean Monday | Monday, March 15, 2021 | −48 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, April 25, 2021 | −7 days |
| Great and Holy Friday | Friday, April 30, 2021 | −2 days |
| Pascha (Easter Sunday) | Sunday, May 2, 2021 | Easter Sunday |
| Ascension | Thursday, June 10, 2021 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, June 20, 2021 | +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 2021?
April 4 is date 14 of the 35 that Western Easter can take, March 22 to April 25: 13 days after the earliest possible date and 21 days before the latest. Of the 201 Easters from 1900 to 2100, 63 fall on an earlier date than this one and 130 fall on a later date. 7 other years in that span share the date: 1915, 1920, 1926, 1999, 2010, 2083, 2094. Before 2021, Western Easter last fell on April 4 in 2010; after 2021 it next does in 2083.
Orthodox Easter on May 2 is April 19 in the Julian calendar; 13 days carry it to the Gregorian calendar in 2021. From 1900 to 2100 Orthodox Easter falls on an earlier Gregorian date in 172 years and on a later one in 22 years; it falls on the same date in 1926, 1937, 1948, 2027, 2032, 2100.
The earliest and latest Easters from 1900 to 2100, with how often each date occurs, are on their own page.
The arithmetic for 2021
8Golden number: the year’s place in the 19-year cycle of the moon, (2021 mod 19) + 1.
16Gregorian epact: the age of the reckoned moon at the start of the year.
March 28Paschal full moon of the Gregorian reckoning, a Sunday. Easter is the Sunday after it.
May 1Paschal full moon of the Julian reckoning in Gregorian dates (Julian April 18), a Saturday.
The two algorithms, worked for 2021
- Western: the Anonymous Gregorian algorithm
a=7 b=20 c=21 d=5 e=0 f=1 g=6 h=7 i=5 k=1 l=6 m=0h + l − 7m + 114 = 127, and 127 ÷ 31 = 4 remainder 3: month 4, day 3 + 1. April 4- Orthodox: Meeus’s Julian algorithm
a=1 b=5 c=7 d=28 e=0d + e + 114 = 142, and 142 ÷ 31 = 4 remainder 18: Julian April 19. Plus 13 days: May 2
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), Wikipedia’s list of dates for Easter (Western and Orthodox), each read September 28, 2026.