When is Easter?

How the Easter dates are worked out

Easter is the only major public holiday whose date moves every year. Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after 21 March, using the church tables rather than the astronomical moon, which puts it anywhere between 22 March and 25 April. Good Friday is two days before, Easter Monday the day after, and everything else in the Easter block is anchored to that Sunday.

Early and late Easters behave differently on the calendar. A late Easter (mid to late April) can sit within a week or two of Anzac Day, which is when the famous Easter and Anzac double becomes possible: a handful of leave days bridging the two can produce a break of ten days or more. An early Easter in March sits on its own.

Which days are actually public holidays

Only Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays in every state and territory. The days in between depend on where you are:

• Saturday before Easter Sunday is a public holiday in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory and the ACT. It is not one in Western Australia or Tasmania.
• Easter Sunday was added by New South Wales in 2011, Victoria in 2016 and Queensland in 2017, and the ACT, Western Australia and the Northern Territory later. South Australia joined in 2025. Tasmania does not declare it.
• Easter Tuesday exists only in Tasmania, and only for the state public service. It is listed here for completeness but does not give most Tasmanians a day off.

For someone who works Monday to Friday, the Saturday and Sunday declarations make no difference to the four-day weekend. For hospitality and retail workers they matter a great deal, because they turn ordinary weekend rates into public holiday rates.

Trading and travel

Good Friday is one of the few days when most shops are legally required to close in several states, alongside Christmas Day and the morning of Anzac Day. Rules vary: some states exempt small shops, chemists and petrol stations, and some regions are exempt entirely, so check your state before assuming the supermarket is open.

The Easter weekend is also the busiest domestic travel period after Christmas, and in most years it falls inside or beside the autumn school holidays. If you plan to add leave, the long weekend planner shows whether the Anzac Day double is on for your state that year.