If you’ve already started looking at your calendar for next spring, you might have noticed something pretty weird about the date for Easter 2025. It’s late. Like, really late. We are talking deep into April.
April 20, 2025.
That is the day. Mark it. But the real story isn't just that it's falling on a Sunday in late April; it's that for the first time in several years, almost everyone who celebrates Easter—no matter if they follow the Western Gregorian calendar or the Eastern Orthodox Julian calendar—will be celebrating on the exact same day.
It's a rare "Great Convergence."
Why the date for Easter 2025 is a global rarity
Usually, there’s this awkward gap. You’ve probably seen it before where one group is eating chocolate bunnies and the other is still mid-fast, waiting another week or even a month to break out the festive bread. This happens because the Western church (Catholic, Protestant) and the Eastern Orthodox church use different math.
The West uses the Gregorian calendar. The East sticks to the Julian calendar for religious holidays.
But 2025 is different.
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Because of the way the lunar cycles and the spring equinox hit the grid next year, the formulas actually spit out the same result. April 20. It's kinda beautiful when you think about it. It doesn't happen often. The last time we saw this was 2017, and after 2025, we won’t see it again until 2028. If you have family members across different denominations, this is the year you don't have to choose which dinner to attend. You’re all in.
The "Pink Moon" and the Sunday rule
You might wonder who actually decides this. Is there a committee? Sorta, but they’ve been dead for about 1,700 years.
Basically, the Council of Nicaea back in 325 AD decided that Easter should fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox. In 2025, the equinox is March 20. The first full moon after that—often called the "Paschal Full Moon" or the "Pink Moon" in North American folklore—arrives on Sunday, April 13.
Since the rule says the Sunday after that moon, we land on April 20.
If that full moon had happened to fall on a Sunday itself, Easter would have been pushed to the following week to avoid overlapping with Passover, though that rule is followed more strictly by some than others. Speaking of Passover, it begins at sundown on Saturday, April 12, 2025. This makes the mid-April period an incredibly dense window for religious observance globally.
Planning for a late spring holiday
A late April Easter changes the vibe.
When Easter hits in March, it’s usually hit-or-miss with the weather. You’re often wearing a heavy coat over your nice clothes, and the egg hunt is a muddy disaster in the backyard. But with the date for Easter 2025 being April 20, we are looking at peak spring.
Tulips. Cherry blossoms. Actual warmth in the Northern Hemisphere.
This timing is a massive deal for the travel industry. Since it’s so late, it often collides with "Spring Break" schedules for schools that don't tie their vacations specifically to the holiday. Expect flights to be pricier. If you’re planning a trip to Rome or Jerusalem, you’re basically looking at the busiest week of the year.
According to data from travel aggregators like Kayak and Expedia, late April holidays usually see a 15-20% spike in hotel bookings compared to those "early" March Easters. People feel more confident traveling when they aren't worried about a late-season blizzard grounding their flight.
The psychological shift of a late Easter
There is also a weird psychological element to having the holiday this late in the year.
Honestly, by late April, most of us have already checked out of "winter mode." When Easter happens in March, it feels like the start of spring. When it happens on April 20, it feels like the doorstep of summer.
Retailers are already pivoting their strategies for 2025. Instead of focusing on heavy wool cardigans for Easter outfits, you’re going to see a lot more linen and short sleeves in the windows. Even the candy industry feels the shift. Longer days mean people are outdoors more, so the "basket" items tend to shift from just chocolate to things like kites, sidewalk chalk, and outdoor gear.
What most people get wrong about the date
A common misconception is that Easter is just "random."
It’s not. It’s astronomical.
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If you want to get technical, it’s a "movable feast." While Christmas is fixed to a solar date (December 25), Easter is lunisolar. It’s tied to the sun and the moon. This is why the date for Easter 2025 feels so disconnected from the date it was last year (March 31). That’s a three-week swing!
Some people think the date is set by the Vatican every year. Nope. It’s all based on the computus—the medieval algorithm used to calculate the lunar calendar. Even though our modern astronomical calendars are more "accurate" than the tables used by the church, the church sticks to their "Ecclesiastical" moon. Usually, they align perfectly. Every once in a decade or so, they might be off by a day, but for 2025, the math is solid.
Preparing your 2025 timeline
If you are hosting, you have a lot of lead time. But that can be a trap.
Because the date for Easter 2025 is so late, it's very easy to forget about it until the middle of April. By then, the good brunch spots will be booked solid.
Here is how you should actually handle the 2025 timeline:
- Book travel by November 2024: Because the Eastern and Western dates align, international pilgrimage sites and major European cities will be double-booked.
- Check school calendars: Many districts in the U.S. and U.K. have fixed breaks. In 2025, your kids might actually be back in school the Monday after Easter, or their break might end right on the holiday. Don't assume.
- Gardening prep: If you want those "Easter Lilies" or specific flowers blooming in your yard for the photo ops, you’ll need to adjust your planting. A late April date means your early spring bulbs might actually be finished blooming by the time the holiday arrives.
It’s also worth noting the specific impact on the Greek and Russian Orthodox communities. For these families, the "Shared Easter" of 2025 is a massive community event. Expect local festivals to be larger and more integrated. It’s a rare moment of liturgical unity that doesn't happen often enough for people to get used to it.
The Bottom Line on April 20
We are looking at a year where the moon and the sun finally decided to make things easy for us.
April 20 is about as late as Easter can reasonably get (the latest possible date is April 25, which hasn't happened since 1943). This gives you plenty of time to prepare, but it also means the stakes for "spring vibes" are higher.
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Actionable Next Steps for 2025:
- Sync the family calendars now. Since this is a unified date for both Eastern and Western traditions, reach out to extended family across different denominations today. This is the one year you can actually host a "everyone included" dinner without anyone feeling like they are celebrating "early" or "late."
- Verify your time off. Check if your workplace or your children's school observes the Friday before (Good Friday) or the Monday after. With the late date, some schedules might treat this as a standalone holiday rather than part of a "Spring Break" week.
- Secure your reservations. If you are eyeing a specific restaurant for brunch on April 20, 2025, set a calendar reminder for 90 days out. The convergence of calendars means twice as many people will be looking for tables on that specific Sunday.
- Monitor the Passover overlap. Since Passover begins on April 12, be mindful of grocery store stock and community events if you live in a diverse area. Shelves might be cleared of specific items earlier than usual.
Everything is lining up for a massive, sun-drenched, global celebration. Just don't let the late date fool you into waiting too long to make your move.