When Is Easter In 2018? Dates For Your Calendar Including Good ...

When is Easter in 2018? Dates for your calendar including Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday

It's always a bit tricky and confusing to work out or remember when it is because the dates change each year

CommentsWhat's OnDuncan Gibbons Head of Audience08:30, 29 Mar 2018Updated 09:06, 29 Mar 2018How do they decide when Easter is?

You know it's not long now, but it's always good to know exactly when Easter is.

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Especially for those who can be forgetful and need a reminder to purchase those all-important Easter eggs.

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It's always a bit tricky and confusing to work out or remember when it is because the dates change each year.

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In 2017 Easter was in mid-April, so when is Easter 2018 and why do the dates keep changing?

Here's all you need to know.

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When is Easter 2018?

The key dates are as follows:

Good Friday is on March 30

Easter Sunday (also called Easter Day) is on April 1

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Easter Monday is on April 2

Good Friday is the next bank holiday in the year after New Year’s Day.

And with Easter Monday also a bank holiday, it means a four-day long weekend for many people.

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When is Easter?

When are school holidays

When does spring start?

When do clocks change?

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Why does the date of Easter change every year?

Easter is what’s called a movable feast - a Christian festival whose date changes each year.

Easter Day is when Christ rose from the dead, two days after the Crucifixion (which was on what's now called Good Friday) and on the Sunday following the Last Supper (which is on what's known as Maundy Thursday).

But no one recorded the dates.

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So there is instead a complicated system to work out when Easter should be celebrated.

Centuries ago, a council of Christian bishops decided that Easter Day must always be a Sunday because that was the day of the Resurrection.

Christ’s Resurrection was on the Sunday following the Last Supper - and the Last Supper was on the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.

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Because the full moon can be on different days in different time zones, the Church decided that they would always take the date as the 14th day of the lunar month.

It’s become known as the Paschal Full Moon and can vary by as much as two days from the actual astronomical full moon.

Once the date of that full moon is known, then Easter can be given its annual slot on the calendar. Easy, right?

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