When Is Easter Weekend 2017? The Dates For Good Friday, Easter ...

When is Easter weekend 2017? The dates for Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday

These are all the dates you need to know about for Easter 2017 as well as the reason it changes each year

CommentsWhat's OnVictoria Jones12:02, 06 Apr 2017Updated 12:35, 06 Apr 2017

Supermarkets are brimming with sweet treats already as the countdown to Easter begins.

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Easter eggs and bunnies have become a symbol of the holiday and it wouldn't be Easter without indulging on chocolate.

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Easter falls on a different date each year because it is a movable feast. Easter will be later in the year in 2017 compared to last year.

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If you're starting to look ahead to Easter then make sure you make a note of these key dates.

So when is Easter 2017?

The long bank holiday weekend begins on Good Friday which falls on April 14, Easter Sunday falls on April 16 and Easter Monday is on April 17 is the final day in the bank holiday festivities.

You don't have long to wait until the next bank holiday because the early May bank holiday falls on Monday, May 1.

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So if you want to maximise your time off and your job allows you to do so, book annual leave until Tuesday, May 2 and you will only be using nine days of holiday for 18 days off work in total.

Here are all of the bank holidays this year:

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In Western Christianity, Easter always falls between 22 March and 25 April.

While many festivals are on fixed days, Easter is a movable feast and is usually celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon on or after 21 March because it is based on the lunar calendar.

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Gin and tonic Easter egg

Cadbury Easter Egg Hunts

Chocolate cocktails in Cardiff

Giant Kinder eggs

Who decides when Easter is?

The First Council of Nicea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325.

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They made decisions in an effort to attain a consensus on several Christian topics.

Based on the paschal full moon, it was decided by the bishops that Easter Day would fall on the next full moon after the spring equinox.

READ MORE: The beautiful weather is about to turn wet and windy but Easter could be the hottest ever

This was because Easter must fall on a Sunday as it was the day of Christ’s Resurrection.

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The paschal full moon was chosen because the date of Passover in the Jewish calendar, and the Last Supper (Holy Thursday) occurred on the Passover. Therefore, Easter is the Sunday after Passover.

But since the paschal full moon can be on different days in different time zones, it was decided that the full moon is always determined to be the 14th day of the lunar month.

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Even though the spring equinox can occur on March 20 the Church also fixes the spring equinox as March 21.

Easter eggs

Gin and chocolate lovers are in for a treat as you can now buy a gin and tonic Easter egg. You can also get Kinder eggs that are FIVE TIMES bigger than the ones you usually get in the shops.

One chocolate company has even made a solid chocolate Easter egg while another has made an Easter egg made of cheese.

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If you're after an Easter egg hunt, Cadbury has joined forces with the National Trust to ensure that you and the kids can search for eggs in the glorious surroundings of some of Wales' most beautiful properties, beaches and gardens for Easter 2017. Here are 26 Easter egg hunts happening in Wales in 2017.

The moment little Hannah Phillips tasted Easter eggs for the first time:

7 year old Hannah Phillips tastes easter Eggs for the first time