When Is Easter 2026?

Easter Sunday 2026 falls on 5 April. Good Friday is 3 April, Easter Monday is 6 April.

That gives most of Europe and the Commonwealth a built-in four-day weekend — Friday to Monday — without using a single day of annual leave. In 2026, that window lands in early April, when spring is properly underway across northern Europe and Mediterranean temperatures are already sitting comfortably in the low twenties.

Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter on a different date. In 2026, Orthodox Easter falls on 12 April — one week later — observed across Greece, Russia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, and several other countries. The one-week gap means some international travel corridors will see two consecutive weekends of elevated demand.

Easter 2026 is the earliest the holiday has fallen since 2021, when it landed on 4 April. This matters for one practical reason: the earlier in April Easter falls, the less overlap there tends to be with school spring holidays in northern Europe, which often run in late March or the first two weeks of April depending on the country.

Good Friday is 3 April (Friday), Easter Monday is 6 April (Monday). That's already a four-day weekend in most countries — free, without touching annual leave.

Take Tuesday 7 April and Wednesday 8 April as leave, and you get nine consecutive days off from Friday 3 April through Sunday 12 April. Thursday 9 April and Friday 10 April are the only working days in that ten-day stretch. Take those too — four leave days total — and you get a clean run of eleven days.

For UK workers, this is one of the most efficient leave opportunities in the 2026 calendar. The surrounding weeks in April have no other bank holidays, so the productivity cost to employers is contained, which sometimes makes it easier to get leave approved.

Flights and accommodation for the Easter week have typically been booked by mid-February in recent years. Southern Europe — particularly Portugal, Malta, and the Canary Islands — fills up fastest because those destinations offer reliable warmth at Easter. If you're planning to travel, the window between now and late January is the most cost-effective.

Easter does not follow a fixed calendar date. The formula was established at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, when early Christian leaders decided Easter should fall on the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after 21 March.

The phrase "ecclesiastical full moon" is the source of most confusion. This is not the actual astronomical full moon visible in the sky — it is a date calculated from a standardised 19-year lunar cycle called the Metonic cycle. Because the calculation is fixed to this cycle rather than to real astronomical events, the ecclesiastical full moon can differ from the real full moon by up to two days.

The practical result: Easter can fall no earlier than 22 March and no later than 25 April. Within that 35-day window, the date shifts every year according to the cycle. In 2026, the calculation lands on 5 April — towards the middle of the possible range.

The Metonic cycle means Easter repeats on exactly the same date every 19 years. Easter was also on 5 April in 2015, and will return to that date in 2026, 2037, and so on. But the day of the week shifts within that cycle, which is why the full pattern takes 532 years to repeat completely.

Western Christianity (Catholic and Protestant denominations) follows the Gregorian calendar in calculating Easter. Orthodox Christianity uses the Julian calendar, which currently runs 13 days behind the Gregorian. Both apply the same Nicaean formula — first Sunday after the first full moon on or after 21 March — but because the starting calendar differs, the dates diverge most years.

In 2026, Western Easter is 5 April and Orthodox Easter is 12 April, one week apart. The gap is relatively small. In some years the difference reaches four or five weeks.

Countries where Orthodox Easter is the primary celebration — Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and others — observe their bank holidays on the 12 April dates. In Greece, Easter is the most important holiday in the calendar, outranking Christmas in terms of religious significance and the scale of family gatherings. The Good Friday processions (Epitaphios) draw significant crowds and the Easter Sunday liturgy at midnight is a major cultural event.

For travellers, the one-week offset in 2026 means Athens and Thessaloniki will be quieter than usual during Western Easter (5 April) and busier the following weekend (12 April). Accommodation prices reflect this split.

Each country has its own way of marking Easter, which affects how shops, restaurants, and transport operate during the break.

Germany: Good Friday is one of the strictest quiet days in the calendar. Shops are closed, live music events are prohibited in most states, and even dancing in public is banned in some regions (the so-called Tanzverbot). Easter Sunday and Monday are more relaxed, with Easter markets and family gatherings.

Italy: The emphasis is on Pasquetta rather than Easter Sunday. The Monday is a day for being outdoors — families pack lunches and head to parks, lakes, or the countryside. Restaurants in popular areas are fully booked by early April. The saying "Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi" (Christmas with your family, Easter with whoever you choose) captures the more informal social spirit of the holiday.

United Kingdom: Easter combines bank holidays with one of the major UK sporting weekends. The Grand National horse race at Aintree typically falls on Easter Saturday, and football fixtures continue through the weekend. Many families use the four-day break for short domestic trips — the Lake District, Cornwall, and Edinburgh see some of their highest occupancy of the year.

Spain: Semana Santa (Holy Week) begins on Palm Sunday, a week before Easter. Processions — elaborate, slow-moving, and highly regional in character — run through city centres across Andalusia, Castile, and the Levante. Seville and Málaga draw international visitors specifically for these events. By Easter Sunday itself, the formal religious activity has concluded and attention shifts to food and family.