J-Walk & Associates, Inc.

Easter Formula

New tip posted: Calculating Easter.

It also has a chart (created from a pivot table) that shows the date on which Easter occurs for a 300-year period.

- Reader Comments -

Following are comments in response to this item.
The most recent comment is at the bottom.

1. By Haffy. Comment posted 07 August, 2008 8:21am

   That's excellent, John. I had about 3 methods (I think 2 use UDFs), but none as neat at this. However, I understood them! Was there any explanation given as to how this formula works?
2. By John Walkenbach. Comment posted 07 August, 2008 10:35am

   If I recall, there was no explanation. It remains a mystery.
3. By Jon Peltier. Comment posted 10 August, 2008 6:20am

   How about Orthodox Easter? I think Chip's Easter page has both calculations.
   
   PS the fill gradient in the bars plus the shadow make it seem like either there are multiple series of bars, or I need to check my eyeglass prescription.
4. By Jon Peltier. Comment posted 10 August, 2008 6:50am

   Sorry, Chip's page has multiple calculations which compute only the date for Roman Easter. The discrepancy arises, by the way, because the Greeks and Romans each had their own misinterpretation for the Jewish lunar calendar. There is a detailed discussion of this on Claus Tondering's web site (http://www.tondering.dk/claus/cal/calendar29.html)
   
   BTW, Chip's two formulas disagrees with your DOLLAR function in 2079.
5. By Modeste Geedee. Comment posted 14 August, 2008 6:09am

   ;o)))
   About informations for previous formula :
   
   Hans W. Herber held a competition on his website http://www.herber.de to find the shortest worksheetfunction that could calculate the date for Easter Sunday between the years 1900 and 2078. The competition ended March 31st. 1999.
   
   the winning formula (shortest 43 chr) was from Norbert Hetterich :
   =FLOOR(DAY(MINUTE(J/38)/2+56)&"/5/"&J;,7)-34
   
   the most improbable(enigmatic) one was from Prasad DV :
   =TRUNC(DATE(J,7,-CODE(MID("NYdQ\JT_LWbOZeR]KU`",MOD(J,19)+1,1)))/7)*7+8
   
   the longuest (139 chr) and last one (20) was from George Simms :
   =DATE(J,3,28)+MOD(24+19*MOD(J,19),30)-(MOD(24+19*MOD(J,19),30)>27)-MOD(INT(J+J/4)+MOD(24+19*MOD(J,19),30)-(MOD(24+19*MOD(J,19),30)>27)+1,7)
   
   I already keep the compilation workbook of this contest ...
   ;o)))
6. By John Walkenbach. Comment posted 14 August, 2008 7:41am

   Thanks for the post, Modeste. I knew that the formula came from a contest, but I couldn't recall Hans Herber's name.
   
   I can't find his original page. I wonder if it's still available?
7. By Jon Peltier. Comment posted 15 August, 2008 10:11am

   Ole Erlandsen discusses Herbert's contest:
   
   http://www.erlandsendata.no/english/index.php?d=enfunctionsdateholidays
   
   and Modeste cited Ole's page in his comment above. Hey Modeste - Next time include the URL, okay?
8. By Modeste Geedee. Comment posted 15 August, 2008 1:06pm

   Hi Jon,
   You are right, I apologize for that...
   
   Though the cited url (http://www.herber.de)
   does not, however, allows access to the related workbook.
   Could it be there, rummaging in archives, but my knowledge of the German language does not permit me to continue this research.
   
   Laurent Longre 8th of this contest
   also cites the winning formula: Norbert Hetterich
   on its site : http://xcell05.free.fr/pages/form/dateheure.htm#Jours_fériés
   
   Regards