The liturgical year

begins on the first Sunday of Advent

Christianity — the cycle of seasons, feasts and colours

The Christian calendar of seasons and feasts, which begins not in January but on the first Sunday of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas. It runs through Christmas and Epiphany, a stretch of Ordinary Time, the forty days of Lent, Holy Week and Easter, and the fifty days to Pentecost, before returning to Ordinary Time and starting again. Its shape is set by two poles: Christmas, fixed to a date, and Easter, which moves with the moon and drags a long train of feasts with it.

How to spot them

▸The year starts on the first Sunday of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas
▸Easter is movable: the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after 21 March, so between 22 March and 25 April
▸Colours: violet for Advent and Lent, white or gold for Christmas and Easter, red for Pentecost and martyrs, green for Ordinary Time
▸Rose vestments twice a year, on Gaudete and Laetare Sundays

Key facts

It begins not in January but on the fourth Sunday before Christmas

Advent Sunday — the first Sunday of Advent, falling between 27 November and 3 December

Cakes with a bean or a figurine baked inside, eaten on 6 January — the galette des rois, the rosca de reyes, the king cake

Epiphany, the coming of the Magi; whoever finds the fève or the hidden baby is king for the day. Britain's old Twelfth cake hid a bean and a pea, for a king and a queen

Forty days, Sundays excepted, beginning on a Wednesday of ashes

Lent, from Ash Wednesday; the ashes come from burning the previous year's palm crosses

Movable, and tied to the moon: the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after 21 March

Easter, falling between 22 March and 25 April in the Western reckoning

Fifty days after the resurrection, tongues of fire and a rush of wind in an upper room

Pentecost, or Whitsun in Britain, from the white robes of the newly baptised

Violet, then white and gold, then red for the Spirit, then green for the long ordinary stretch

The liturgical colours; rose is worn on Gaudete Sunday in Advent and Laetare Sunday in Lent

Churches that still keep the Julian calendar celebrate Christmas on 7 January

The Julian date now runs thirteen days behind the Gregorian

Pancakes on the Tuesday before the ashes, to use up the fat

Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras or Carnival, from shrive, to hear confession

Key ideas

Almost everything in the calendar is anchored to one of two points. Christmas fixes the immovable feasts — Epiphany, the Presentation, the Annunciation — while Easter fixes the movable ones, from Ash Wednesday to Pentecost and Corpus Christi.

Quick-fire facts

•The Christian year begins on the first Sunday of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas Day
•Advent has four Sundays; the third, Gaudete Sunday, takes rose vestments, as does Laetare Sunday, the fourth of Lent
•Epiphany falls on 6 January and in the West commemorates the visit of the Magi; Eastern churches mark Christ's baptism
•Epiphany cakes with a token baked inside are eaten across the Catholic world: the frangipane galette des rois in France, hiding a fève; the ring-shaped roscón or rosca de reyes in Spain and Mexico; and the New Orleans king cake, with a plastic baby inside
•Lent runs forty days, not counting Sundays, from Ash Wednesday; the ashes are made by burning the previous year's palm crosses
•Easter is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon falling on or after 21 March, so it varies between 22 March and 25 April
•The fifty days of Eastertide end at Pentecost, known in Britain as Whitsun
•Liturgical colours are violet for Advent and Lent, white or gold for Christmas and Easter, red for Pentecost and for martyrs, and green for Ordinary Time
•Candlemas, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, falls on 2 February, forty days after Christmas
•Churches on the Julian calendar, including the Russian and Serbian Orthodox, keep Christmas on 7 January in Gregorian terms

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Sources

The Church of England — The Liturgical Year
BBC Religion & Ethics — Epiphany