If you did not grow up in a church that observes the church calendar or liturgical year, it can be hard to understand.
Simply put, the calendar of the church is the way we mark time and remember the work of God.
Where did the liturgical calendar come from?
The Christian church was birthed out of the faith of first-century Judaism. The earliest members of the church considered themselves Jews who happened to follow the Way of Jesus.
As such, they observed the festivals and commemorations of the Jewish calendar. Unlike our solar calendar (it takes 365 days for the earth to revolve around the sun), the Jewish Calendar is a lunar one, based on the 28 days it takes for the moon to revolve around the earth.
Early on, these followers began to add the remembrance of the important events from the life of Jesus into their lives. The earliest Christian festivals were tied to the death of resurrection of Jesus – what we know as the days of Holy Week and Easter. The confluence and connection to the lunar calendar was a natural one as they marked the time. So the date of Easter – which is intimately connected to the observance of Passover by Jesus and his disciples – moves around on our solar calendar each year. (Easter can occur as early as March 22 and as late as April 25).
Remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus is the central point on the calendar.
Soon after beginning to observe Easter, Christians also set aside a day to remember the birth of the church – Pentecost. Based on the story in Acts 2, Pentecost is always 7 weeks after Easter. The first Pentecost occurred on the Jewish Festival of Weeks (Pentecost), which was seven weeks after Passover.
Over time, Christianity became unmoored from our Jewish roots – we became a Gentile Church. As such, we lived most of our lives according to the solar calendar that broke the 365-day solar year into twelve roughly equal divisions. As Christians sought to remember not just the death of Jesus, they set aside a day on their calendar to also remember his birth (December 25). These two anchors, Easter and Christmas, provide the shape of the year.
Especially around the Holy Land, many Christians began to use the 40 days that preceded Easter to prepare themselves. It was especially a time for those who were new to the Christian community to prepare themselves to be baptized at the Easter celebrations. These 6 weeks became known as a time to focus on prayer, repentance, study, and generosity. We call this time Lent, as we prepare our hearts and minds to experience the power of Good Friday and Easter.
Further West, other Christians had a similar approach to Christmas – they set aside a time to prepare themselves both to remember the birth of Jesus and to prepare themselves for the second coming. This season, called Advent, is a parallel to Lent – a time when we focus on the practices that strengthen our faith and shape our hearts.
So what are the church seasons?
The church year begins with Advent. 4 Sundays prior to Christmas Day, the church sets aside this time to prepare our hearts to celebrate Christmas. We talk about the historical coming of Jesus – reading stories like John the Baptist, the Annunciation to Mary, and her song of praise. We also talk about the second coming of Christ – reading Jesus’ words about the Apocalypse (his return).
Advent has the fun Advent calendar to help us mark the four weeks. Some churches begin the process of decorating for Christmas itself. The banners and altar hangings are changed to blue – a color that reminds us of royalty, repentance, and beauty.
Immediately after Advent is the season of Christmas – note, not Christmas Day, but Christmas Season. The Season of Christmas lasts for 12 days. In some places, the birth of Jesus was remembered on December 25 – but in others it was remembered on January 6. The church combined these two practices, stretching the celebration of the birth of Jesus over this almost two-week period. The Christmas celebrations end on January 6 with the festival of Epiphany or Tres Reyes. During the Christmas season we tell the wonderful nativity stories of Luke 2 and Matthew 2-3. We remember the visit of the Magi. With white and gold decorations, we remember the birth of our King and the holiness of the child born in a manger.
After Christmas is the first green season – the Time after Epiphany, sometimes called Ordinary Time. In the Time after Epiphany we tell stories about the life of Jesus – especially focusing on the moments when his status as the Son fo God and Messiah was made known: The Wedding at Cana, healing miracles, calming storms, and feeding multitudes. The name “Ordinary Time” comes from the Latin word for counted – Ordinal (note “ordinary” as in unimportant). These are the “counted Sundays” between the Epiphany and the observance of Lent (Epiphany is always January 6, the beginning of Lent changes based on the date of Easter). The church space turns green during this season – a reflection of the coming of Spring, new growth in the world, and the growth of our understanding of who Jesus is.
46 days before Easter is the beginning of Lent. Lent itself is considered to last 40 days – a reflection of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness, the 40 days of rain on the ark, the 40 years Israel wandered in the wilderness. Sundays are excluded from that count of 40 days, because Sunday worship is always a time for celebration and rejoicing. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, an invitation into the practices or disciplines of study, worship, self-denial, prayer, and generosity. These practices help us to prepare to experience the power of Jesus death and resurrection. During Lent, we read stories about the 40 days – of Jesus’ time in the wilderness, of the wanderings of Israel. We read calls to repentance and transformation. The decorations for Lent are often simple and invite us into reflection, using the color purple to remind us of repentance and the royalty of the crucified king.
The end of Lent is known as Holy Week. During this week we remember the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The week begins with Palm Sunday, and the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. It continues with the events of Jesus’ last night with his friends, and his death on Good Friday.
The season of Easter begins on Easter Sunday. Churches are often brightly decorated, full of flowers and signs of resurrection and new life. The season of Easter lasts for 7 weeks, and as a time of celebration and rejoicing.
The end of Easter is marked by the celebration of Pentecost Sunday. On Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the life of the church. Not only are the decorations around the church all red – representing the fire of the Holy Spirit – many people attending church dress in red too.
The Season after Pentecost is another Ordinary Time. Once again, the Sundays are counted after Pentecost, until the year turns over again at Advent. This long green season is the longest portion of the church year. During this time, we often hear the teachings of Jesus and give thought to how we live out our faith in the world.