Easter (Domingo Pascual) & Easter Holidays (Semana Santas)

March 30, 2018 is Good Friday.  April 1, 2018 is Easter.

Easter holidays are religious celebrations, not federal statutory holidays, in both the United States and Mexico.  In both countries employees do not receive time off (with or without pay). Banks, schools, government offices and businesses may close early or all day for Good Friday (the Friday preceding Easter Sunday (known in Spanish as Domingo Pascual); this is more common in Mexico than in the United States.  Banks, schools, government offices and many businesses are, of course, closed on Easter because it falls on a Sunday.    

At one time students in the United States received the week before Easter off.   However, due to influence of atheism and multiculturalism in the United States Easter Vacation has been replaced with Spring Break (a one week vacation) that may or may not coincide with Easter.  Students in Mexico usually are off  both the week before and after Easter

In Spanish, Semana Santa (Holy Week) is the week preceding Easter Sunday (Domingo Pascual) and Semana Pascua is the week after Easter.  Both weeks together are known the as the Samanas Santas (holy weeks).

In Mexico the weeks before and after Easter are more celebrated than in the United States with many Mexicans taking time off during these weeks.   In general banks, government offices, and business are open as usual during the Samanas Santas (the week before and after Easter).  However, many people take some time off during the weeks before and after Easter; thus the weeks before and after Easter is a time when not much gets done in Mexico.

Good Friday is celebrated in Mexico much more than in the US.  Some business will close or close early.  Although the Zona never closes New Years Eve, Good Friday, and Christmas Eve are perhaps the worst time to visit the Zona as on these days the selection will be less than any other time of the year.

 
Easter Holidays
Ash Wednesday (Miércoles de Ceniza) is the seventh Wednesday before Easter and the first day of Lent.  On Ash Wednesday many Christians receive a mark of ashes on the forehead as a token of penitence and mortality.

Lent (Cuaresma) traditionally is the time from Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday.  It is observed by many Christians as a season of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter.  Some Christians (such as Catholics) are expected to give up something during Lent as penitence.  Traditionally Lent was a period of 40 days, excluding Sundays, ending the Saturday preceding Easter.  For Catholics Lent now ends the Thursday preceding Easter hence for Catholics Lent is now a period of 38 days, excluding Sundays.
 
Palm Sunday (Domingo de Ramos) is the Sunday immediately proceeding Easter (Resurrection) Sunday.

Semana Santa (Holy Week) is the week from Palm Sunday (Domingo de Ramos) through Easter Saturday (Sábado Santo).  

Semana Pascua (Easter Week) is the week from Easter Sunday (Domingo de Pascua) through the following Saturday.  

Semanas Santas (Holy Weeks which are Semana Santa and Semana Pascua) the week before and after Eater.

Holy Thursday (Jueves Santo) is the day on which Lent now ends for Catholics.

Good Friday (Viernes Santo), the day Christ’s crucifixion is remembered, is the dominant holiday during the two Semanas Santas weeks.

Holy Saturday (Sábado Santo), the Saturday proceeding Easter, is (traditionally) the last day of Lent.

Easter Sunday (Domingo de Pascua), also called Resurrection Sunday, is the Sunday on which Christ’s resurrection is remembered.

 
When is Easter
The first Easter was the Sunday following Passover when Jesus Christ was resurrected.  Following the Council of Nicaea, the date for Easter was completely divorced from the Jewish calendar and its computations for Passover. Thereafter, in principle, Easter fell on the Sunday following the full moon that follows the Northern spring equinox (the so-called Paschal Full Moon). However, the vernal equinox and the full moon were not determined by astronomical observation. Instead, the Spring Equinox was fixed to fall on the 21st day of March, while the full moon (known as the ecclesiastical full moon) was fixed at 14 days after the beginning of the ecclesiastical lunar month (known as the ecclesiastical new moon). Easter thus falls on the Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon.  

The computus is the procedure of determining the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon falling on or after 21 March and the difficulty arose from doing this over the span of centuries without accurate means of measuring the precise solar or lunar years. (The model that was worked out assumes that 19 tropical years have the same duration as 235 synodic months with a modern value of 234.997.)

Since the 16th century, there have been differences in the calculation of Easter between the Western and Eastern Churches. The Roman Catholic Church since 1583 has been using March 21st under the Gregorian calendar to calculate the date of Easter, while the Eastern Orthodox continued and continue to use March 20th under the Julian calendar. The Catholic and Protestant denominations thus use an ecclesiastical full moon that occurs four to five days earlier than the eastern one.

 
Year Easter
2015 April 5
2016 March 27
2017 April 16
2018 April 1
2019 April 21
2020 April 12
2021 April 4
2022 April 17
2023 April 9
2024 March 31
2025 April 20
2026 April 5
2027 March 28
2028 April 16
2029 April 1
2030 April 21