Why Is Easter So Late? Why The ‘Pink Moon' Delays Easter In 2025
Full moon rises behind Saint Jean-Baptiste (San Giovanni Battista) statue over Baptistery in Pisa, ... More Tuscany, Italy, on April 5, 2023. (Photo by Lorenzo Di Cola/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
When is Easter in 2025? Easter Sunday is on Sunday, April 20, 2025, almost as late as it can be — but on a relatively rare occurrence, it's on the same date for both orthodox and non-orthodox Christians. According to Timeanddate.com, the latest Easter Sunday is April 25.
The Christian calendar — like many religions — uses a lunar calendar for some events. Rather than pretending that the supposed events of Easter occurred on an actual date, as with Christmas and many other occasions, the date of Easter has an official date that has much more to do with celestial mechanics than a messiah. The rule is this: Easter Sunday is the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.
When is Easter? The northward equinox took place on March 20 this year, just six days after the full 'Worm Moon' — also a total lunar eclipse — on March 13/14, with the following full moon not occurring until the full 'Pink Moon' on April 12. That makes the 'Pink Moon,' also the 'Paschal Moon,' the full moon used to calculate Easter's date. All of this means that Easter Sunday falls on Sunday, April 20.
Is Easter being decided by celestial mechanics a surprise? Christianity is one of many religions that use the moon and sun to decide the dates of significant annual events, with others including Chinese Lunar New Year, Ramadan and Passover. Easter is a lunar festival calculated using the moon's phases and the spring equinox, but the Orthodox Church's rules are slightly different from that of the Western Christian church.
It all comes down to the different calendars used. Western Christianity uses the Gregorian calendar, while Orthodox Christianity uses the Julian calendar. Orthodox Christianity celebrates Easter and also depends on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Jewish festival of Passover. That means its Easter Sunday must fall between April 4 and May 8 each year. Passover begins on the date of the Pink Moon on April 12/13. For the first time since 2017, both traditions of
Christianity will celebrate Easter on the same date in 2025.
The lunar year is an oft-misunderstood event. Earth takes 365.25 days to orbit the sun, and the moon takes 29.5 days to orbit the Earth. A lunar year — 12 lunations (orbits of the moon around Earth) is 354.3 days. That 10/11-day lag between the two explains why the dates of Easter differ so much from year to year.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
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