How to determine the date of Easter Day

This method is valid for any year, but only for the Western Church.

Take the number of the year, add one, then divide by 19. Discard the answer and take the remainder. Look up the remainder in the following table. Easter is the first Sunday after the date in the table. For example, 1997 plus 1 is 1998. If you divide 1998 by 19, the answer is 105 with a remainder of 3. The date in the table for 3 is March 23. Therefore, Easter Day falls on the following Sunday, which is March 30, 1997.

Remainder	Date
0	March 27
1	April 14
2	April 3
3	March 23
4	April 11
5	March 31
6	April 18
7	April 8
8	March 28
9	April 16
10	April 5
11	March 25
12	April 13
13	April 2
14	March 22
15	April 10
16	March 30
17	April 17
18	April 7

There is a way to reduce this to a single mathematical formula, but I thought you’d prefer a method that even ordinary mortals can use. Once you know the date of Easter, you can determine the dates of holy days that occur at fixed intervals before or after Easter:

Western Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, 46 days before western Easter. That’s forty days, not counting the Sundays. Jesus withdrew into the wilderness for forty days of spiritual reflection before beginning His ministry (Matthew 4:1-11). By observing Lent to prepare for Easter, we imitate Jesus.

Ascension Day is the fortieth day of Easter (Acts 1:3-11), and it always falls on Thursday.

Pentecost Sunday is the fiftieth day of Easter; it is the birthday of the Church through the Holy Spirit (Acts 2).

Here is a handy table for 2004—2009:

Year	Ash Wednesday	Easter Sunday	Ascension Day	Pentecost Sunday	Trinity Sunday
2004	February 25	April 11	May 20	May 30	June 6
2005	February 9	March 27	May 5	May 15	May 22
2006	March 1	April 16	May 25	June 4	June 11
2007	February 21	April 8	May 17	May 27	June 3
2008	February 6	March 23	May 1	May 11	May 18