Western Easter
Sunday, March 26, 1978
Gregorian computus. Golden number 3, epact 21, Paschal full moon March 23.
Easter 1978
Easter 1978: Sunday, March 26
In 1978 Western Easter, reckoned in the Gregorian calendar, falls on Sunday, March 26, 1978. Orthodox Easter (Pascha), reckoned in the Julian calendar, falls on Sunday, April 30, 1978, five weeks later.
Orthodox Easter
Sunday, April 30, 1978
Julian computus: April 17 in the Julian calendar, plus 13 days to reach the Gregorian calendar.
In 1978 the two Easters are 35 days apart: Orthodox Easter is five weeks after Western Easter. They last fell on the same day in 1977 (April 10). They next fall on the same day in 1980 (April 6).
Western · Mar 26
Orthodox · Apr 30
MarchAprilMayThe moving feasts of 1978
Western feasts, 1978
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Shrove Tuesday | Tuesday, February 7, 1978 | −47 days |
| Ash Wednesday | Wednesday, February 8, 1978 | −46 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, March 19, 1978 | −7 days |
| Maundy Thursday | Thursday, March 23, 1978 | −3 days |
| Good Friday | Friday, March 24, 1978 | −2 days |
| Holy Saturday | Saturday, March 25, 1978 | −1 day |
| Easter Sunday | Sunday, March 26, 1978 | Easter Sunday |
| Easter Monday | Monday, March 27, 1978 | +1 day |
| Ascension Day | Thursday, May 4, 1978 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, May 14, 1978 | +49 days |
Orthodox feasts, 1978
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Clean Monday | Monday, March 13, 1978 | −48 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, April 23, 1978 | −7 days |
| Great and Holy Friday | Friday, April 28, 1978 | −2 days |
| Pascha (Easter Sunday) | Sunday, April 30, 1978 | Easter Sunday |
| Ascension | Thursday, June 8, 1978 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, June 18, 1978 | +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 1978?
March 26 is date 5 of the 35 that Western Easter can take, March 22 to April 25: 4 days after the earliest possible date and 30 days before the latest. Of the 201 Easters from 1900 to 2100, 6 fall on an earlier date than this one and 189 fall on a later date. 5 other years in that span share the date: 1967, 1989, 2062, 2073, 2084. Before 1978, Western Easter last fell on March 26 in 1967; after 1978 it next does in 1989.
In the 1970s Western Easter ran from March 26 (1978) to April 22 (1973); 1978’s March 26 is the earliest of the ten. Across the twentieth century (1901–2000) Western Easter falls on March 26 in 3 years, and the Western and Orthodox Easters share a Sunday in 26 years.
Orthodox Easter on April 30 is April 17 in the Julian calendar; 13 days carry it to the Gregorian calendar in 1978. From 1900 to 2100 Orthodox Easter falls on an earlier Gregorian date in 157 years and on a later one in 36 years; it falls on the same date in 1905, 1967, 1989, 2000, 2062, 2073, 2084.
The earliest and latest Easters from 1900 to 2100, with how often each date occurs, are on their own page.
The arithmetic for 1978
3Golden number: the year’s place in the 19-year cycle of the moon, (1978 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 Thursday. Easter is the Sunday after it.
April 26Paschal full moon of the Julian reckoning in Gregorian dates (Julian April 13), a Wednesday.
The two algorithms, worked for 1978
- Western: the Anonymous Gregorian algorithm
a=2 b=19 c=78 d=4 e=3 f=1 g=6 h=2 i=19 k=2 l=2 m=0h + l − 7m + 114 = 118, and 118 ÷ 31 = 3 remainder 25: month 3, day 25 + 1. March 26- Orthodox: Meeus’s Julian algorithm
a=2 b=4 c=2 d=23 e=3d + e + 114 = 140, and 140 ÷ 31 = 4 remainder 16: Julian April 17. Plus 13 days: April 30
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.