Western Easter
Sunday, April 19, 1981
Gregorian computus. Golden number 6, epact 24, Paschal full moon April 18.
Easter 1981
Easter 1981: Sunday, April 19
In 1981 Western Easter, reckoned in the Gregorian calendar, falls on Sunday, April 19, 1981. Orthodox Easter (Pascha), reckoned in the Julian calendar, falls on Sunday, April 26, 1981, one week later.
Orthodox Easter
Sunday, April 26, 1981
Julian computus: April 13 in the Julian calendar, plus 13 days to reach the Gregorian calendar.
In 1981 the two Easters are 7 days apart: Orthodox Easter is one week after Western Easter. They last fell on the same day in 1980 (April 6). They next fall on the same day in 1984 (April 22).
Western · Apr 19
Orthodox · Apr 26
MarchAprilMayThe moving feasts of 1981
Western feasts, 1981
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Shrove Tuesday | Tuesday, March 3, 1981 | −47 days |
| Ash Wednesday | Wednesday, March 4, 1981 | −46 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, April 12, 1981 | −7 days |
| Maundy Thursday | Thursday, April 16, 1981 | −3 days |
| Good Friday | Friday, April 17, 1981 | −2 days |
| Holy Saturday | Saturday, April 18, 1981 | −1 day |
| Easter Sunday | Sunday, April 19, 1981 | Easter Sunday |
| Easter Monday | Monday, April 20, 1981 | +1 day |
| Ascension Day | Thursday, May 28, 1981 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, June 7, 1981 | +49 days |
Orthodox feasts, 1981
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Clean Monday | Monday, March 9, 1981 | −48 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, April 19, 1981 | −7 days |
| Great and Holy Friday | Friday, April 24, 1981 | −2 days |
| Pascha (Easter Sunday) | Sunday, April 26, 1981 | Easter Sunday |
| Ascension | Thursday, June 4, 1981 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, June 14, 1981 | +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 1981?
April 19 is date 29 of the 35 that Western Easter can take, March 22 to April 25: 28 days after the earliest possible date and 6 days before the latest. Of the 201 Easters from 1900 to 2100, 166 fall on an earlier date than this one and 28 fall on a later date. 6 other years in that span share the date: 1908, 1987, 1992, 2071, 2076, 2082. Before 1981, Western Easter last fell on April 19 in 1908; after 1981 it next does in 1987.
In the 1980s Western Easter ran from March 26 (1989) to April 22 (1984); 1981’s April 19 is the eighth-earliest of the ten, level with 1987. Across the twentieth century (1901–2000) Western Easter falls on April 19 in 4 years, and the Western and Orthodox Easters share a Sunday in 26 years.
Orthodox Easter on April 26 is April 13 in the Julian calendar; 13 days carry it to the Gregorian calendar in 1981. From 1900 to 2100 Orthodox Easter falls on an earlier Gregorian date in 131 years and on a later one in 64 years; it falls on the same date in 1908, 1970, 1992, 2065, 2076.
The earliest and latest Easters from 1900 to 2100, with how often each date occurs, are on their own page.
The arithmetic for 1981
6Golden number: the year’s place in the 19-year cycle of the moon, (1981 mod 19) + 1.
24Gregorian epact: the age of the reckoned moon at the start of the year.
April 18Paschal full moon of the Gregorian reckoning, a Saturday. Easter is the Sunday after it.
April 23Paschal full moon of the Julian reckoning in Gregorian dates (Julian April 10), a Thursday.
The two algorithms, worked for 1981
- Western: the Anonymous Gregorian algorithm
a=5 b=19 c=81 d=4 e=3 f=1 g=6 h=29 i=20 k=1 l=6 m=1h + l − 7m + 114 = 142, and 142 ÷ 31 = 4 remainder 18: month 4, day 18 + 1. April 19- Orthodox: Meeus’s Julian algorithm
a=1 b=0 c=5 d=20 e=2d + e + 114 = 136, and 136 ÷ 31 = 4 remainder 12: Julian April 13. Plus 13 days: April 26
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.