Western Easter
Sunday, March 30, 1986
Gregorian computus. Golden number 11, epact 19, Paschal full moon March 25.
Easter 1986
Easter 1986: Sunday, March 30
In 1986 Western Easter, reckoned in the Gregorian calendar, falls on Sunday, March 30, 1986. Orthodox Easter (Pascha), reckoned in the Julian calendar, falls on Sunday, May 4, 1986, five weeks later.
Orthodox Easter
Sunday, May 4, 1986
Julian computus: April 21 in the Julian calendar, plus 13 days to reach the Gregorian calendar.
In 1986 the two Easters are 35 days apart: Orthodox Easter is five weeks after Western Easter. They last fell on the same day in 1984 (April 22). They next fall on the same day in 1987 (April 19).
Western · Mar 30
Orthodox · May 4
MarchAprilMayThe moving feasts of 1986
Western feasts, 1986
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Shrove Tuesday | Tuesday, February 11, 1986 | −47 days |
| Ash Wednesday | Wednesday, February 12, 1986 | −46 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, March 23, 1986 | −7 days |
| Maundy Thursday | Thursday, March 27, 1986 | −3 days |
| Good Friday | Friday, March 28, 1986 | −2 days |
| Holy Saturday | Saturday, March 29, 1986 | −1 day |
| Easter Sunday | Sunday, March 30, 1986 | Easter Sunday |
| Easter Monday | Monday, March 31, 1986 | +1 day |
| Ascension Day | Thursday, May 8, 1986 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, May 18, 1986 | +49 days |
Orthodox feasts, 1986
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Clean Monday | Monday, March 17, 1986 | −48 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, April 27, 1986 | −7 days |
| Great and Holy Friday | Friday, May 2, 1986 | −2 days |
| Pascha (Easter Sunday) | Sunday, May 4, 1986 | Easter Sunday |
| Ascension | Thursday, June 12, 1986 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, June 22, 1986 | +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 1986?
March 30 is date 9 of the 35 that Western Easter can take, March 22 to April 25: 8 days after the earliest possible date and 26 days before the latest. Of the 201 Easters from 1900 to 2100, 28 fall on an earlier date than this one and 165 fall on a later date. 7 other years in that span share the date: 1902, 1975, 1997, 2059, 2070, 2081, 2092. Before 1986, Western Easter last fell on March 30 in 1975; after 1986 it next does in 1997.
In the 1980s Western Easter ran from March 26 (1989) to April 22 (1984); 1986’s March 30 is the second-earliest of the ten. Across the twentieth century (1901–2000) Western Easter falls on March 30 in 4 years, and the Western and Orthodox Easters share a Sunday in 26 years.
Orthodox Easter on May 4 is April 21 in the Julian calendar; 13 days carry it to the Gregorian calendar in 1986. From 1900 to 2100 Orthodox Easter falls on an earlier Gregorian date in 183 years and on a later one in 13 years; it falls on the same date in 1975, 2059, 2070, 2081.
The earliest and latest Easters from 1900 to 2100, with how often each date occurs, are on their own page.
The arithmetic for 1986
11Golden number: the year’s place in the 19-year cycle of the moon, (1986 mod 19) + 1.
19Gregorian epact: the age of the reckoned moon at the start of the year.
March 25Paschal full moon of the Gregorian reckoning, a Tuesday. Easter is the Sunday after it.
April 28Paschal full moon of the Julian reckoning in Gregorian dates (Julian April 15), a Monday.
The two algorithms, worked for 1986
- Western: the Anonymous Gregorian algorithm
a=10 b=19 c=86 d=4 e=3 f=1 g=6 h=4 i=21 k=2 l=4 m=0h + l − 7m + 114 = 122, and 122 ÷ 31 = 3 remainder 29: month 3, day 29 + 1. March 30- Orthodox: Meeus’s Julian algorithm
a=2 b=5 c=10 d=25 e=5d + e + 114 = 144, and 144 ÷ 31 = 4 remainder 20: Julian April 21. Plus 13 days: May 4
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.