Western Easter
Sunday, April 15, 1979
Gregorian computus. Golden number 4, epact 2, Paschal full moon April 11.
Easter 1979
Easter 1979: Sunday, April 15
In 1979 Western Easter, reckoned in the Gregorian calendar, falls on Sunday, April 15, 1979. Orthodox Easter (Pascha), reckoned in the Julian calendar, falls on Sunday, April 22, 1979, one week later.
Orthodox Easter
Sunday, April 22, 1979
Julian computus: April 9 in the Julian calendar, plus 13 days to reach the Gregorian calendar.
In 1979 the two Easters are 7 days apart: Orthodox Easter is one week 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 · Apr 15
Orthodox · Apr 22
MarchAprilMayThe moving feasts of 1979
Western feasts, 1979
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Shrove Tuesday | Tuesday, February 27, 1979 | −47 days |
| Ash Wednesday | Wednesday, February 28, 1979 | −46 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, April 8, 1979 | −7 days |
| Maundy Thursday | Thursday, April 12, 1979 | −3 days |
| Good Friday | Friday, April 13, 1979 | −2 days |
| Holy Saturday | Saturday, April 14, 1979 | −1 day |
| Easter Sunday | Sunday, April 15, 1979 | Easter Sunday |
| Easter Monday | Monday, April 16, 1979 | +1 day |
| Ascension Day | Thursday, May 24, 1979 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, June 3, 1979 | +49 days |
Orthodox feasts, 1979
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Clean Monday | Monday, March 5, 1979 | −48 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, April 15, 1979 | −7 days |
| Great and Holy Friday | Friday, April 20, 1979 | −2 days |
| Pascha (Easter Sunday) | Sunday, April 22, 1979 | Easter Sunday |
| Ascension | Thursday, May 31, 1979 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, June 10, 1979 | +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 1979?
April 15 is date 25 of the 35 that Western Easter can take, March 22 to April 25: 24 days after the earliest possible date and 10 days before the latest. Of the 201 Easters from 1900 to 2100, 136 fall on an earlier date than this one and 56 fall on a later date. 8 other years in that span share the date: 1900, 1906, 1990, 2001, 2063, 2074, 2085, 2096. Before 1979, Western Easter last fell on April 15 in 1906; after 1979 it next does in 1990.
In the 1970s Western Easter ran from March 26 (1978) to April 22 (1973); 1979’s April 15 is the eighth-earliest of the ten. Across the twentieth century (1901–2000) Western Easter falls on April 15 in 3 years, and the Western and Orthodox Easters share a Sunday in 26 years.
Orthodox Easter on April 22 is April 9 in the Julian calendar; 13 days carry it to the Gregorian calendar in 1979. From 1900 to 2100 Orthodox Easter falls on an earlier Gregorian date in 105 years and on a later one in 91 years; it falls on the same date in 1900, 1984, 2063, 2074.
The earliest and latest Easters from 1900 to 2100, with how often each date occurs, are on their own page.
The arithmetic for 1979
4Golden number: the year’s place in the 19-year cycle of the moon, (1979 mod 19) + 1.
2Gregorian epact: the age of the reckoned moon at the start of the year.
April 11Paschal full moon of the Gregorian reckoning, a Wednesday. Easter is the Sunday after it.
April 15Paschal full moon of the Julian reckoning in Gregorian dates (Julian April 2), a Sunday.
The two algorithms, worked for 1979
- Western: the Anonymous Gregorian algorithm
a=3 b=19 c=79 d=4 e=3 f=1 g=6 h=21 i=19 k=3 l=3 m=0h + l − 7m + 114 = 138, and 138 ÷ 31 = 4 remainder 14: month 4, day 14 + 1. April 15- Orthodox: Meeus’s Julian algorithm
a=3 b=5 c=3 d=12 e=6d + e + 114 = 132, and 132 ÷ 31 = 4 remainder 8: Julian April 9. Plus 13 days: April 22
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.