Easter Sunday
Easter Countdown
Live countdown to Western Easter Sunday.
Easter countdown
Pick a time zone to count down to Easter morning.
Counting down to Easter Sunday.
Counting down to something else? Build your own with the countdown creator, or see the Orthodox Easter and days until a US holiday.
The Easter countdown ticks live toward Western Easter Sunday — the movable Gregorian feast whose date is computed each year rather than printed as a fixed month and day. Churches, travel desks, and spring retail use that Sunday as the target. The grid shows remaining days, hours, minutes, and seconds in the selected time zone. After Easter morning arrives, the countdown aims at next year’s Western Easter so the page does not go blank in May.
A live clock versus a date lookup
The Easter date calculator answers “which calendar day is Easter Sunday in this year.” That is the right page for a syllabus cell, a venue contract, or a Computus lesson. This page answers “how much time remains until that Sunday” with a ticking grid. Both use Western Gregorian Easter. One prints a date; the other counts toward midnight at the start of that date in the chosen zone, then keeps ticking through the day only as the remaining hours collapse — read the target line for the exact endpoint the UI names.
A custom countdown can aim at any datetime, including a sunrise service at 6:30 a.m. This page’s target is Easter Sunday as a civil day boundary in the selected zone, not a parish’s processional hour. Add the service time yourself if the brief needs pews filled at a clock hour rather than at date rollover.
Western Easter, not Orthodox Pascha
Western Easter follows Gregorian Computus: the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after March 21. The result always falls between March 22 and April 25. Many Eastern Orthodox churches use Julian-based Paschal rules, which often place Pascha on a different Sunday — sometimes one week later, sometimes more than a month later. Families who gather across both traditions need two dates.
The Orthodox Easter page reports the Julian-calendar result. Do not embed this Western countdown on a parish site that follows the Orthodox date. The remaining-time figure would hit zero on the wrong Sunday.
Why a countdown is useful when the date already moves
Because Easter slides across March and April, the remaining time from a given weekday in February is different every year. A classroom that starts a Lent unit on Ash Wednesday is not a fixed number of days from Easter; Ash Wednesday itself is derived from Easter. A live grid updates through late winter without reprinting a poster each Monday.
Travel prices around movable spring holidays spike once the Sunday is known. The countdown does not book flights. It keeps the remaining window visible so a family that decided “we will book when we are thirty days out” has a shared clock. Pair the grid with the date lookup when the itinerary still needs the printed Sunday.
Holy Week is backward from the Sunday
Palm Sunday is one week before Easter. Good Friday is two days before. Easter Monday follows in many countries. Those offsets are useless until Easter Sunday is known. The countdown’s remaining time to Sunday also tells, indirectly, how much time remains until those neighboring days: Good Friday is forty-eight hours earlier than Easter morning in ordinary civil counting.
US federal lists do not treat Easter Sunday as a federal holiday. Schools and churches may close anyway. Check 2026 holidays for official federal closures, which will not include Easter, then add local school-break PDFs that sometimes align with Holy Week and sometimes do not.
Zones, livestreams, and share links
A vigil livestream originating in Rome and an sunrise service in Honolulu do not cross into Easter Sunday at the same absolute moment. Pick the zone that matches the congregation or the broadcast, then copy the link so remote viewers watch one remaining-time figure. Leaving the dropdown on local time gives each household its own midnight, which may be the right choice for “when Easter Day begins on our street” and the wrong choice for “when the cathedral’s liturgy begins.”
The tick runs in the browser tab. Closing the tab stops it. No reminder is sent at midnight. Reopening recomputes toward the next Western Easter Sunday, including when that Sunday is already in the following year.
Candy, lilies, and staffing peaks
Grocery Easter sets and lily shipments are timed to Computus, not to a guessed mid-April weekend. A remaining-time display in a warehouse break room is a blunt reminder that the peak is a moving Sunday. Staffing for brunch buffets should still read the civil date from the lookup page; the countdown only shows how soon that date arrives.
Orthodox-majority neighborhoods may peak on a different weekend. Running this Western grid there without a label will pull inventory to the wrong Sunday. Print “Western Easter” on the widget chrome when both dates matter in one city.
After Easter in 2026
Once Western Easter Sunday has begun in the selected zone, the countdown rolls to next year. That keeps the URL useful in ordinary time. People who need last Sunday’s date for a photo caption should open the Easter date lookup for 2026 rather than waiting for this grid to freeze.
Pentecost is forty-nine days after Easter. This page does not retarget to Pentecost after Easter passes. Build a custom countdown to that later Sunday if a parish wants a second live grid, using the Easter date lookup to place Pentecost first.
Frequently asked questions
What Sunday does the Easter countdown tick toward?
It ticks toward Western Gregorian Easter Sunday, whose date is computed each year and always falls between March 22 and April 25. The grid uses the selected time zone. After that Sunday arrives, the page aims at next year’s Western Easter. It does not retarget to Pentecost or to Orthodox Pascha.
When should the Easter date lookup be used instead?
Use Easter date when the job is a civil calendar day for a syllabus, contract, or Computus lesson. Use this page when the job is remaining time shown as a live grid. Both follow Western Easter. A sunrise service at a specific clock hour still needs the lookup date plus a custom countdown set to that hour.
How is Western Easter different from Orthodox Easter?
Western Easter uses Gregorian Computus. Many Eastern Orthodox churches use Julian-based Paschal rules, so Pascha often falls on a different Sunday — sometimes one week later, sometimes more than a month later. This countdown is Western only. Embedding it on an Orthodox parish site would hit zero on the wrong morning.
Is Easter Sunday a US federal holiday each year?
No. Federal offices follow the ordinary weekday calendar. Many schools and churches close, and some districts align spring break with Holy Week, but those closures are local. Check the 2026 holidays hub for federal dates, then read the district PDF. Good Friday is also not a federal holiday in most states.
Why does remaining time from February change every year?
Easter slides across March and April as lunar months beat the solar year. A countdown that starts on the same February weekday is therefore a different length each year. Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday move with Easter, so Lent unit plans should follow this year’s Sunday rather than last year’s remaining-day count.
How should a livestream pick the time zone on this page?
Pick the zone of the congregation or broadcast origin, then copy the link so remote viewers share one remaining-time figure. Local time on each device is right for “when Easter Day begins on our street” and wrong for “when the cathedral liturgy begins.” The tick runs only while the tab is open; it is not an alarm.