When is Easter?

Christmas is December 25th, Valentine's Day is February 14th and Halloween is always October 31st - but when is Easter? During the first three centuries of the Church, when believers were under persecution, there was little effort to establish uniform observances of the Christian festivals. However, when Constantine became emperor and Christianity became legal, it was possible to consider more carefully the date of Easter. In 325 A.D. the great Council of Nicea required that the feast of the resurrection be celebrated on the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. By the way, the eight century church historian wrote the word Easter (the English word for the feast of the resurrection), came from Eoster, the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and fertility. Easter in 2011 is April 24th.

The following are dates of Easter from 1980 to 2024:

 
1980  April 6	      1995  April 16	    2010  April 4
 
1981  April 19	      1996  April 7	    2011  April 24
 
1982  April 11	      1997  March 30	    2012  April 8
 
1983  April 3	      1998  April 12	    2013  March 31
 
1984  April 22	      1999  April 4	    2014  April 20
 
1985  April 7	      2000  April 23	    2015  April 5
 
1986  March 30	      2001  April 15	    2016  March 27
 
1987  April 19	      2002  March 31	    2017  April 16
 
1988  April 3	      2003  April 20	    2018  April 1
 
1989  March 26	      2004  April 11	    2019  April 21
 
1990  April 15	      2005  March 27	    2020  April 12
 
1991  March 31	      2006  April 16	    2021  April 4
 
1992  April 19	      2007  April 8	    2022  April 17
 
1993  April 11	      2008  March 23	    2023  April 9
 
1994  April 3	      2009  April 12	    2024  March 31