Western Easter
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Gregorian computus. Golden number 14, epact 22, Paschal full moon March 22.
Easter 2008
Easter 2008: Sunday, March 23
In 2008 Western Easter, reckoned in the Gregorian calendar, falls on Sunday, March 23, 2008. Orthodox Easter (Pascha), reckoned in the Julian calendar, falls on Sunday, April 27, 2008, five weeks later.
Orthodox Easter
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Julian computus: April 14 in the Julian calendar, plus 13 days to reach the Gregorian calendar.
In 2008 the two Easters are 35 days apart: Orthodox Easter is five weeks after Western Easter. They last fell on the same day in 2007 (April 8). They next fall on the same day in 2010 (April 4).
Western · Mar 23
Orthodox · Apr 27
MarchAprilMayThe moving feasts of 2008
Western feasts, 2008
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Shrove Tuesday | Tuesday, February 5, 2008 | −47 days |
| Ash Wednesday | Wednesday, February 6, 2008 | −46 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, March 16, 2008 | −7 days |
| Maundy Thursday | Thursday, March 20, 2008 | −3 days |
| Good Friday | Friday, March 21, 2008 | −2 days |
| Holy Saturday | Saturday, March 22, 2008 | −1 day |
| Easter Sunday | Sunday, March 23, 2008 | Easter Sunday |
| Easter Monday | Monday, March 24, 2008 | +1 day |
| Ascension Day | Thursday, May 1, 2008 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, May 11, 2008 | +49 days |
Orthodox feasts, 2008
| Feast | Date | From Easter |
|---|---|---|
| Clean Monday | Monday, March 10, 2008 | −48 days |
| Palm Sunday | Sunday, April 20, 2008 | −7 days |
| Great and Holy Friday | Friday, April 25, 2008 | −2 days |
| Pascha (Easter Sunday) | Sunday, April 27, 2008 | Easter Sunday |
| Ascension | Thursday, June 5, 2008 | +39 days |
| Pentecost | Sunday, June 15, 2008 | +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 2008?
March 23 is date 2 of the 35 that Western Easter can take, March 22 to April 25: 1 day after the earliest possible date and 33 days before the latest. Of the 201 Easters from 1900 to 2100, 0 fall on an earlier date than this one and 199 fall on a later date. One other year in that span shares the date: 1913. Before 2008, Western Easter last fell on March 23 in 1913; after 2008 it next does in 2160.
In the 2000s Western Easter ran from March 23 (2008) to April 23 (2000); 2008’s March 23 is the earliest of the ten. Across the twenty-first century (2001–2100) Western Easter falls on March 23 in 1 year, and the Western and Orthodox Easters share a Sunday in 31 years.
Orthodox Easter on April 27 is April 14 in the Julian calendar; 13 days carry it to the Gregorian calendar in 2008. From 1900 to 2100 Orthodox Easter falls on an earlier Gregorian date in 137 years and on a later one in 55 years; it falls on the same date in 1902, 1913, 1924, 1997, 2003, 2087, 2092, 2098.
The earliest and latest Easters from 1900 to 2100, with how often each date occurs, are on their own page.
The arithmetic for 2008
14Golden number: the year’s place in the 19-year cycle of the moon, (2008 mod 19) + 1.
22Gregorian epact: the age of the reckoned moon at the start of the year.
March 22Paschal full moon of the Gregorian reckoning, a Saturday. Easter is the Sunday after it.
April 25Paschal full moon of the Julian reckoning in Gregorian dates (Julian April 12), a Friday.
The two algorithms, worked for 2008
- Western: the Anonymous Gregorian algorithm
a=13 b=20 c=8 d=5 e=0 f=1 g=6 h=1 i=2 k=0 l=0 m=0h + l − 7m + 114 = 115, and 115 ÷ 31 = 3 remainder 22: month 3, day 22 + 1. March 23- Orthodox: Meeus’s Julian algorithm
a=0 b=6 c=13 d=22 e=1d + e + 114 = 137, and 137 ÷ 31 = 4 remainder 13: Julian April 14. Plus 13 days: April 27
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.