How the Easter countdown works
The countdown targets midnight at the start of Easter Sunday in the time zone set on your device. The page first shows a figure computed for a reference time zone, then your browser recalculates it with your own clock and updates the days, hours, minutes and seconds every second. Everything runs locally, and nothing is sent to a server.
The line under the clock gives whole calendar days left, not counting today. On Easter Sunday the page says Easter is today; from Easter Monday onwards it counts to the following year’s Easter. The key dates panel lists Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday with their full dates.
How the date of Easter is determined
Unlike Christmas, Easter has no fixed date. In Western churches, Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon falling on or after 21 March. That “full moon” comes from church tables rather than from astronomical observation, which is why the date can be calculated exactly, years in advance. The result always lies between 22 March and 25 April.
Chronira computes it with the anonymous Gregorian algorithm (Meeus/Jones/Butcher), a short piece of integer arithmetic that reproduces the church tables for every Gregorian year. Good Friday is then Easter Sunday minus 2 days, and Easter Monday is Easter Sunday plus 1 day.
Easter dates, 2027 to 2031
| Year | Good Friday | Easter Sunday | Easter Monday |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2027 | 26 March | 28 March | 29 March |
| 2028 | 14 April | 16 April | 17 April |
| 2029 | 30 March | 1 April | 2 April |
| 2030 | 19 April | 21 April | 22 April |
| 2031 | 11 April | 13 April | 14 April |
The swing is wide: Easter 2027 is on 28 March, while Easter 2028 is on 16 April, nearly three weeks later in the calendar.
How many days until Easter: worked examples
- From 1 March 2027: Easter Sunday is 28 March 2027, so 28 − 1 = 27 days.
- Lent: Ash Wednesday falls 46 days before Easter Sunday (40 days of Lent plus the six Sundays). For Easter on 28 March 2027, that gives Wednesday 10 February 2027.
- A long weekend: where both Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays, Easter gives a four-day weekend from Friday to Monday.
To count the days to any other date, you can count the days between two dates, or create a countdown to any date and time for an Easter trip or family gathering.
Good to know
- Public holidays vary. Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays in many countries, but not everywhere, and not always both. Check your local calendar. In France, Easter Monday is one of the 11 public holidays, and the business days calculator includes it when you choose French holidays.
- Orthodox Easter. Most Orthodox churches follow the Julian calendar to set Easter, so their date is often different. This page does not show Orthodox dates.
- Holy Week. Palm Sunday, one week before Easter Sunday, opens Holy Week, which includes Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.