Western Easter
Sunday, April 2, 1972
Gregorian computus. Golden number 16, epact 14, Paschal full moon March 30.
Easter 1972
Easter 1972: Sunday, April 2
In 1972 Western Easter, reckoned in the Gregorian calendar, falls on Sunday, April 2, 1972. Orthodox Easter (Pascha), reckoned in the Julian calendar, falls on Sunday, April 9, 1972, one week later.
Orthodox Easter
Sunday, April 9, 1972
Julian computus: March 27 in the Julian calendar, plus 13 days to reach the Gregorian calendar.
In 1972 the two Easters are 7 days apart: Orthodox Easter is one week after Western Easter. They last fell on the same day in 1966 (April 10). They next fall on the same day in 1974 (April 14).
Western · Apr 2
Orthodox · Apr 9
MarchAprilMayThe moving feasts of 1972
Western feasts, 1972
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Shrove Tuesday | Tuesday, February 15, 1972 | −47 days |
| Ash Wednesday | Wednesday, February 16, 1972 | −46 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, March 26, 1972 | −7 days |
| Maundy Thursday | Thursday, March 30, 1972 | −3 days |
| Good Friday | Friday, March 31, 1972 | −2 days |
| Holy Saturday | Saturday, April 1, 1972 | −1 day |
| Easter Sunday | Sunday, April 2, 1972 | Easter Sunday |
| Easter Monday | Monday, April 3, 1972 | +1 day |
| Ascension Day | Thursday, May 11, 1972 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, May 21, 1972 | +49 days |
Orthodox feasts, 1972
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Clean Monday | Monday, February 21, 1972 | −48 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, April 2, 1972 | −7 days |
| Great and Holy Friday | Friday, April 7, 1972 | −2 days |
| Pascha (Easter Sunday) | Sunday, April 9, 1972 | Easter Sunday |
| Ascension | Thursday, May 18, 1972 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, May 28, 1972 | +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 1972?
April 2 is date 12 of the 35 that Western Easter can take, March 22 to April 25: 11 days after the earliest possible date and 23 days before the latest. Of the 201 Easters from 1900 to 2100, 52 fall on an earlier date than this one and 145 fall on a later date. 3 other years in that span share the date: 1961, 2051, 2056. Before 1972, Western Easter last fell on April 2 in 1961; after 1972 it next does in 2051.
In the 1970s Western Easter ran from March 26 (1978) to April 22 (1973); 1972’s April 2 is the fourth-earliest of the ten. Across the twentieth century (1901–2000) Western Easter falls on April 2 in 2 years, and the Western and Orthodox Easters share a Sunday in 26 years.
Orthodox Easter on April 9 is March 27 in the Julian calendar; 13 days carry it to the Gregorian calendar in 1972. From 1900 to 2100 Orthodox Easter falls on an earlier Gregorian date in 17 years and on a later one in 177 years; it falls on the same date in 1939, 1950, 1961, 2034, 2045, 2056.
The earliest and latest Easters from 1900 to 2100, with how often each date occurs, are on their own page.
The arithmetic for 1972
16Golden number: the year’s place in the 19-year cycle of the moon, (1972 mod 19) + 1.
14Gregorian epact: the age of the reckoned moon at the start of the year.
March 30Paschal full moon of the Gregorian reckoning, a Thursday. Easter is the Sunday after it.
April 3Paschal full moon of the Julian reckoning in Gregorian dates (Julian March 21), a Monday.
The two algorithms, worked for 1972
- Western: the Anonymous Gregorian algorithm
a=15 b=19 c=72 d=4 e=3 f=1 g=6 h=9 i=18 k=0 l=2 m=0h + l − 7m + 114 = 125, and 125 ÷ 31 = 4 remainder 1: month 4, day 1 + 1. April 2- Orthodox: Meeus’s Julian algorithm
a=0 b=5 c=15 d=0 e=5d + e + 114 = 119, and 119 ÷ 31 = 3 remainder 26: Julian March 27. Plus 13 days: April 9
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.