Easter Sunday 2028: Date, History & Significance

The Easter Vigil on Saturday night is the high point of the church year — the new fire is kindled, the Paschal candle lit and carried into the dark church, the Exsultet sung, the Old Testament readings trace salvation history, and baptisms are performed. On Sunday, 'Christ is risen — He is risen indeed' is the greeting. In India, sunrise services, new clothes, Easter eggs (a sign of the sealed tomb broken open), and a family lunch mark the day.

By the Gospels, women who came to the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week found the stone rolled away and the body gone; an angel told them Jesus had risen. He appeared over the following weeks to Mary Magdalene, to the disciples, to two on the road to Emmaus, and to more than five hundred, before ascending. Christians hold the Resurrection as the proof that death is not the end and that his sacrifice was accepted.

Source: The Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles; the liturgical calendar of the Church

The dating rule was fixed by the Council of Nicaea (325) to the Sunday after the paschal full moon; Eastern churches on the Julian calendar keep a later date. Easter is a gazetted holiday in India in states with large Christian populations and is widely observed.

• Indian Christian community practice (Latin, Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara, CSI, CNI, Orthodox)
• The Roman Missal / liturgical calendars

1. The Easter Vigil on Saturday night begins in darkness: the new fire is lit, the paschal candle is carried in, and 'Christ is risen' is proclaimed; many are baptised at this service.
2. Sunday services celebrate the resurrection with flowers, white vestments and the return of the 'Alleluia' after Lent.
3. Families end the Lenten fast with a festive meal, and children receive Easter eggs.

• Goa, Kerala, Mangalore. The Easter Vigil, dawn Mass, new clothes, Easter eggs and sweets, and a celebratory lunch after the Lenten fast.
• Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya. Sunrise services, choir festivals and community feasts.

• Easter eggs — Chocolate or marzipan eggs, a symbol of new life.
• Festive meal — Roast meats, sorpotel or appam and stew, marking the end of Lent's abstinence.

Easter Sunday falls on Sunday, 16 April 2028. The resurrection of Jesus Christ.

at sunrise

Easter Sunday is dated by The first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox (movable; late March to late April). The movable feasts of the Christian year (Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost) are all reckoned from Easter, which is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox; the fixed feasts (Christmas, Epiphany, the Annunciation, All Saints and All Souls) keep the same civil date each year.

The date is set by the Hindu lunisolar calendar and shifts against the Gregorian year.