Calculate Easter for Any Year

March 13, 2006

>>Script Language and Platform: T-SQL/SQL Server (All versions)
I needed an easy way to add Easter holiday to an events table for a database supporting a web calendar. After a little research, I found an algorithm to calculate the Western traditional date. It works for any year in the Gregorian calendar, any year after 1582.

The function accepts a four digit integer value for the year for which you want the Easter date. Any entry less than 1582 will return an error message, so I suggest using it in conjuction with the IsDate() function.

Example 1:

Select dbo.Year2Easter(2005) as Easter

Declare @Year int,
	@Years int

Set @Year = Year(getdate())
Set @Years = 10
Set @Years = @Years + @Year

While @Year <= @Years
  Begin
  Select @Year As [Year], 
    Easter = Case IsDate
    (dbo.Year2Easter(@Year))
    When 1 Then dbo.Year2Easter(@Year)
    Else Null
  End

Set @Year = @Year + 1
End

Author: Robert Davis

Download Script:
calculate_easter.sql

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