Western Easter
Sunday, March 24, 1940
Gregorian computus. Golden number 3, epact 21, Paschal full moon March 23.
Easter 1940
Easter 1940: Sunday, March 24
In 1940 Western Easter, reckoned in the Gregorian calendar, falls on Sunday, March 24, 1940. Orthodox Easter (Pascha), reckoned in the Julian calendar, falls on Sunday, April 28, 1940, five weeks later.
Orthodox Easter
Sunday, April 28, 1940
Julian computus: April 15 in the Julian calendar, plus 13 days to reach the Gregorian calendar.
In 1940 the two Easters are 35 days apart: Orthodox Easter is five weeks after Western Easter. They last fell on the same day in 1939 (April 9). They next fall on the same day in 1942 (April 5).
Western · Mar 24
Orthodox · Apr 28
MarchAprilMayThe moving feasts of 1940
Western feasts, 1940
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Shrove Tuesday | Tuesday, February 6, 1940 | −47 days |
| Ash Wednesday | Wednesday, February 7, 1940 | −46 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, March 17, 1940 | −7 days |
| Maundy Thursday | Thursday, March 21, 1940 | −3 days |
| Good Friday | Friday, March 22, 1940 | −2 days |
| Holy Saturday | Saturday, March 23, 1940 | −1 day |
| Easter Sunday | Sunday, March 24, 1940 | Easter Sunday |
| Easter Monday | Monday, March 25, 1940 | +1 day |
| Ascension Day | Thursday, May 2, 1940 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, May 12, 1940 | +49 days |
Orthodox feasts, 1940
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Clean Monday | Monday, March 11, 1940 | −48 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, April 21, 1940 | −7 days |
| Great and Holy Friday | Friday, April 26, 1940 | −2 days |
| Pascha (Easter Sunday) | Sunday, April 28, 1940 | Easter Sunday |
| Ascension | Thursday, June 6, 1940 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, June 16, 1940 | +49 days |
Each date is Easter Sunday plus or minus a fixed number of days; the offsets and their sources are on the about page. Observance varies by church and by country. Whether a feast is a day off work is a matter of each country’s law: Holidays lists each country’s public holidays, off the open Nager.Date database.
How early is Easter in 1940?
March 24 is date 3 of the 35 that Western Easter can take, March 22 to April 25: 2 days after the earliest possible date and 32 days before the latest. Of the 201 Easters from 1900 to 2100, 2 fall on an earlier date than this one and 198 fall on a later date. No other year in that span has Easter on March 24. Before 1940, Western Easter last fell on March 24 in 1799; after 1940 it next does in 2391.
In the 1940s Western Easter ran from March 24 (1940) to April 25 (1943); 1940’s March 24 is the earliest of the ten. Across the twentieth century (1901–2000) Western Easter falls on March 24 in 1 year, and the Western and Orthodox Easters share a Sunday in 26 years.
Orthodox Easter on April 28 is April 15 in the Julian calendar; 13 days carry it to the Gregorian calendar in 1940. From 1900 to 2100 Orthodox Easter falls on an earlier Gregorian date in 146 years and on a later one in 51 years; it falls on the same date in 1935, 2019, 2030.
The earliest and latest Easters from 1900 to 2100, with how often each date occurs, are on their own page.
The arithmetic for 1940
3Golden number: the year’s place in the 19-year cycle of the moon, (1940 mod 19) + 1.
21Gregorian epact: the age of the reckoned moon at the start of the year.
March 23Paschal full moon of the Gregorian reckoning, a Saturday. Easter is the Sunday after it.
April 26Paschal full moon of the Julian reckoning in Gregorian dates (Julian April 13), a Friday.
The two algorithms, worked for 1940
- Western: the Anonymous Gregorian algorithm
a=2 b=19 c=40 d=4 e=3 f=1 g=6 h=2 i=10 k=0 l=0 m=0h + l − 7m + 114 = 116, and 116 ÷ 31 = 3 remainder 23: month 3, day 23 + 1. March 24- Orthodox: Meeus’s Julian algorithm
a=0 b=1 c=2 d=23 e=1d + e + 114 = 138, and 138 ÷ 31 = 4 remainder 14: Julian April 15. Plus 13 days: April 28
How the date of Easter is calculated explains each letter. The dates on this page agree with the US Census Bureau table (Western), the 5ko.free.fr tables (Western and Orthodox), each read September 28, 2026.