Easter Sunday 2024

What is Easter Sunday?

Easter Sunday is the central feast of the Christian year. It celebrates the resurrection of Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion, as told in the four Gospels, and it ends the penitential season of Lent and Holy Week. For Christians it ranks above Christmas in importance, and the Easter Vigil and the services on Sunday morning are among the most elaborate of the year, with new members baptised in many churches. Its date moves every year, which in turn sets the dates of Lent, Ash Wednesday, Ascension and Pentecost.

Around the religious core, Easter has gathered customs that are shared even by people who do not attend church: painted or chocolate eggs, hot cross buns and sweet breads, lamb dishes, spring flowers, and in some countries egg hunts and bonfires. Because Western and Orthodox churches calculate the date differently, two Easters exist side by side in many years, and countries with both traditions may observe both. In many countries the weekend also opens a school break, and spring travel peaks around it, so the festival has a large practical effect beyond church attendance.

Why it is observed

The date of Easter was disputed in the early church, because some communities tied it to the Jewish Passover and others insisted on a Sunday. The Council of Nicaea in AD 325 is traditionally credited with establishing that Easter should fall on a Sunday, and the detailed method of calculation was worked out in the following centuries. When the Catholic world adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582, the calculation moved with it, while the Orthodox churches kept the Julian method. That is the source of the gap between the two dates, which in some years is zero and in others one, four or five weeks.

How the date is set

Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after 21 March, worked out from the church's tables rather than by observing the sky. Western churches use the Gregorian calendar, so the date falls between 22 March and 25 April. Orthodox churches apply the same rule on the Julian calendar, which currently places it between 4 April and 8 May in the civil calendar.

How it is observed

Easter Sunday is a public holiday in many countries, but because it is already a Sunday, the practical effects are felt mostly on the surrounding days, particularly Good Friday and Easter Monday. Shops are often closed or restricted, and public transport runs a Sunday or holiday timetable. This site shows the Western or the Orthodox date depending on the country. Time off, extra pay and substitute days depend on national law and individual contracts. Visitors should also expect museums, markets and attractions to keep reduced hours across the whole Easter weekend.