Easter dates 2026 to 2028: Western and Orthodox, and who has the day off

Year	Western Easter	Orthodox Easter
2026	Sunday 5 April	Sunday 12 April
2027	Sunday 28 March	Sunday 2 May
2028	Sunday 16 April	Sunday 16 April

Good Friday is two days before Easter Sunday, and Easter Monday the day after. In 2027 they fall on 26 and 29 March (Western) and on 30 April and 3 May (Orthodox).

Why the date moves, and why there are two

Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. Western churches work it out with the Gregorian calendar, so it falls between 22 March and 25 April. Orthodox churches use the older Julian calendar, so their Easter is the same day or up to five weeks later.

Who has the days off

• Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays in most of Europe, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Canada has Good Friday, and some provinces and companies also give Easter Monday.
• In the US, neither is a federal holiday, but some states and many financial markets close on Good Friday.
• Orthodox countries such as Greece, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine follow the Orthodox date. Egypt's Coptic Christians do too, and the Monday after is Sham el-Nessim, a public holiday for everyone.
• Poland has Easter Sunday and Easter Monday off, while Good Friday is a working day.

What it means for work

The days around Easter are some of the quietest of the year in much of Europe: schools break for a week or two, and many people take the whole week off. Avoid launches and deadlines in that week, and expect slower replies. If you work with Orthodox countries, the quiet week can fall a week or several weeks later than yours.

What you could say

"Happy Easter!" is welcome for those who celebrate. In Orthodox traditions, people say "Christ is risen!" and answer "Truly, he is risen!".

See it for your team

Open the places you work with and look at the calendar: Poland, the UK, Greece and the US on Easter 2027, or Poland, Romania and Ukraine on Orthodox Easter 2027. Each holiday has a short card on what it is about and what you could say.