Following the Church Year

When I downloaded the Book of Common Prayer to my kindle, I was intrigued by the concept of a church year. Not not a set of holidays and holy days within the realm of our world's calendar, but a stand-alone calendar with celebrations, seasons, and meaning.

The church year is rich in liturgy (a form of public worship) that is typically associated with the "high churches" (Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists ). Liturgy is not a very familiar concept in many churches in the U.S. are "low churches" (most Protestant churches). A low church does not follow liturgy or many rituals and tries to minimize ceremony, whereas a high church emphasizes these elements. The Book of Common Prayer combines the liturgy of the high church with spontaneity of the low church in a delightful way, but references to the separate church year piqued my interest.

I ventured into this foggy realm of church years and liturgy, not sure of what to expect. I was armed with questions about when the church seasons and holy days were held and more importantly *why*. I wanted to know the significance these rituals could have in my life.

One of the first things that I learned was that there are variations into the church year, depending on your denomination. A holy day or season might start sooner or end later. Nonetheless, there are key seasons across the board.

The church year starts with Advent (4 Sundays before Christmas) and lasts through Christ the King Sunday (last Sunday before Advent). The seasons transition from Advent/Christmas/Christmastide (Twelve Days of Christmas) to Lent/Holy Week/Easter and onto Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time is not synonymous with "boring time," but rather refers to "ordinal or counted time." This season is the season to delve into the faith and focus on specific aspects of it (i.e. missions, how to interact with fellow believers, etc.)

To the best of my knowledge, the following chart (created by yours truly) shows the main major Christian holidays, when they're generally celebrated, and when they're held in the upcoming church year. The Twelve Days of Christmas require a more in-depth explanation in a future post. It is surprisingly hard to collect information on the Twelve Days of Christmas (when not wanting the song lyrics).

Church Year Holy Days-meaning	Purpose	Important Colors/Meanings	When It’s Celebrated
Advent-coming/ arrival	prepare for Christ fasting or preparation, expectation, anticipation	Green-hope in God Purple-royalty, fasting Pink-Rejoice Blue-night sky/waters/Genesis-royalty	4 weeks before Christmas
Christmas	celebrate Christ	Red/green-life/hope	December 25th
Christmastide/Twelve Days of Christmas	Twelfth night has king’s cake		December 25th/26th-Januray 5th/6th
Epiphany-to show, to reveal			January 6th (or celebrated through Ash Wednesday)
Candlemas	Feast of Presentation of the Lord in the Temple		February 2nd
Transfiguration Sunday	remember light (Magi come), reflection		Last Sunday before Lent
Ash Wednesday	First day of Lent		7th Wednesday before Lent
Lent-confess resistance to light	Prayer, fasting, almsgiving, preparation	purple/red & dark violet-pain/suffering and sin. And royalty	46 days before Resurrection Sunday (not counting Sundays, so 40 days)
Holy Week:	recall Christ’s suffering	Maundy Thursday: Red-Disciples Good Friday: Black-sin, death, life without God	7 days before Resurrection Sunday
Resurrection Sunday/ Easter	celebrate resurrection	White-purity, newness, hope Gold/yellow-light of world	1st Sunday after 1st full moon after Spring Equinox
Eastertide	Season of Easter		Sundown the day before Resurrection Sunday Through Pentecost
Ascension Day	Resurrection of Christ and exaltation from servant to Lord/Ruler		40 days after Easter
Pentecost (Trinity Sunday)	church birthday celebrate hope/Holy Spirit at work, reflection	white and gold/yellow	50 days after Easter
Ordinary Time	Ordinal (counted time) Focus on faith (especially missions)	red: color of the church	Rest of the Church Year
Reformation Sunday	Luther & 95 Theses	Green	October 31st or Last Sunday of month
All Saints’ Day	Honor martyrs		November 1st or First Sunday of month
Ordinary Time			Rest of the Church Year
Christ the King Sunday	Celebrate coming reign of Christ		Last Sunday before Advent

Church Year Holy Days	2012-2013 Church Year
Advent-coming/ arrival	December 2nd-December 23rd
Christmas	December 25th
Christmastide/Twelve Days of Christmas	December 25th/26th-Januray 5th/6th
Epiphany	January 6th
Candlemas
Transfiguration Sunday	February 10th
Ash Wednesday	February 13th
Lent-confess resistance to light	February 13th-March 30th
Holy Week:	March 24th-March 30th Palm/Passion Sunday-March 24th Maundy Thursday-March 28th Good/Holy Friday-March 29th Holy Saturday with Easter vigil-March 30th
Resurrection Sunday/ Easter	March 31st
Eastertide	March 30th-May 18th
Ascension Day	May 10th
Pentecost (Trinity Sunday)	May 19th
Ordinary Time	May 20th-October 26th
Reformation Sunday	October 27th
All Saints’ Day	November 2rd
Ordinary Time	November 4th-November 23rd
Christ the King Sunday	November 24th

So why does this matter to the low church congregations? In my (humble) opinion, following the church seasons brings an awareness and conscientiousness to our faith. It's remembering our past, our heritage (i.e. Reformation Sunday). It's adding an awareness and an anticipation to our year (almost Advent, almost Christmas, almost Resurrection Sunday). No more will we walk into church and be surprised that it's the first Sunday of Advent or Easter, for we will awaiting these days and now when they are upcoming.


Future posts are planned to look more in depth at the Advent/Christmas season, the Twelve Days of Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week/Resurrection Sunday, Pentecost, Ordinary Time, Reformation Sunday, and All Saints' Day. More future posts will be on hospitality, fasting, the Book of Common Prayer, and the concept of Sabbath. Eventually I will post about other topics that interest me, such as minimalism and frugality, and also subjects I'm passionate about, such as crafts and cooking/baking.