Why is Easter Sunday 2025 so late? Reason for religious holiday falling deep into April

Easter Sunday 2025 will fall on April 20, which is relatively late in the year for the religious holiday

Easter Sunday is the perfect time to have lunch with family, enjoy drinks in the sun with friends, or tuck into Easter eggs with the kids in your life.

The religious holiday falls on April 20 this year - one of the latest dates for the holiday in recent memory. The date is five days shy of the latest possible Easter Sunday, which can occur as late as April 25, as per Timeanddate.com.

The unusually late celebration of Easter in 2025 is due to several factors, including the moon's elliptical path and a unique 'Blood Moon' total lunar eclipse which took place earlier this month, from March 13-14.

This eclipse was the last full moon before the spring equinox took place on March 20. The spectacle delayed the 'Pink Moon' or 'Paschal Moon', which plays a pivotal role in determining Easter's timing.

Easter's date uses the movements of the sun and moon to calculate the dates for major annual events. Other faiths such as Islam and Judaism also rely on solar and lunar cycles to schedule significant yearly festivities.

The rule for setting Easter goes like this - it is celebrated on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.

For the year 2025, the spring equinox fell on March 20, and the subsequent full moon, known both as the 'Pink Moon' or 'Paschal Moon' in Christian terms, is expected in the early hours of April 13. Hence, Easter Sunday will be commemorated the following week on April 20.

The moon has always played a significant role in shaping human calendars. For instance, Eid begins the day after the new moon is sighted in the sky, marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The dates of Eid and other Islamic months and events can fluctuate by a day or so based on moonsighting announcements from various locations across the world.

Passover in Jewish tradition also commences on a full moon, the 15th of Nisan, the first month of the Hebrew lunar calendar, coinciding with the Pink Moon on April 12, 2025.

Elsewhere, the Chinese Lunar New Year began on January 29, 2025, ushering in the Year of the Snake. The 15-day celebration concluded with the Lantern Festival on the full moon, February 12.

Orthodox Christians, who adhere to the Julian calendar, observe Easter later than their Western counterparts. Their Easter is linked to Passover, occurring on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Jewish festival.

This means Easter Sunday can fall anywhere between April 4 and May 8. And in 2025, for the first time since 2017, both Orthodox and Western Christians will celebrate Easter on the same date.

It comes as some Scots parents are unhappy with the way councils have broken up the school calendar for the Easter holidays, which means that some pupils will get Good Friday off but not Easter Monday.

Moray council pupils will be off from March 31 - April 14, much earlier than other council areas. The move has caused anger among parents, who took to social media recently to vent their confusion and frustration.