# Have Easter and April Fools Day coincided before in recent years? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 1, 2018, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574 "2018-04-01T06:52:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2018, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/1 "2018-04-01T06:52:00Z")
And if so, how recently? ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2018, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/2 "2018-04-01T07:32:19Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > And if so, how recently? [1956](https://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/easter/easter_text2b.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2018, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/3 "2018-04-01T10:20:50Z")
So, 4 times in the last century and three times in the coming century. Cool! ---
**Author:** ![Delicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@Delicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delicious)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2018, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/4 "2018-04-01T10:42:06Z")
They actually don’t coincide. If Easter falls on the 1st, April Fools gets pushed back to the 2nd. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2018, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/5 "2018-04-01T10:47:59Z")
> [@Delicious](#): > > They actually don’t coincide. If Easter falls on the 1st, April Fools gets pushed back to the 2nd. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2018, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/6 "2018-04-01T13:54:29Z")
“April Fools!” And then He turned and went back into the crypt for good. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2018, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/7 "2018-04-01T16:16:25Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > “April Fools!” > And then He turned and went back into the crypt for good. -Church of Jesus Christ, Joker ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2018, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/8 "2018-04-01T17:53:26Z")
“We thought you were dead!” Thomas gasped in wonder. “April Fools” Jesus said. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2018, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/9 "2018-04-01T18:02:14Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > “We thought you were dead!” Thomas gasped in wonder. I got better. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/10 "2018-04-02T14:16:01Z")
Easter can fall on any date starting with March 22 and ending with April 25. Therefore, there are 35 possible days it can fall on; if it was randomly distributed among them, the average number of years between same date Easters would be 35. However, it’s not randomly distributed among the dates because there are two requirements for a Sunday to be an Easter: first, the date has to be a Sunday, and second, it has to be the first Sunday after the paschal full moon. So, for example, to occur on March 22, you have to have the paschal full moon on the vernal equinox (which for simplification the Roman church sets as happening March 21), and then you have to have the very next day be a Sunday. As it turns out, this last happened in 1818, but won’t happen again until 2285 (467 years later). Within the twenty years, by comparison, April 12 has been Easter twice, and will be again in 2020 (Eastern Orthodox calculations are different; the limiting dates are the same, but the day on the Gregorian calendar obviously differs). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/11 "2018-04-02T14:20:35Z")
Nitpick: When you say “randomly”, you mean “uniformly”. Bell curves are perfectly valid random distributions. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/12 "2018-04-02T14:53:00Z")
Easter can fall on my birthday (March 24), but it hasn’t happened in my lifetime (nor will it): I was born in 1965, and the last time it was on that date was 1940. It won’t fall on March 24 again until 2391. And, if you google the question, “when will Easter next fall on March 24,” the second hit is [a SDMB thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=408292) from 2007. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/13 "2018-04-02T15:31:30Z")
It was a trifecta for me: Easter, April Fools’, 25th wedding anniversary. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/14 "2018-04-02T16:02:24Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > “April Fools!” > And then He turned and went back into the crypt for good. He saw His Shadow, so we get five billion more years of existence. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/15 "2018-04-02T20:01:25Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Nitpick: When you say “randomly”, you mean “uniformly”. Bell curves are perfectly valid random distributions. Yeah, yeah, agreed.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-easter-and-april-fools-day-coincided-before-in-recent-years/811574/16 "2018-04-03T05:56:24Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Easter can fall on my birthday (March 24), but it hasn’t happened in my lifetime (nor will it): I was born in 1965, and the last time it was on that date was 1940. It won’t fall on March 24 again until 2391. Don’t be so pessimistic: you might live to be 426!