Which Easter date is correct?
I wonder what is correct: I find that Easter 2049 is either April 25. or 18. What is correct? I also have found the dates April 26. and April 19. for 2076. Please confirm what is correct. I thank you in advance! Kind regards -- Synnove Smedal

It is commonly said that Easter is on the Sunday after the full moon after the Spring equinox. This may be easier to remember than the formula for epact but often led to disagreement back when the date of the new or full moon was frequently determined by the highly scientific approach of looking at it. In the Sixteenth Century, Aloysius Lilius, the author of the Gregorian Calendar, developed a method of calculating Easter which does not depend on the actual moon phases. This method uses the epact to estimate the age of the new moon, and the dominical letter to determine the day of the week. It also fixes the Spring equinox to be on March 21st regardless of the date of the actual equinox. You can calculate the epact mathematically, or look it up in a table. Likewise with the dominical letter. Once you have the epact and dominical letter, you can look up Easter Sunday in a table. Using the epact is the official method for determining Easter even when the actual full moon would give a different date. Therefore the table for looking up the Easter date should always be trusted in favor of any tool which determines the date based on the phase of the moon.

In the year 2049, Easter will be on April 25, and in 2076 it will be on April 19. Easter will never fall on April 26.

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