Holy Week
The eight days the whole year turns on
Holy Week 2027 begins on Sunday, March 21, 2027 (Palm Sunday) and ends on Sunday, March 28, 2027 (Easter Sunday). Below: every key date for the season, what the Church asks of you, and the prayers that belong to it.
Holy Week 2027 — Key Dates
The Days of Holy Week 2027, in Order
Holy Week runs from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday — seven days. The last three, from Thursday evening, are the Easter Triduum, which is a season of its own rather than the end of Lent.
Palm Sunday
Sunday, March 21, 2027also called Passion SundayHoly Week opens. Palms are blessed and carried in procession, recalling Christ entering Jerusalem, and the Passion is read in full — the same crowd that welcomes him on Sunday calls for his death by Friday, and the liturgy makes you say both parts aloud.
Holy Monday
Monday, March 22, 2027The Gospel is the anointing at Bethany, where Mary pours out costly perfume and Judas objects to the waste. The Church reads it as the week begins: extravagance toward Christ is never waste.
Holy Tuesday
Tuesday, March 23, 2027Christ foretells both Judas’s betrayal and Peter’s denial. Two failures, side by side — one ends in despair, the other in repentance, and the difference is the whole of the week to come.
Spy Wednesday
Wednesday, March 24, 2027also called Holy WednesdayNamed for the bargain: thirty pieces of silver, agreed on this day. In many places Tenebrae is sung in the evening, the candles put out one by one until the church is dark.
Holy Thursday
Thursday, March 25, 2027also called Maundy ThursdayLent ends this evening. The Mass of the Lord’s Supper opens the Easter Triduum: the institution of the Eucharist, the washing of feet, and then the altar is stripped bare and the tabernacle left open and empty.
Good Friday
Friday, March 26, 2027No Mass is celebrated anywhere in the world. The liturgy is the Passion, the solemn intercessions, veneration of the Cross, and Communion from hosts consecrated the night before. A day of fasting and abstinence.
Holy Saturday
Saturday, March 27, 2027The Church waits at the tomb. No Mass during the day, no sacraments except for the dying. After nightfall the Easter Vigil begins — fire lit in the dark, the Exsultet sung, and those who have been preparing all year are baptised.
Easter Sunday
Sunday, March 28, 2027Not part of Holy Week, but what it has been walking toward. The Resurrection, and the start of the fifty days of the Easter season.
Holy Week Dates 2027–2035
The date moves each year because it is fixed to Easter, which is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox.
| Year | Palm Sunday | Ash Wednesday | Holy Thursday | Good Friday | Easter Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2027 | March 21, 2027 | February 10, 2027 | March 25, 2027 | March 26, 2027 | March 28, 2027 |
| 2028 | April 9, 2028 | March 1, 2028 | April 13, 2028 | April 14, 2028 | April 16, 2028 |
| 2029 | March 25, 2029 | February 14, 2029 | March 29, 2029 | March 30, 2029 | April 1, 2029 |
| 2030 | April 14, 2030 | March 6, 2030 | April 18, 2030 | April 19, 2030 | April 21, 2030 |
| 2031 | April 6, 2031 | February 26, 2031 | April 10, 2031 | April 11, 2031 | April 13, 2031 |
| 2032 | March 21, 2032 | February 11, 2032 | March 25, 2032 | March 26, 2032 | March 28, 2032 |
| 2033 | April 10, 2033 | March 2, 2033 | April 14, 2033 | April 15, 2033 | April 17, 2033 |
| 2034 | April 2, 2034 | February 22, 2034 | April 6, 2034 | April 7, 2034 | April 9, 2034 |
| 2035 | March 18, 2035 | February 7, 2035 | March 22, 2035 | March 23, 2035 | March 25, 2035 |
Counting the days? See how long until Easter — live, and free to embed on a parish site.
Walking the Way of the Cross? All fourteen stations in order — with the prayers at each, and it prints as a booklet.
Going to confession this season? A full examination of conscience — by the Ten Commandments, and it prints on a plain sheet.
What Is Holy Week?
Holy Week is the last week of Lent and the most solemn week of the Christian year. It opens on Palm Sunday and runs to Easter. Inside it sits the Easter Triduum, which is the still centre of the whole calendar. Palm Sunday carries a deliberate shock. The liturgy begins outside with branches and a procession welcoming Christ into Jerusalem as king, and then, minutes later, the Passion is read in full and the same crowd’s voice becomes the one calling for his death. The Church puts both in the same hour on purpose. It is not a story about other people. The Triduum is often miscounted as three separate days. It is one liturgy in three movements, and it does not stop in between. It begins on Holy Thursday evening with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, which ends with no dismissal because it has not finished. It continues on Good Friday with the celebration of the Lord’s Passion, which likewise has no opening rite, because it is a continuation. It comes to rest at the Easter Vigil, which begins in darkness with a fire and a single candle and ends in a lit church with the Alleluia sung again after forty days of silence. Holy Saturday is the quietest day in the calendar. No Mass is celebrated during the day. The altar is bare, the tabernacle is empty and open, and the Church simply waits at the tomb. It is the one day of the year that is deliberately shaped like absence.
Observance & Rules
Good Friday is a day of both fasting and abstinence in the Latin Church, on the same terms as Ash Wednesday: one full meal, up to two smaller ones that do not together equal a second, and no meat. Fasting binds ages eighteen to fifty-nine, abstinence from age fourteen. Many Catholics extend the fast through Holy Saturday until the Easter Vigil. That is an ancient custom and is encouraged, but it is not an obligation. The Triduum liturgies are not days of obligation in the way Sundays are, which surprises people given how central they are. Easter Sunday itself is. Attending the Triduum is a matter of wanting to be there. Holy Communion is not distributed on Holy Saturday during the day except as Viaticum for the dying. On Good Friday no Mass is celebrated anywhere in the world, and Communion is given from hosts consecrated the evening before.
Practical Guide
If you go to only one thing all year beyond Sunday Mass, make it the Triduum, and go to all three parts rather than picking one. They are built to be experienced in order and each one is incomplete without the others. Going only to Easter Sunday is arriving for the last page. Get the times from your own parish early. Triduum times vary far more than ordinary Sunday times, the Vigil often starts after sunset and runs long, and parishes publish their schedule weeks ahead. Bring children to the Vigil if you can bear the hour. Fire, darkness, water, bells, and light are the parts of the faith that need no explanation to a child, and the Vigil is made almost entirely of those. Go to confession before Holy Thursday rather than during the Triduum. Most parishes schedule extra times in the preceding week for exactly this reason. And keep Holy Saturday empty on purpose if you can. Do not fill it with shopping. The one day the Church deliberately leaves silent is worth actually spending in silence.
Prayers for Holy Week
Scripture for This Season
Bible Verses About Hope
Scripture for holding on when the future feels dark, the hope that does not disappoint.
Bible Verses About Trust
Scripture for learning to lean on God rather than on your own understanding.
Bible Verses About Death
Scripture for grief, for the dying, and for the Christian hope that death is not the end.
Where this falls in the year
- Part ofLentFebruary 10, 2027
- Within itPalm SundayMarch 21, 2027
- Within itGood FridayMarch 26, 2027
Frequently Asked Questions
Upcoming · Sep 23
St. Padre PioSee the full liturgical calendar — every feast this year, and an embed for your parish site.