Calculating Easter Sunday

• Download source code - 13.6 KB

Introduction

Looking through old Pascal sources, I found an algorithm to calculate Easter Sunday. I reinterpreted it to C++ and packed it into a small MFC dialog application.

The sample calculates Easter from 1970 to 2037. Responsible for the limitation is the function mktime, used to calculate the offset to ash. Basically, GetEasterSunday is able to calculate Easter from 1583 (beginning of Gregorian calendar) to 2499 (end of correction values).

Ash Wednesday is 46 days before Easter Sunday.

void
CEasterDlg::GetEasterSunday( WORD wYear, WORD& wMonth, WORD& wDay )
{
    // calculate easter sunday
    // [in]  wYear  - 4-digit year to calculate (but not before 1583)
    // [out] wMonth - month of easter sunday
    // [out] wDay   - day of easter sunday

    WORD wCorrection = 0;   
    
    if( wYear < 1700 )      wCorrection = 4;
    else if( wYear < 1800 ) wCorrection = 5;
    else if( wYear < 1900 ) wCorrection = 6;
    else if( wYear < 2100 ) wCorrection = 0;
    else if( wYear < 2200 ) wCorrection = 1;
    else if( wYear < 2300 ) wCorrection = 2;
    else if( wYear < 2500 ) wCorrection = 3;

    wDay = (19 * (wYear % 19) + 24) % 30;        
    wDay = 22 + wDay + ((2 * (wYear % 4) + 4 * (wYear % 7) + 6 * wDay + 5 + wCorrection) % 7);
    
    // jump to next month
    if( wDay > 31 )
    {
        wMonth = 4;
        wDay -= 31;
    }
    else
    {
        wMonth = 3;
    }
}

Further Reading

• JavaScript that computes Easter Sunday
• More algorithms how to calculate

Have fun!

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