Main Reason Easter 2025 Falls late in the year is due to a rare sky event

A rare eclipse has affected the religious holiday

Easter Sunday in 2025 falls on April 20, marking one of the latest dates for the holidays in recent memory. The date is set to be just five days before the latest possible Easter Sunday, which may be on April 25, according to TimeAndate.com.

The reason for this late Easter lies in a combination of factors, including the moon’s elliptical trajectory and the occurrence of a rare “blood moon” total lunar eclipse on March 13 to 14, 2025. This eclipse, visible over North America, will be the last full moon before spring EM.

As a result, it delays “Pink Moon” or “Paschal Moon” which is used to determine the date of Easter.

It may be surprising, Easter date is determined by heavenly mechanics, but Christianity, like other religions such as Islam, Judaism and Chinese traditions, use the movements of the sun and moon to calculate the dates of larger annual events.

Unlike Christmas that follows the regular Gregorian Solar Calendar, Easter is a moon festival tied to the moon’s phases and jumping equinox. The formula for determining Easter is straightforward: it falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or after spring Equinox (in the northern hemisphere).

By 2025, Spring Equinox will be on March 21, with the next full moon, known as “Pink Moon” and “Paschal Moon” in Christian tradition arriving on April 13. As a result, Easter Day will be observed on April 20.

In contrast, Easter fell in 2024 on March 31. This year’s late Easter is due to “Worm Moon”, which coincides with the total lunar eclipse on March 13 to 14 and occurs just before Equinox, which delays “Paschal Moon” and pushes Easter into mid -April.

The moon has long shaped human calendars, with its stages that mark key dates in many cultures. For example, the Chinese Lunar New Year began on January 29, 2025 and began the year of the snake. The 15-day party ended with the Lantern Festival on the full moon on February 12.

Similarly, the Islamic Holy Month Ramadan starts with the crescent, which seemed on February 28, after the new moon, ending with Eid al-Fitr at the next crescent.

Easter in the Jewish tradition also begins on a full moon, the 15th of Nisan, the first month of the Hebrew moon -calendar that coincides with Pink Moon on April 13, 2025.

Orthodox Christians who follow the Julian calendar celebrate Easter later than their Western colleagues. Their Easter is tied to Easter, which falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Jewish festival. This means Easter Sunday can fall anywhere between April 4 and May 8.

By 2025, for the first time since 2017, both Orthodox and Western Christians will observe Easter on the same date.

Adding to the heavenly view will be the overall lunar eclipse in March a highlight of the year. Known as a “blood moon”, the full “worm moon” will pass through the shade of the earth and take on a reddish-orange tint.

The totality lasts for 65 minutes and the event will be visible over North and South America.