A common question, as we enter the month of April, is why Easter changes every year? 

What is the reason behind this annual change? What’s the point in it even changing? 

The date of Easter falls on the first Sunday after the full moon that follows the spring equinox. The actual date of the equinox can differ by a day or two. 

The Catholic Church had created a fixed date of March 21, which is known as the ecclesiastic equinox. The paschal full moon will be on April 12th at 8:22pm. 

Because of this, the first Sunday after that would be April 20th. The date of Easter can occur any time from the dates of March 22-April 25. 

Another common question is what is the most frequent day that Easter falls on? Well, Easter has fallen on April 16th the most times with a total of 61 if we are going from 1583-3000. 

What is the least frequent day that Easter falls on? The least frequent day that Easter has fallen on is March 22 and March 24 with a total of 9 times. So those are the rarest days for Easter to occur on. It’s pretty rare in general for Easter to end up landing on a day in March. 

The next Easter that will be in March is going to be on March 28th, 2027 and March 28th again 2032. 

What if Easter somehow starts landing on the same day every year? A fun fact is that the lunar calendar is always 29 and one half days and the Gregorian Calendar is not in sync. Easter will always be on a Sunday no matter what. It’s very different from Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, and more holidays. This means that the beginning of Lent and Ash Wednesday change dates every year, too! 

Also, most Christians know Ash Wednesday’s date depends on Easter. 

So why does Easter come after the Paschal Full Moon? Early Christians wanted Easter to coincide with Passover, because Christ’s death and resurrection happened after the Jewish holiday.