Western Easter
Sunday, April 3, 1988
Gregorian computus. Golden number 13, epact 11, Paschal full moon April 2.
Easter 1988
Easter 1988: Sunday, April 3
In 1988 Western Easter, reckoned in the Gregorian calendar, falls on Sunday, April 3, 1988. Orthodox Easter (Pascha), reckoned in the Julian calendar, falls on Sunday, April 10, 1988, one week later.
Orthodox Easter
Sunday, April 10, 1988
Julian computus: March 28 in the Julian calendar, plus 13 days to reach the Gregorian calendar.
In 1988 the two Easters are 7 days apart: Orthodox Easter is one week after Western Easter. They last fell on the same day in 1987 (April 19). They next fall on the same day in 1990 (April 15).
Western · Apr 3
Orthodox · Apr 10
MarchAprilMayThe moving feasts of 1988
Western feasts, 1988
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Shrove Tuesday | Tuesday, February 16, 1988 | −47 days |
| Ash Wednesday | Wednesday, February 17, 1988 | −46 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, March 27, 1988 | −7 days |
| Maundy Thursday | Thursday, March 31, 1988 | −3 days |
| Good Friday | Friday, April 1, 1988 | −2 days |
| Holy Saturday | Saturday, April 2, 1988 | −1 day |
| Easter Sunday | Sunday, April 3, 1988 | Easter Sunday |
| Easter Monday | Monday, April 4, 1988 | +1 day |
| Ascension Day | Thursday, May 12, 1988 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, May 22, 1988 | +49 days |
Orthodox feasts, 1988
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Clean Monday | Monday, February 22, 1988 | −48 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, April 3, 1988 | −7 days |
| Great and Holy Friday | Friday, April 8, 1988 | −2 days |
| Pascha (Easter Sunday) | Sunday, April 10, 1988 | Easter Sunday |
| Ascension | Thursday, May 19, 1988 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, May 29, 1988 | +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 1988?
April 3 is date 13 of the 35 that Western Easter can take, March 22 to April 25: 12 days after the earliest possible date and 22 days before the latest. Of the 201 Easters from 1900 to 2100, 56 fall on an earlier date than this one and 138 fall on a later date. 6 other years in that span share the date: 1904, 1983, 1994, 2067, 2078, 2089. Before 1988, Western Easter last fell on April 3 in 1983; after 1988 it next does in 1994.
In the 1980s Western Easter ran from March 26 (1989) to April 22 (1984); 1988’s April 3 is the third-earliest of the ten, level with 1983. Across the twentieth century (1901–2000) Western Easter falls on April 3 in 4 years, and the Western and Orthodox Easters share a Sunday in 26 years.
Orthodox Easter on April 10 is March 28 in the Julian calendar; 13 days carry it to the Gregorian calendar in 1988. From 1900 to 2100 Orthodox Easter falls on an earlier Gregorian date in 24 years and on a later one in 170 years; it falls on the same date in 1904, 1966, 1977, 2061, 2067, 2072.
The earliest and latest Easters from 1900 to 2100, with how often each date occurs, are on their own page.
The arithmetic for 1988
13Golden number: the year’s place in the 19-year cycle of the moon, (1988 mod 19) + 1.
11Gregorian epact: the age of the reckoned moon at the start of the year.
April 2Paschal full moon of the Gregorian reckoning, a Saturday. Easter is the Sunday after it.
April 6Paschal full moon of the Julian reckoning in Gregorian dates (Julian March 24), a Wednesday.
The two algorithms, worked for 1988
- Western: the Anonymous Gregorian algorithm
a=12 b=19 c=88 d=4 e=3 f=1 g=6 h=12 i=22 k=0 l=0 m=0h + l − 7m + 114 = 126, and 126 ÷ 31 = 4 remainder 2: month 4, day 2 + 1. April 3- Orthodox: Meeus’s Julian algorithm
a=0 b=0 c=12 d=3 e=3d + e + 114 = 120, and 120 ÷ 31 = 3 remainder 27: Julian March 28. Plus 13 days: April 10
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.