The Liturgical Year for Dummies

My religious tradition doesn't recognize or celebrate the liturgical year. We occasionally notice Easter and Christmas, if only to preach against them. But my experiences with The Book of Common Prayer are pulling me deeper into the rhythms of the liturgical calender. What follows are some basics for people wholly unfamiliar with the ebb and flow of the liturgical year.

A nice way to see the liturgical year is on round calendars like this one. Click on it to enlarge so you can see it more clearly:


The basic structure of the liturgical year is this:

There are four holy seasons: Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter.

Outside of these holy seasons is what is called Ordinary Time. There are two periods of Ordinary Time (these are the green weeks in the wheel above; the liturgical color for Ordinary Time is green). The first period is short, marking the weeks between the end of Christmastide and the start of Lent. The second period of Ordinary Time is longer, taking up about half the secular year. This period goes from Pentecost (the end of the Easter season) to the start of the Advent season.

The liturgical year starts with Advent. Advent starts four Sundays before Christmas Eve. Christmastide begins on Christmas Eve and ends on Epiphany (January 5th). Christmastide is also called the Twelve Days of Christmas. As seen above, a liturgical color for Advent is blue. Gold is a color for Christmastide.

After Epiphany Ordinary Time begins. Again, the liturgical color for Ordinary Time is green.

On Ash Wednesday the season of Lent begins. A liturgical color for Lent is violet, or a rose color. Lent goes until the Easter Tiduum, which starts on the evening of Maudy Thrusday, through Good Friday and Holy Saturday to Easter. As these days relate to the Passion, a liturgical color is red.

Eastertide, the final holy season of the year, starts on Easter and ends on Pentecost, the 50th day after Easter. A liturgical color for Eastertide is gold.

After Pentecost the Sundays are simply numbered (1st Sunday after Pentecost, 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, etc.) until the liturgical year starts again with the Advent season.

Finally, sprinkled throughout the liturgical year are a large number of Holy Days, the most important being the Solemnities (many of which we have already mentioned but include days like the Annunciation, the Ascension, Trinity Sunday, and All Saints) .

(Final Note: The is some variety in all this--from names, to dates, to liturgical colors, to additional seasons--from tradition to tradition. What I've presented is an attempt at a generic, non-denominational overview.)

So, enjoy the Easter season. The celebration isn't over yet. It lasts until Pentecost.