How many days until Easter?

Worked example: Easter 2027

In 2027 the church's "paschal full moon" (the first full moon on or after March 21) falls on Monday, March 22, so Easter is the following Sunday, March 28, 2027. Count back two days for Good Friday (March 26), a week for Palm Sunday (March 21) and 46 days for Ash Wednesday (February 10). On Friday, November 13, 2026 the countdown shows 135 days to Easter 2027.

Easter dates for the next few years

How the Easter date is calculated

Western Easter falls on the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon on or after March 21. The countdown uses the standard Gregorian algorithm (often called the "anonymous Gregorian" or Meeus/Jones/Butcher method), which turns that rule into arithmetic: it works out where the year sits in the moon's 19-year cycle, applies the Gregorian leap-year corrections and finds the following Sunday. The U.S. Naval Observatory explains the rule and why the church's full moon can differ from the astronomical one. Days are counted from today (not including today) using your device's date. Easter Sunday isn't one of the federal holidays in 5 U.S.C. 6103, so federal offices and the post office keep their normal Sunday schedule.

Plan around Easter

Use our calendar with holidays to see Easter next to the rest of the spring, or print a free 2027 calendar or the April 2027 calendar. Cooking for a crowd? Keep the family favorites in a printable recipe book and scale them with the recipe scaler. Feeding the family without overspending starts with a monthly meal planner.

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Plan the meals, then the list

The Meal Planner & Grocery List keeps the weekly menu, a grocery list sorted by aisle and pantry and freezer inventories together, so Easter dinner and the week around it are planned in one go.

• Weekly meal planning pages
• Grocery list sorted by aisle
• Pantry and freezer inventories

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Questions, answered

How many days until Easter? As of Friday, November 13, 2026, there are 135 days until Easter, which is on Sunday, March 28, 2027. That is 19 weeks and 2 days. The countdown at the top of this page updates itself every time you open it.

When is Easter 2027? Easter 2027 is Sunday, March 28, 2027. Good Friday is March 26 and Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, is February 10, 2027. Easter 2028 is later, on Sunday, April 16, and Easter 2029 is on Sunday, April 1.

Why does the date of Easter change every year? Easter is tied to the moon. In Western churches it is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after March 21, the church's fixed date for the spring equinox. Because full moons fall on different dates each year, Easter moves too. The church uses its own table of full moons rather than astronomical observations, which keeps the date predictable years in advance.

What is the earliest and latest date Easter can be? Western Easter can fall anywhere from March 22 to April 25. The last time it was on March 22 was 1818, and it won't be that early again until 2285. The latest date, April 25, last happened in 1943 and next happens in 2038.

How does the Easter countdown work? It reads today's date on your device and counts the calendar days to the next Easter Sunday. Today is not counted and Easter is, so on Holy Saturday it shows 1 day. The Easter date is calculated with the standard Gregorian method, the same one used to print church calendars, so it is right for any year.

Is Easter a federal holiday? No. Easter Sunday is not one of the 11 federal holidays, and because it is always a Sunday most people already have the day off. Good Friday is not a federal holiday either, although some states, schools and businesses close, and the New York Stock Exchange is normally closed on Good Friday.

When is Orthodox Easter? Orthodox churches use the older Julian calendar to set Easter, so their date is often later than Western Easter, sometimes by up to five weeks, and some years the two fall on the same Sunday. This countdown counts down to Western Easter, the date used by Catholic and Protestant churches and most US calendars.

How many days are there between Ash Wednesday and Easter? There are 46 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. Lent is described as 40 days because the six Sundays in that stretch are not counted as fast days. That is why Ash Wednesday 2027 is February 10, exactly 46 days before Easter on March 28.

When should I start planning Easter dinner or an egg hunt? About two to three weeks ahead is plenty. Set the guest list and menu two to three weeks out, order a ham or lamb about a week before, buy eggs and candy for the hunt in the last week and dye eggs a day or two before Easter so they stay fresh. Keep hard-boiled eggs refrigerated and eat them within a week.

Can I share this Easter countdown? Yes. Bookmark the page or add it to your home screen and it will always show the right number. The Copy countdown button copies a short line such as "Easter is in 152 days" with a link you can paste into a family chat or a church newsletter.

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