When Is It? Movable Dates (Easter, Carnival, Mother's Day)

Easter sets the calendar: Carnival, Good Friday and Corpus Christi all come from it.

Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after March 21, a rule inherited from the Council of Nicaea (325). The ecclesiastical full moon comes from tables, not observation, so the date ranges from March 22 to April 25. In 2026 it is April 5, in 2027 it is March 28 and in 2028 it is April 16. The tool uses the Gregorian algorithm of Meeus, Jones and Butcher, valid from 1583 (the first full year after the 1582 reform) to 4099. The other dates come from Easter: Carnival ends 47 days before, on a Tuesday; Ash Wednesday is 46 days before; Good Friday is 2 days before; Ascension is 39 days after; Pentecost is 49 days after; and Corpus Christi is 60 days after. Orthodox Easter uses the Julian calendar and never falls before the Catholic one, as on April 12, 2026. Other dates depend on the weekday, not on Easter: Mother's Day in Brazil and the USA is the second Sunday of May, and Father's Day in Brazil is the second Sunday of August. US Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November, and Black Friday is the day after. Valentine's Day in Brazil (June 12) and Children's Day (October 12) are fixed, so only the weekday changes. Each event shows its rule in plain language, the next ten occurrences and a shortcut to the countdown tool. The Which year mode answers questions like in which years Easter falls on April 5 (2015, 2026 and 2037). Among the Easter-linked dates, only Good Friday is a Brazilian national holiday; Carnival, Ash Wednesday and Corpus Christi are optional days off. The rest, like Mother's Day, are commemorative dates with no day off.

Pick the year, read the list and open the event that matters.

1. Choose the year and use the group filters to see the dates for Easter, Brazil, the USA, the UK, Portugal or daylight saving time.
2. Tap an event's name, or use the One event tab, to see the date, weekday, how many days are left, the rule and the next 10 occurrences.
3. On the Which year tab, pick an event, a day and a range of years to find when it falls on that date. Copy the result or the link to share.

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Sources and references for this tool

These references help contextualize formulas, standards, APIs and limitations used on this page. They do not replace professional validation when a result has legal, financial, medical or operational impact.

• The Date of EasterU.S. Naval Observatory, Ecclesiastical rule for Easter and the Gregorian computation algorithm.
• Lei 662/1949, feriados nacionaisPresidência da República, Legal basis of Brazilian national holidays, including Good Friday.
• Decreto 9.772/2019, fim do horário de verãoPresidência da República, Abolishes daylight saving time in Brazil.
• 5 U.S. Code 6103, federal holidaysCornell Law School (LII), Rules for US federal holidays (Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Labor Day, MLK, Presidents).
• Directive 2000/84/EC, summer-time arrangementsUnião Europeia (EUR-Lex), Last Sunday of March and October for European summer time.

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