Easter wishes for church, family and the egg hunt.

When is Easter 2027?

Easter Sunday is Sunday 28 March 2027. Easter moves every year: it falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox, as the Western churches calculate it, which puts it between 22 March and 25 April. Orthodox churches use the older Julian calendar and often celebrate a week or more later.

What Easter celebrates

For Christians, Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, three days after his crucifixion on Good Friday, and it's the most important feast of the year. It ends Lent, the forty days of prayer and fasting before it, and closes Holy Week, which begins with Palm Sunday. Many churches hold sunrise services or late-night vigils, and the traditional Easter greeting is "He is risen!", answered with "He is risen indeed!"

Alongside the faith, Easter carries the traditions of spring: eggs as a symbol of new life, the Easter bunny, egg hunts for children, lilies, hot cross buns, chocolate, and a big family lunch. In India, Easter is celebrated with church services and family feasts, especially in Kerala, Goa, the Northeast and cities like Mumbai and Chennai, and Good Friday is a public holiday.

What about Good Friday?

Good Friday is a solemn day of mourning, not a celebration, so don't wish anyone a "happy Good Friday". If you want to mark it, a quiet message works: thinking of you on this holy day, or wishing them a peaceful Good Friday. Save the cheerful wishes for Easter Sunday.

What do you write in an Easter message?

Start by deciding whether it's a faith message or a seasonal one. For people who share your faith, a blessing and "He is risen" is the heart of it. For friends and colleagues who celebrate differently, or not at all, spring, rest and new beginnings are warm and inclusive. Then add one detail: the family egg hunt, the Easter lunch they host, the service you used to go to together.

Keep it short for a text and a little longer for a card, where a line about the year and a wish for the season ahead fits nicely.

Messages for church and faith friends

A message to your church family, pastor or prayer group can be fully faith-filled: hope, renewal and the joy of the resurrection. A line of thanks to the people who organise the services, the choir and the Easter breakfast is always appreciated. The Faith filter above shows the religious lines.

Easter for children

For children, Easter is eggs, chocolate and the bunny. A note in an Easter basket or on a card from grandparents can be playful and sweet: a joke about finding every egg, or a message from the Easter bunny himself about eating vegetables before chocolate.

Easter wishes for colleagues and clients

Keep them short, warm and seasonal, and send them before the long weekend. "Wishing you a happy Easter and a restful long weekend" works for anyone, whatever they believe. Avoid assuming everyone celebrates; the seasonal lines are inclusive.

Easter far from home

Many churches livestream their Easter services, so family far away can join the same service at the same time. A message that says you'll be there in spirit, and a video call at lunch, makes the distance smaller.

When to send an Easter message

On Easter Sunday morning, before or after church, when families gather for breakfast or lunch. Work messages are best sent on the Thursday before, ahead of the long weekend. For people observing Holy Week, keep Good Friday quiet and save the joyful wishes for Sunday. Easter is a season as well as a day in many churches, so an Easter wish in the following week is still perfectly in time.

Easter for someone who is grieving

For a family that has lost someone this year, Easter can be tender. A gentle message that remembers the person, and speaks of hope rather than celebration, is kinder than a cheerful one: "Thinking of you this Easter, and holding your family in my prayers." The condolence messages page has more for the hard days.

Thanking the Easter host

Easter lunch is often a big family meal, and whoever hosts it has been cooking since Saturday. A message the next day, thanking them for the food, the table and the company, and naming one dish you loved, means a lot. It's the kind of small courtesy that makes people glad to host again next year.

Easter without the church

Plenty of people celebrate Easter as a spring holiday: family, chocolate, a long weekend and the first warm days of the year. For them, the seasonal lines, about new beginnings, sunshine and rest, are exactly right, and nobody minds receiving a warm, non-religious Easter wish. When you don't know what someone believes, the seasonal wish is the safe and friendly choice.

Easter wishes in Hindi

"ईस्टर की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएँ" is the standard wish. Many Hindi-speaking Christians add a blessing, "प्रभु यीशु का प्रेम और शांति आपके घर में सदा बनी रहे", may the love and peace of Lord Jesus always stay in your home. In Hinglish, "Easter ki dher saari shubhkamnaayein" works for anyone.