The Catholic Liturgical Calendar
The Catholic liturgical calendar is the year as the Church prays it: the annual cycle of seasons, solemnities, feasts, and memorials by which the Church re-presents to the faithful the entire mystery of Christ and the lives of His saints. The current Roman Calendar in force throughout the Latin Church was promulgated by Pope Saint Paul VI in 1969 in the apostolic letter Mysterii Paschalis, with subsequent revisions.
The shape of the liturgical year
The Catholic year is structured around two great cycles: the Christmas cycle (Advent, Christmas, and the days leading to the feast of the Baptism of the Lord) and the Easter cycle (Lent, the Sacred Triduum, the Easter season, and Pentecost). Between these two cycles lies Ordinary Time, the longest stretch of the liturgical year, in which the Church works through the public ministry of Christ in the Sunday Gospel readings.
Each Sunday of the liturgical year has its proper readings, prayers, and antiphons. The Catholic faithful are bound by the Third Commandment to assist at Mass on Sundays and on the holy days of obligation; the proper observance of the liturgical year is the lived form of this commandment in the Catholic life.
The seasons
Advent
Liturgical color: Violet (with Rose on Gaudete Sunday)
Four weeks of preparation for Christmas, beginning on the Sunday closest to November 30 (the feast of Saint Andrew). The liturgical year begins with Advent. The dominant note is hopeful expectation: the people of Israel awaiting the Messiah, the Church awaiting the second coming of Christ.
Christmas
Liturgical color: White or gold
Begins with the Vigil of Christmas (December 24 evening) and continues through the feast of the Baptism of the Lord (the Sunday after the Epiphany, January 6 or transferred). Includes the Octave of Christmas, the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God (January 1), and Epiphany.
Lent
Liturgical color: Violet
Forty days of penance, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving in preparation for Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday and concluding at the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday evening. Lent recalls the forty days of Jesus's fast in the desert and prepares the catechumens for baptism at the Easter Vigil.
The Sacred Triduum
Liturgical color: Various (Holy Thursday white, Good Friday red, Easter Vigil white)
The three days from the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday evening through Vespers of Easter Sunday. The liturgical climax of the entire Catholic year. The Easter Triduum is one continuous liturgical celebration of the Paschal Mystery: the Last Supper, the Passion and Death, and the Resurrection of Christ.
Easter
Liturgical color: White or gold
Fifty days from Easter Sunday through Pentecost Sunday. The Easter Octave (the eight days from Easter Sunday through the Second Sunday of Easter, also called Divine Mercy Sunday) is celebrated as one continuous solemnity. The Easter season concludes with the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Ordinary Time
Liturgical color: Green
Two stretches of liturgical time outside the festal seasons: the weeks between the Baptism of the Lord and Ash Wednesday, and the weeks from Pentecost Monday through the Solemnity of Christ the King (the last Sunday before Advent). Despite its name, Ordinary Time is not unimportant; it is the time of the Church's ordinary, sustained meditation on the public ministry of Christ.
The ranks of liturgical days
Within the seasons, individual days carry one of four liturgical ranks. The rank determines the form of the celebration: which readings are proclaimed, which prayers are used, whether the day replaces the Sunday or weekday it falls on, and whether it must be observed by all the faithful.
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Solemnity
The highest liturgical rank. Includes Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, the Annunciation, the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception, Saints Peter and Paul, All Saints, and the Solemnity of Christ the King. Solemnities have their own proper readings, and many are holy days of obligation in particular regions.
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Feast
The middle rank of the universal calendar. Includes the feasts of the Apostles (other than Peter and Paul), most major Marian feasts not raised to solemnity, and feasts of saints of universal significance such as Saint Francis of Assisi (October 4) and Saint Catherine of Siena (April 29).
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Memorial
Either obligatory or optional. The obligatory memorials of the universal calendar must be observed; the optional memorials may be observed at the discretion of the celebrant. The vast majority of saints in the universal calendar fall into one of these two categories.
The Sanctoral cycle and the saints' calendar
Layered onto the temporal cycle (the seasons of the liturgical year) is the sanctoral cycle: the calendar of saints' feast days. Each diocese has its own particular calendar in addition to the universal Roman Calendar; in the United States, the diocesan calendars include the memorials of the patron saints of the country and of particular regions.
For the saints whose biographies we have prepared, see the saints hub. For the foundational prayers of the Catholic year, see the prayers hub. For the rosary's place in the liturgical year, see the Rosary.