PHP - Calendar easter_days() Function

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The PHP Calendar easter_days() function is used to calculate the number of days between March 21st and Easter Sunday for a given year. This is useful for finding the date of Easter in a given year. If no year is specified, the current year is assumed.

This function can be used instead of easter_date() to compute Easter for years that are above the range of Unix timestamps (before 1970 or after 2037.

Syntax

Below is the syntax of the PHP Calendar easter_days() function −

int easter_days ( int $year = null, int $mode = CAL_EASTER_DEFAULT )

Parameters

Below are the parameters of the easter_days() function −

• $year − It is the year as a number between 1970 an 2037.

• $mode − It allows to calculate Easter dates based on other calendars. e.g. it uses the Gregorian calendar during the years 1582 - 1752 when set to CAL_EASTER_ROMAN.

  Other options include CAL_EASTER_ALWAYS_GREGORIAN and CAL_EASTER_ALWAYS_JULIAN.

Return Value

The easter_days() function returns the number of days after March 21st that Easter Sunday falls in the given year.

PHP Version

First introduced in core PHP 4, the easter_days() function continues to function easily in PHP 5, PHP 7, and PHP 8.

Example 1

This example demonstrates how to use the PHP Calendar easter_days() function to calculate the number of days between March 21st and Easter Sunday in the current year.

<?php
   // Calculate the number of days for the current year
   $days = easter_days();
   
   // Output the result
   echo "Days from March 21st to Easter Sunday: $days";
?>

Output

Here is the outcome of the following code −

Days from March 21st to Easter Sunday: 10

Example 2

This example explains how to calculate the number of days between March 21st and Easter Sunday in the year 2025 using the easter_days() function.

<?php
   // Calculate the number of days for the year 2025
   $days = easter_days(2025);

   // Output the result
   echo "Days from March 21st to Easter Sunday in 2025: $days";
?> 

Output

This will generate the below output −

Days from March 21st to Easter Sunday in 2025: 30

Example 3

Now the below code uses the easter_days() function with CAL_EASTER_ALWAYS_JULIAN mode and calculate the number of days for 2023.

<?php
   // Calculate the number of days for 2023 using the Julian calendar method.
   $days = easter_days(2023, CAL_EASTER_ALWAYS_JULIAN);

   // Output the result
   echo "Days from March 21st to Easter Sunday in 2023 (Julian): $days";
?> 

Output

This will create the below output −

Days from March 21st to Easter Sunday in 2023 (Julian): 13

Example 4

In the following example, we are using the easter_days() function to get the number os easter days for more than one year.

<?php
   // Display the number of days in the mentioned years
   echo "Number of Easter days in 1995 - ". easter_days(1995). "\n";
   echo "Number of Easter days in 2012 - ". easter_days(2012). "\n";
   echo "Number of Easter days in 2018 - ". easter_days(2018). "\n";       
   echo "Number of Easter days in 2024 - ". easter_days(2024). "\n";
?> 

Output

Following is the output of the above code −

Number of Easter days in 1995 - 26
Number of Easter days in 2012 - 18
Number of Easter days in 2018 - 11
Number of Easter days in 2024 - 10