When is Easter in 2026? Key dates for Lent, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday

Easter in 2026 falls on Sunday, April 5 (ET). The date sets the calendar for the Lenten season and Holy Week observances, with Ash Wednesday arriving in February and Good Friday in early April. Here’s what to mark on your calendar and why certain days continue to draw big crowds to services.

Key dates for Lent and Easter 2026

Religious observances that lead to and include Easter shift each year. For 2026, the major dates to note in Eastern Time are:

• Ash Wednesday: Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026 (marks the start of Lent)
• Lent: Feb. 18 through Thursday, April 2, 2026 (the 40-day Lenten season observed by many Western Christian traditions)
• Orthodox Great Lent: Feb. 23 through April 11, 2026 (observed by many Eastern Orthodox communities)
• Good Friday: Friday, April 3, 2026 (commemorates the crucifixion)
• Easter Sunday: Sunday, April 5, 2026 (celebration of the resurrection)

Holy Week culminates in Easter Sunday and includes observances such as Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday in the days leading up to Good Friday and Easter.

Why Ash Wednesday draws large crowds

Despite not being a holy day of obligation in many traditions, Ash Wednesday routinely brings out large numbers of worshippers. Research tracking Mass attendance in recent years shows Ash Wednesday competes with Easter and Christmas for some of the highest turnouts. Several factors help explain the turnout.

For many attendees, receiving ashes is a public sign of religious identity. The visible cross of ashes on the forehead serves as a communal marker that connects worshippers across generations and denominations. While the practice is most commonly associated with the Roman Catholic Church, other Christian denominations also distribute ashes, so the familiar smudge can belong to an Episcopalian, Lutheran or another Christian.

The ritual itself carries a powerful message. Ashes symbolize human mortality and the need for repentance; they are traditionally made from the palms blessed on Palm Sunday of the previous year. For many, the brief act of receiving ashes provides a concrete starting point for interior reflection, a public expression that precedes private practices such as fasting, additional prayer or other Lenten commitments.

Clergy and liturgical guides stress that ashes are meant to be more than a gesture. The ritual invites a posture of inner penance and renewal that points ahead to Easter, offering both a sober reflection on mortality and an anticipatory hope tied to the season of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

How Easter’s date is determined

The date of Easter varies each year because it is tied to lunar and seasonal markers rather than a fixed calendar date. The standard rule for Western Christian churches is that Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or after March 21, a date used as an ecclesiastical approximation of the spring equinox. That combination of the solar season and lunar cycle is why Easter can fall anywhere between late March and late April.

In 2026, this timing places the full sequence of Lenten observances beginning in mid-February and culminating with Easter on April 5 (ET). Different Christian traditions use slightly different calculations for the lunar and equinox markers, which is why Orthodox Easter sometimes falls on a different date from Western Easter.

For planners, religious communities and families, the early-February start to Lent in 2026 offers more weeks between the January holiday season and the renewal of spring observances, giving worshippers time to prepare spiritually for Holy Week and the celebrations that follow Easter Sunday.