It should certainly be noted that (unlike
Christmas), Easter's date is not fixed for reasons of
pagan observation, but is intended to mark the approximate
anniversary of the historical event it commemorates. As
Jesus was
crucified on the eve of
Passover, early
Christians - who were, by anyone else's standards,
Jews anyway - marked the occasion together with Passover proper.
The name of
Easter in
English does indeed derive from that of a pagan goddess with a similarly-timed feast, but in most other languages, the name is taken from
Pesach = Passover:
French: Pâques
Swedish: Påsk
Norwegian: Påske
Dutch:
Pasen
Latin: Pascha - from which we get the word
paschal
(Thanks to
Sharq for linguistic help.)
Table for finding the date of Easter and of Passover, based on one by the
World Council of Churches at
www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/faith/easter.html:
Astron. = The astronomically calculated date of Easter, based on the meridian of
Jerusalem.
Greg. = Date of Easter in the
Gregorian Calendar. (Western tradition)
Julian = Date of Easter in the
Julian Calendar. (Orthodox tradition)
Vernal = Date of the
Vernal Full Moon.
Pesach = Date of
Passover.
Year Astron. Greg. Julian Vernal Pesach
2001 15 April 15 April 15 April 8 April 8 April
2002 31 March 31 March 5 May 28 March 28 March
2003 20 April 20 April 27 April 16 April 17 April
2004 11 April 11 April 11 April 5 April 6 April
2005 27 March 27 March 1 May 25 March 24 April
2006 16 April 16 April 23 April 13 April 13 April
2007 8 April 8 April 8 April 2 April 3 April
2008 23 March 23 March 27 April 21 March 20 April
2009 12 April 12 April 19 April 9 April 9 April
2010 4 April 4 April 4 April 30 March 30 March
2011 24 April 24 April 24 April 18 April 19 April
2012 8 April 8 April 15 April 6 April 7 April
2013 31 March 31 March 5 May 27 March 26 March
2014 20 April 20 April 20 April 15 April 15 April
2015 5 April 5 April 12 April 4 April 4 April
2016 27 March 27 March 1 May 23 March 23 April
2017 16 April 16 April 16 April 11 April 11 April
2018 1 April 1 April 8 April 31 March 31 March
2019 24 March 21 April 28 April 21 March 20 April
2020 12 April 12 April 19 April 8 April 9 April
2021 4 April 4 April 2 May 28 March 28 March
2022 17 April 17 April 24 April 16 April 16 April
2023 9 April 9 April 16 April 6 April 6 April
2024 31 March 31 March 5 May 25 March 23 April
2025 20 April 20 April 20 May 13 April 13 April