Easter Sunday Countdown

Spring, egg hunts, and the most-watched church service of the year.

How many days until Easter Sunday?

Live countdown to Easter Sunday 2027

About Easter Sunday

Easter is the most important feast of the Christian year, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. Culturally it is also a spring festival: egg hunts, chocolate bunnies, and family dinners.

The story behind Easter Sunday

Easter's date hides an astronomical formula decided in AD 325: the Council of Nicaea ruled that Easter would fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. That is why the date wanders between March 22 and April 25, and why the Eastern Orthodox church sometimes celebrates on a different Sunday — it follows the older Julian calendar.

The name "Easter" itself may come from Eostre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and dawn mentioned by the monk Bede in the 8th century — whose festival supposedly lent her name to the month of April. The egg, ancient symbol of rebirth, pre-dates the holiday entirely: decorated eggs have been found in Persian, Egyptian and Roman spring rituals.

The Easter bunny hopped over from German immigrants in the 1700s. Their "Osterhase" was a hare that judged children's behavior and laid colored eggs in nests made of hats and bonnets — nests that eventually became today's baskets.

Easter Sunday dates 2027–2030

Easter Sunday facts

• Easter is a movable feast: it falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox.
• Easter Sunday can land anywhere between March 22 and April 25.
• Easter is the end of Lent, 46 days of fasting and reflection that begins on Ash Wednesday.
• The White House Easter Egg Roll has been held on the South Lawn since 1878.