Orthodox Easter 2026 was on Sunday, 12 April 2026 — it has already passed. The next Orthodox Easter is on Sunday, 2 May 2027, in 172 days from today (11 November 2026). This page gives the 2026 date, what the day means, how it is observed, and the dates for 2026, 2027 and 2028.
Try the tool: Countdown Timer — count down to Orthodox Easter 2026 live, second by second.
Try the tool: Days Until Calculator — count the days until any date, including Orthodox Easter.
When is Orthodox Easter 2026?
Orthodox Easter 2026 is on Sunday, 12 April 2026 — Sunday. That date has passed; the next occurrence is Sunday, 2 May 2027 (172 days away). It is a Christian observance.
How the countdown is worked out
The countdown is the number of days from today to the holiday's date: the 2026 date is in the past, so the live countdown is to the next occurrence (2 May 2027), which is 172 days away. The count is in calendar days — it counts the days you have to wait, not the number of midnights, and it does not count today. The countdown timer recomputes the number live, second by second, and the days until calculator does the same calculation for any date you choose. If the holiday is in a different time zone from you, the day starts at a different moment — but the date is the date, and the countdown is in days, so the time zone does not change the number.
What is Orthodox Easter?
Orthodox Easter is Easter as celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox churches, calculated using the Julian calendar's rules for the spring equinox. It often — but not always — falls on a different Sunday from Western Easter.
How Orthodox Easter is observed
It is the most important feast in the Orthodox year, marked by midnight services, the greeting 'Christ is risen!', and family feasts. In Greece, Russia and other Orthodox countries it is a public holiday.
How the date is worked out
Orthodox Easter is calculated using the Julian calendar's rules for the spring equinox and the full moon, so it often falls on a different Sunday from Western Easter — sometimes the same day, sometimes a week later, sometimes five weeks later. The rule is the same in shape (the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the equinox) but the calendar it is applied to is different.
Orthodox Easter dates — 2026, 2027 and 2028
| Year | Date | Day of the week |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 12 April 2026 | Sunday |
| 2027 | 2 May 2027 | Sunday |
| 2028 | 16 April 2028 | Sunday |
Orthodox Easter 2026 in the calendar
Orthodox Easter 2026 is the 102nd day of 2026 — a year of 365 days — and it falls in ISO week 15 of the year. There are 263 days left in the year after it, and 30 days in April 2026. In the Northern Hemisphere it is spring; in the Southern Hemisphere the seasons are reversed.
The week number matters more than people think: in business and government across Europe, dates are often given as week numbers, and the week number finder gives the ISO week for any date. The day-of-year number is used in astronomy, in logistics and in some payroll systems. And the days-left figure is the useful one for planning the rest of the year: after Orthodox Easter 2026 there are 263 days — 37 weeks — left in 2026.
Planning for Orthodox Easter 2026
The 2026 observance has passed, so the planning horizon is the next one: Sunday, 2 May 2027 is 172 days away. That is 24 weeks — enough time to book travel, arrange time off and plan properly, and the earlier you book, the cheaper the travel usually is. The dates table above gives the next three years, so you can plan further ahead too.
Orthodox Easter 2026 falls on a Sunday — a weekend day — so most people get the day without taking time off. The practical effect is that the celebrations spread across the weekend, and the Friday or Monday around it is often taken as well — so if you are booking travel, the whole weekend is the busy period, not just the day itself.
The countdown in other units
The countdown to the next Orthodox Easter (Sunday, 2 May 2027) is 172 days — which is 24 weeks and 4 days, 4128 hours, 247,680 minutes, or about 5.7 months. Of those 172 days, 122 are weekdays and 50 are weekend days — so if you are counting working days, there are 122 of them left before the holiday. The days between dates calculator works out the same numbers for any two dates, and the business days calculator counts the working days excluding public holidays.
Orthodox Easter around the world
As a Christian observance, this day is marked by churches and by Christians around the world, and in many countries it is a public holiday. The date is set by the church calendar — fixed for Christmas and its surrounding days, moveable for Easter and the days around it. Whether it is a working day depends on the country: Christmas Day is a public holiday in most of the world, while days like Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday are working days almost everywhere.
Planning checklist for Orthodox Easter 2026
| When | Task |
|---|---|
| Now | The 2026 observance has passed — put the next one (Sunday, 2 May 2027) in your calendar, with a reminder a month before. |
| One month before | Book travel and request time off, if Orthodox Easter means either. |
| One week before | Confirm plans, buy what you need, and check the date — the date is fixed. |
More countdowns
If you are counting down to Orthodox Easter, you may also be counting down to Christmas Day 2026, New Year's Day 2026, Easter Sunday 2026. And for the same holiday in another year, see Orthodox Easter 2027 and Orthodox Easter 2028.
Frequently asked questions
When is Orthodox Easter 2026?
Orthodox Easter 2026 is on Sunday, 12 April 2026 (Sunday).
How many days until Orthodox Easter 2026?
Orthodox Easter 2026 has passed. The next one is Sunday, 2 May 2027, in 172 days from 11 November 2026.
What day of the week is Orthodox Easter 2026?
Orthodox Easter 2026 is a Sunday.
When is Orthodox Easter in 2027?
Orthodox Easter 2027 is on Sunday, 2 May 2027 (Sunday).
Is Orthodox Easter a public holiday?
Orthodox Easter is a religious observance; whether it is a public holiday depends on the country. It is a public holiday in the countries where that religion is the majority or an official faith.
What is Orthodox Easter?
Orthodox Easter is Easter as celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox churches, calculated using the Julian calendar's rules for the spring equinox. It often — but not always — falls on a different Sunday from Western Easter.
How many weeks until Orthodox Easter 2026?
The next Orthodox Easter is 172 days away, which is 24 weeks and 4 days.
How many working days are left until Orthodox Easter 2026?
Count the weekdays between today and the holiday: the business days calculator does it, excluding weekends and the public holidays you add. The countdown in other units above gives the weekday count for the next occurrence.
Sources
- IANA Time Zone Database, via Node.js Intl (
Intl.DateTimeFormatwithtimeZone) — offsets, daylight saving dates and local times in this article were worked out from the IANA database, not typed from memory. - TimeFlow's own time-zone data (
data/cities.ts,data/dst.ts), computed from the IANA database. - Holiday dates: TimeFlow's own holiday data (
data/holidays.ts). - TimeFlow's countdown timer and days until calculator — the live tools behind the countdown on this page.
- Time-zone and daylight saving rules are set by governments and can change. For flights, deadlines and meetings that cannot move, confirm the time with an official source.