With Easter being such an important date in the Christian callendar, it's important to know when it is. It doesn't help that the date shifts each year either; and so we tell you the dates this year and over the next few years, as well as a little history of Easter and its name. We even throw in some Easter Bunny facts.
When is Easter 2024?
If you’re just after a very quick answer to the question:'When is Easter in 2024?The answer is:March 31(the 31st of March for those of you in the UK!).
In Western Christianity, the date of Easter cannot fall outside a specific range of not earlier than the 22nd of March and not later than the 25th of April each year, and you can see the exact rules later on in this article.
Below, it gets far more interesting, so read on, as we tell you:
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What is Easter and what does Easter celebrate?
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The rules for Easter dates - exactly why do those pesky Easter dates keep shifting around!?
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When is Easter? – a list of Easter dates for the next few years, including next year.
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The naming of Easter - how was Easter called Easter in the first place?
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The Easter bunny - we shed some light on the various theories as to exactly where the Easter Bunny came from, in case you really, absolutely wanted to know!
- Easter references - where we researched all this Easter information, if you want to do some more reading.
Celebrate the coming of Easter with our fantastic range of pop up Easter cards!
What is Easter and what does Easter celebrate?
Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ and is the Feast of the Resurrection, which according to Christian beliefs is said to have happened on the third day after his crucifixion.
Easter is based around the Jewish Passover, as the Last Supper is considered generally to have been a feast related to this and so dates Easter itself.
Early Christians argued about the date of Easter, which governs the date of all other moveable feasts. Before the Nicea therefore, Easter was celebrated on many different dates although it was always a "moveable feast" which means that it occurred on a different date each year.
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The Rules for calculating Easter dates
The following rules for calculating the date of Easter were eventually set at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD in an effort to finally pull Christian celebrations of the date together.
The Rules for Easter dates: as set at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD
Easter Day has to be ‘the first Sunday after the full moon, following the vernal equinox. If this happens to be a Sunday, then Easter day is the Sunday after.’ According to Pears’ Cyclopaedia, these rather antiquated rules have apparently been under consideration to provide a fixed date instead, but let’s hope we keep this rather quirky set of dates, shall we?!
There is a variation within the Roman Catholic Church traditions, where Easter is celebrated as an eight-day feast, which is called the ‘Octave of Easter’.
When is Easter?
| Year | Date |
| 2021 | April 4th |
| 2022 | April 17th |
| 2023 | April 9th |
| 2024 | March 31st |
| 2025 | April 20th |
If you want to see how these dates are worked out, see the rules for Easter dates, above.
Other variations in dates
It is important to note that in Eastern Christianity a slight variation on the formula is followed and so Easter falls between April 4 and May 8 using the Gregorian calendar.
How to say 'Happy Easter' in different languages
Here's a list of around forty languages with phonetic spellings, so you can say happy Easter in the language of your choice!
- Albanian: Gëzuar Pashkët (guh-zoo-ahr pahsh-keht)
- Basque: Ondo izan Inauteri zoriontsuak! (on-doh ee-zahn ee-now-teh-ree soh-ree-ohn-tsoo-ahk)
- Belarusian: З вялікай дзень Першага святога, З днём Воскрэсення! (z vya-lee-kai dzyen pyer-shah-hah svya-toh-ga, z dnyom vos-kre-syen-nya)
- Bosnian: Sretan Uskrs (sreh-tahn ooskrs)
- Breton: Pask Seder (pahsk seh-dair)
- Bulgarian: Весела Великден (veh-seh-lah veh-lee-kdehn)
- Catalan: Bon Pasqua (bohn pahs-kwah)
- Croatian: Sretan Uskrs (sreh-tahn ooskrs)
- Czech: Veselé Velikonoce (veh-seh-leh veh-lee-koh-noh-tseh)
- Danish: God påske (gohd poh-skeh)
- Dutch: Vrolijk Pasen (vroh-lik pah-sen)
- English: Happy Easter (hap-ee ee-ster)
- Estonian: Häid lihavõttepühi (hah-eed lee-hah-voht-teh-pyy-hee)
- Faroese: Gleðilig páskir (gleh-dil-ik pahs-kir)
- Finnish: Hyvää pääsiäistä (hy-vah pah-syah-yis-tah)
- French: Joyeuses Pâques (zhwah-yuhz pohk)
- Galician: Boas Pascuas (boh-ahs pahs-koo-ahs)
- German: Frohe Ostern (froh-uh oh-stern)
- Greek: Καλό Πάσχα (Kalo Pascha) (kah-loh pah-skhah)
- Hungarian: Boldog húsvéti ünnepeket! (bohl-dohg hoo-svey-tee oon-neh-peh-ket)
- Icelandic: Gleðilega páska (gleh-dih-leh-gah pah-ska)
- Irish: Cáisc Shona (kawsk hun-ah)
- Italian: Buona Pasqua (bwoh-nah pahs-kwah)
- Latvian: Priecīgas Lieldienas (pree-eh-tsih-gahs leel-dyeh-nahs)
- Lithuanian: Linksmų Velykų (link-smoo veh-lih-koo)
- Luxembourgish: Schéi Ouschteren (shay owsh-tair-en)
- Macedonian: Среќен Велигден (Srećen Veligden) (sreh-chehn veh-lee-gden)
- Maltese: L-Għid it-tajj
- Norwegian: God påske (gohd poh-skeh)
- Polish: Wesołych Świąt Wielkanocnych (ve-soh-wihkh shvyont vee-el-kah-nohts-nihkh)
- Portuguese: Feliz Páscoa (feh-leez pahsh-koh-ah)
- Romanian: Paște fericit (pahsh-teh feh-ree-cheet)
- Russian: Счастливой Пасхи! (Schastlivoy Paskhi!) (schahst-lee-vohy pahs-kih)
- Serbian: Srećan Uskrs (sreh-tsan ooskrs)
- Slovak: Veselé Veľkonoce (veh-seh-leh vehl-koh-noh-tseh)
- Slovenian: Vesel velikonočni prazniki (veh-sehl veh-lee-koh-noh-chnee prahz-nee-kee)
- Spanish: ¡Felices Pascuas! (feh-lee-sehs pahs-koo-ahs)
- Swedish: Glad påsk (glahd poh-skeh)
- Ukrainian: З Великодніми святами! (Z Velykodnimy svyatamy!) (z veh-ly-kohd-nee-mee svyah-tah-mee)
- Welsh: Pasg Hapus (pahsg hah-piss)
The naming of Easter
According to Bede, Eosturmonath, which is now interpreted as the paschal month, was named after the goddess Eostre, the goddess of Spring and the festival of Easter was then named after this. There are some thoughts, however that since this goddess was not recorded before Bede, that he may have invented her for his own purposes. In addition, in the Anglo-Saxon calendar, the April lunar month was called Eostur and may have contributed to the naming.
The Easter Bunny
It has also been suggested by Jacob Grimm (one of the Brothers Grimm) that the Easter Bunny comes from the "Ostern Hare". Although speculation, since many of the Grimm fairy stories have turned from nasty tales into sweet children’s stories, it is possible that the Ostern Hare could have become the Easter Bunny. However, it is more commonly believed to have originated among the German Lutherans where the ‘Easter Hare’ was a judge who evaluated whether children were well behaved or disobedient at the start of Eastertide.
Easter date references
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bede
- http://www.give-presents-find-gifts.co.uk/Easter.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Bunny
- Pears’ Cyclopaedia the final edition 2017-2018, Everything You Need to Know. The Original Miscellany 1897-2018 edited by Dr Chris Cook. ISBN 978-0-141-98554-1
