What is the Church Year?
Liturgical | Seasonal | Agricultural
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The liturgical calendar (also known as the liturgical year or Church calendar/year) reorders time – it weaves the story of Christ into the seasons of nature and the rhythms of an agricultural life, knitting together sacred story with agrarian tradition. It’s an incarnational way of approaching time: feasts, festivals, and fasts dot the landscape of these cycles, allowing nature and theology to illuminate one another.
Although there are so many pieces to the liturgical calendar, my focus is on three defining attributes:
LITURGICAL
Our modern religious term “liturgy” traces its roots back to the Greek civic word λειτουργία1 (leitourgia): the “work of the people”…in other words, public service. In ancient Greece, liturgies were systems of support in which community members financed activities of the city-state, ranging from civic traditions (like plays or sporting events) to religious worship & festivals.
In the Septuagint - a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, used by the earliest Christian church - leitourgia is used to describe the work of the priests in the Temple. Over time, this term became more adapted to Christian worship, describing the Church’s offering of worship toward God.
Ultimately, it’s the people’s response to God - our open-handed offer of worship through shared traditions & patterns of ritual.
The calendar seeks to infuse our passing years with liturgy - inviting us to sanctify our daily life by intentionally stepping into the mystery of Christ’s life through remembrance & celebration, that we would be shaped into Christlikeness.
SEASONAL
The liturgical year approaches nature, the cosmos, and the passage of time - the changing seasons, the solar calendar, and the lunar calendar - as sacramental. Feasts, festivals, and fasts dot the landscape of seasonal rhythms, allowing nature and theology to illuminate one another. From placing Christmas at Midwinter, to setting the feast of St. John the Baptist at Midsummer, the Church calendar looks for sacred story in the seasons.
AGRICULTURAL
This calendar developed and flourished within the framework of agricultural societies, illuminating the sacred work of stewarding land, providing for community needs, and walking in step with seasonal cycles.
The calendar’s rhythms became a dialogue between Church theology and the cycles of farm work, with holy days & their traditions echoing back & forth with the labors of agriculture…a blend of popular religious tradition and Church doctrine.
SACRED TIME
» The liturgical calendar is shaped by cycles:
CHRISTMAS CYCLE: Seasons & holy days rippling outward from the Incarnation of Christ (revolving around the fixed date of Christmas Day, December 25).
PASCHAL CYCLE: Seasons & holy days focusing on the Resurrection of Christ (revolving around the movable date of Easter Sunday, which occurs on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring Equinox).
SANCTORAL CYCLE: Holy days recognizing the lives of Saints & theological ideas or traditions.
» These cycles are interpreted through liturgical seasons:
ADVENT
Beginning on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day (December 25), up until Christmas begins
Natural Seasons: Fall & Winter
Just as the harvest season ends and the pace of farm work slows, Advent quietly ushers us into the new liturgical year with a focus on preparation & patience: we’re asked to practice the art of attentive waiting.
CHRISTMASTIDE
The twelve days lasting from Christmas Day until January 5th, also known as Twelfth Night
Natural Season: Winter
A time set apart for celebration, the twelve days of Christmastide are the embodiment of faith - though the fields are cold & dormant and the night is at its longest, we gather to celebrate the light of Christ.
EPIPHANYTIDE
Lasts from the Monday after the Baptism of Our Lord up until Ash Wednesday
Natural Season: Winter
This starlit season - the year’s first expression of Ordinary Time (“ordered” or “counted” time) - completes the Christmas cycle and lasts from Epiphany up until Ash Wednesday. A wintry, transitional time of preparing for spring, Epiphanytide calls us to extend Christ into the world and invites us to re-examine our rhythms.
LENT
Lasting from Ash Wednesday through the evening of Maundy Thursday (approximately 40 days)
Natural Seasons: Winter/Spring
Lent (derived from the Anglo-Saxon lencten, “lengthen”, a term used for Springtime) is a time of germination - we prepare fields & prepare ourselves, exploring what habits we need to prune from our lives to truly thrive in the way Christ has called us.
HOLY WEEK
Palm Sunday through Holy Saturday (the week leading up to Easter Sunday)
Natural Season: Spring
Holy Week asks us to recall and participate in the Passion (suffering) of Christ. It calls into focus the intense work we’ve done during Lent, preparing us for the final transition toward the mystery of Easter.
EASTERTIDE
From Easter Sunday through Pentecost Sunday (50 days)
Easter Sunday is a movable feast; its dating revolves around the lunar cycle in springtime. Each year, its date is set on the first Sunday after the full moon occurring on or after the spring equinox.
Natural Season: Spring
Eastertide is a celebratory season of new life. It’s a time set apart to revel & steep in the paradox given to us in the mystery of Christ - the transformation of death into life - as we watch seeds flourish and trees leaf out.
SEASON AFTER PENTECOST
From the Monday after Pentecost up to the first Sunday of Advent
Natural Seasons: Spring/Summer/Fall
The second expression of Ordinary Time (“ordered” or “counted” time) in the year, this long sweep of the Church calendar encompasses the shifting harvest work of both summer & fall. A time of growth, fecundity, & abundance, the Season After Pentecost reminds us of the transformational work of daily life - in which we’re called to steward ourselves, our communities, and our landscape.
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Leitourgia: a combination of λαός (laos: a people group, often of the same regional identity) and ἔργον (ergon: work/labor).
Dom Prosper Gueranger wrote a multi-volume series on the liturgical year over 100 years ago. It's still highly regarded, though I find his language a little flowery for my taste. It's worth noting that "ordinary time" is a modern invention, unknown to our ancestors. For them, Epiphany followed Christmas until Septuagesima, which prepared the way for Lent. Then the post Easter time was counted as "after Pentecost". These, I think, are far better than "ordinary time" as they refer to key events in the church year.
If you're interested in seasons, Winters in the World by Eleanor Parker may be right up your street. It goes through the Anglo Saxon year, interweaving church and nature, well worth reading. Last week we had Roodmas, now we're heading to Michaelmas, for example.
Oh dear...I didn't see this until now. It's wonderful, Kristin. My family & I were just reading about Ordinary Times last evening. I'm bookmarking this post so I don't lose it (I wonder why I missed it?) Regardless, I'm so glad you wrote it...my Pennsylvania German ancestors while mostly sect, Reformed and Lutheran, had a deep connection to their folk religion -- rooted in the medieval church. Your essays have been so enjoyable & educational to me. Thank you! ♡