When Is Orthodox Easter? How the Date of Pascha Is Calculated

Pascha — Orthodox Easter — is the Feast of Feasts, and it moves. Some years it coincides with Western Easter; more often it falls one to five weeks later. The reason is not a different theology of the Resurrection but a different calendar arithmetic.

The rule

The ancient rule, associated with the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (AD 325), is simple to state: Pascha is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. Both the Orthodox East and the Christian West still follow this rule. They differ in how they reckon it:

• The Orthodox Church computes the rule on the Julian calendar, using the traditional ecclesiastical tables (the paschalion) rather than astronomical observation. The “March 21” equinox of the tables currently corresponds to April 3 on the civil calendar, and the ecclesiastical full moon runs several days behind the astronomical one.
• The West computes the same rule on the Gregorian calendar with its own reformed tables.

Two consequences follow. Orthodox Pascha can never fall before the civil date of April 4, and it usually lands after Western Easter — by one week, or four, or five, depending on where the full moons fall. In some years the two calculations converge and all Christians celebrate together, as happened in 2025.

You may also hear that Pascha must follow Jewish Passover. Historically the two are related — the Mystical Supper took place at Passover — but the operative rule is the calendar computation above; the “after Passover” condition is a traditional observation about how the dates usually work out, not a separate input into the calculation.

Upcoming dates of Pascha

Dates below are on the civil (Gregorian) calendar, labeled by year:

Note the remarkable range: within three years, Pascha swings from mid-April to the second of May and back. This is normal — the movable cycle can place Pascha anywhere from April 4 to May 8 on the civil calendar.

One Pascha for (nearly) the whole Orthodox world

Even churches that adopted the New (Revised Julian) Calendar for fixed feasts deliberately kept the old paschalion, precisely so that all Orthodox Christians would celebrate the Resurrection together. Greeks on the New Calendar and Russians on the Old stand at the same midnight liturgy, light candles from the same new flame, and exchange the same greeting: Χριστός Ἀνέστη — Christ is Risen! (The Orthodox Church of Finland, which follows the Gregorian date, is the well-known exception.)

Everything that moves with Pascha

Pascha is the hinge of a whole movable season. Once its date is fixed, the rest follows automatically:

• The Triodion (pre-Lenten Sundays) begins ten weeks before Pascha.
• Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, seven weeks before Pascha. (See the fasting calendar.)
• Palm Sunday is one week before; Holy Week fills the days between.
• Ascension falls forty days after Pascha, and Pentecost fifty.
• Even some name days move: Saint George's feast is transferred to Bright Monday when April 23 falls in Lent or Holy Week. (See Greek name days.)

How the Orthodox Calendar app helps

The fasting calendar in Orthodox Calendar follows Pascha each year, so Great Lent, Holy Week and the fast-free weeks appear on the right days, next to each day’s saints. And because the paschal season is also name-day season for the Georges and Anastasias in your life, the app checks your contacts so you can be the first to say Χρόνια Πολλά.

Related guides

• Old Calendar vs. New Calendar: Why Orthodox Christmas Can Fall on January 7

  Why some Orthodox churches celebrate Christmas on January 7: the Julian vs. Revised Julian calendars, which churches use which, and the 13-day difference.

• The Orthodox Fasting Calendar: Seasons, Fast Days, and Fast-Free Weeks

  The four Orthodox fasting seasons — Great Lent, Apostles' Fast, Dormition Fast, Nativity Fast — plus weekly fast days, one-day fasts, and fast-free weeks.

• Feast Days of the Orthodox Church: Pascha, the Twelve Great Feasts, and the Ranks of Saints

  The feast days of the Orthodox Church: Pascha, the Twelve Great Feasts with their dates, and the ranks of saints — Apostle, Martyr, Venerable, and more.