When Is Easter 2028?

Easter Sunday 2028 falls on 16 April. Good Friday is 14 April, Easter Monday is 17 April.

Two things make Easter 2028 stand out. First: Western and Orthodox Easter fall on the same day — 16 April — for the first time since 2017. Second: 2028 is a leap year, which shifts the calendar in subtle ways that affect Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, and the timing of Lent.

At 16 April, this is a mid-range Easter in terms of timing — later than 2027's very early 28 March, earlier than the late-April Easters that occur occasionally. April in most of Europe means reliable spring weather, school holiday overlap in many countries, and high demand for travel. Plan accordingly.

The two main Easter traditions use different calendar systems to perform the same calculation — and they usually land on different dates. Western Christianity uses the Gregorian calendar (adopted in 1582). Orthodox Christianity uses the Julian calendar, which currently runs 13 days behind the Gregorian.

Both apply the Nicaean formula: Easter is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after 21 March. But because the underlying calendar differs, the dates usually diverge. In most years, Orthodox Easter falls one, four, or five weeks after Western Easter.

In 2028, the calculation produces the same result in both calendar systems: 16 April. This is called the coincidence of Easter, and it happens approximately every three to four years — though the gap can occasionally stretch longer. The previous coincidence was in 2017 (Easter on 16 April as well — the same date, a coincidence within the coincidence). Before that, 2014.

When the dates align, it creates a rare moment of shared celebration across Western and Eastern Christianity. Greece celebrates on the same day as Germany. Romania aligns with Italy. The liturgical divide that normally separates these traditions by weeks is temporarily closed.

Leap years add 29 February to the calendar, which shifts every date after that by one day of the week compared to a non-leap year.

For Easter 2028, the practical effects:

Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) falls on 29 February 2028 — in a leap year, this is possible, and it last happened in 2000. Ash Wednesday consequently falls on 1 March.

Lent runs from 1 March to 14 April (Good Friday), spanning 44 days. The 46-day traditional Lent period excludes Sundays, arriving at the same 40-day count.

For everyday planning: a leap year means the calendar shifts by two days of the week compared to two years prior (rather than the usual one-day shift between consecutive non-leap years). If a public holiday fell on a Wednesday in 2026, it may fall on a Friday in 2028 — which is worth checking when planning ahead.

Good Friday is 14 April (Friday) and Easter Monday is 17 April (Monday). That's an automatic four-day weekend in most countries.

The ten-day option: Take Tuesday 18 April and Wednesday 19 April as leave. Add those to the bank holiday weekend (Fri 14–Mon 17) and the following weekend (Sat 20–Sun 21), and you get ten consecutive days off using just two leave days. This is one of the more efficient leave ratios available in the 2028 calendar.

The two-week option: Take Thursday 10 April and Friday 11 April as leave, in addition to the two days the following week. That extends the break to 13 days — from Thursday 10 April through Sunday 23 April — using four leave days in total. For anyone with school-age children whose Easter holiday runs across this period, this aligns the adult break with the school schedule.

Booking advice: mid-April is peak spring travel season. Flights and accommodation for the Easter week book up from January onwards in popular years. 2028, with the Western–Orthodox coincidence and a mid-April date, will likely see above-average demand.

Mid-April is one of the best times of year to travel in Europe. Temperatures across the Mediterranean are reliable (20–25°C in coastal areas), school holidays are widespread but not universal, and the summer peak season has not yet started.

For 2028 specifically, destinations in Greece and the Balkans are worth attention. With Western and Orthodox Easter coinciding, there is no "quiet window" between the two celebration dates that normally creates a lull. The coincidence concentrates demand, but it also means Greek Easter festivals — normally inaccessible to Western Easter travellers because of the date gap — are available to everyone in 2028.

The Greek Easter experience — Epitaphios processions on Good Friday, the midnight Anastasi liturgy, the lamb on the spit on Easter Sunday — is one of the more distinctive cultural events accessible to European travellers, and 2028 is one of the easiest years to align a trip around it.