This year, Easter falls on April 21, which is a bit later than usual.  The day on which Christians commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is a ‘moveable feast’, meaning it takes place on different days of the calendar.  The same goes for the religious holidays preceding it, like Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Good Friday. 

It’s been that way since the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. established that Easter would be on the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 21, the first day of spring.  But because the lunar calendar isn’t in sync with the Gregorian calendar—introduced by Pope Gregory in 1582 and which we use today—the date of that full moon varies and so does Easter, falling on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25. 

In 2015, Pope Francis said he was open to the idea of establishing a fixed date for Easter, and the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Eastern Orthodox Church have indicated they were considering the 2nd or 3rd Sunday of April at some point in the next 5 to 10 years.  Stay tuned.