Western Christian liturgical calendar 2026

How the date of Easter is computed

Easter is a movable date because it is tied to both the spring equinox and the moon. The rule formalised at the First Council of Nicaea fixes Easter Sunday as the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon falling on or after the vernal equinox, with the equinox treated as 21 March for computational purposes. Western churches follow the Gregorian computus, which keeps the calculation aligned with the astronomical seasons through the leap-year rules introduced in 1582. This site already ships a verified year-by-year table at /tools/easter-date, and a quick-answer page at /when-is/easter. For 2026, the computus gives Easter Sunday as 5 April, which then fixes Ash Wednesday at 18 February, Pentecost at 24 May, and every other movable date listed above.

What “Ordinary Time” means

The two green stretches of the year, between Christmas and Lent and between Pentecost and Advent, are called Ordinary Time. The word comes from ordinal, meaning numbered, because these Sundays are counted (First Sunday in Ordinary Time, Second Sunday, and so on) rather than tied to a single festival. It does not mean mundane or unimportant; it simply distinguishes the numbered Sundays from the named seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. In Anglican and Lutheran usage the same stretches are sometimes called the Season after Epiphany and the Season after Pentecost.

Why Advent starts on different dates each year

Advent always begins on the fourth Sunday before 25 December. Because Christmas Day shifts across the week from year to year, Advent Sunday I floats inside a seven-day window from 27 November to 3 December. In 2026, Christmas Day falls on a Friday, so the preceding four Sundays land on 29 November, 6 December, 13 December (Gaudete Sunday, when rose vestments may be used), and 20 December. Advent Sunday I, 29 November 2026, also marks the start of the 2026/27 liturgical year as a whole.

Liturgical colours at a glance

The colours shown in the tables above follow the most widely shared Western convention. Violet is associated with the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent; white or gold with the festal seasons of Christmas and Easter and with feasts of Christ and the saints who were not martyrs; red with feasts of martyrs, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Pentecost; rose with the mid-points of Advent (Gaudete) and Lent (Laetare); and green with the long stretches of Ordinary Time. Black is still permitted in some traditions for funerals and All Souls, though violet is now more common.