by Liturgical Calendar 2023 Lutheran – Below is a brief guide to the Church’s traditional seasons and liturgical calendar. This introduction is a great starting point for learning about divine services throughout the year and an easy center to review what you’ve learned! Aren’t the seasons of the church year just one season? Don’t worry, it is! The Christian Church gets spring rains and autumn leaves like everyone else, but you don’t get summer or winter among the seasons of the Christian Church! In the language of the Church, the seasons refer to different phases of the year when we focus on a particular aspect of the Christian life. For example, consider the resurrection of Christ You probably already know that Easter is the day we celebrate the resurrection of Christ Well, the events of Easter are so important to the Church that not even one Sunday is left to think about them! Instead, the Christian Church devotes an entire season to Easter, beginning on Easter Sunday and lasting seven weeks until another important biblical event, the Day of Pentecost. Some seasons of the church year are easy to remember, such as Easter or Christmas, but others such as Advent, Lent and “ordinary” times may be less familiar. Don’t worry! God’s word and work is fixed for you regardless of the season Just by coming to church every Sunday you will see the gifts he offers When you visit the Services, you naturally receive a celebration of the seasons But if you’re hoping to learn more, you’ve come to the right place The Christian calendar is administered by Christian church authorities for various reasons First, a regular calendar is useful for keeping notes in front of us Just as God commanded the Jewish people to remember how He had saved them in the past (for example, the Passover, Exodus 12:14; Leviticus 23:4–8), so the early Christians remembered historical events that were related to time. . It is essential to their faith, as Jesus encouraged his disciples (Luke 22:1). Second, Christians, following their Jewish predecessors, saw the regularity of feasts as teaching moments, and celebrations of events in Christ’s life were used for evangelization and repetition. Finally, Christians realize that this life is not the end in itself Christ’s victory over death means that everyday life goes from ordinary to eternal The Christian calendar of events connects believers today with past and future events – Treasury of Daily Prayer, p. 8 Below you will find a brief overview of each season of the church year to learn the how, why, and history of the liturgical calendar. Where do we begin? The best place to understand the seasons is the person of Christ himself (Him and color, but we’ll get to that a little later.) The seasons of the church basically follow the major “seasons” and events of Christ’s life: his birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension. You already know two things: Christmas and Easter Every season has another season that is all about preparation During Advent, the Church focuses on the coming of Christ Advent ends with Christmas, the coming of Christ as a child The season of Lent serves as a season of preparation for Easter, which takes on a more somber tone and reflects the suffering Christ endured during his death on the cross. These seasons are the main celebrations of the church year If I walk in the church, how do I know the season? One of the best ways to instantly identify the season is through the colors used for each occasion (Your pastor will probably also note the season during the service.) Have you seen banners on the walls or colorful cloths on the altar? What about the clothes your pastor wears? If your church celebrates the seasons traditionally, these colors will be full of meaning! Each season has a color dedicated to it The primary colors you often see are green, a symbol of growth; Black, the symbol of sadness; Purple, the symbol of Christ’s kingdom; White, the symbol of purity; And red, the symbol of strength Recently, some churches have begun to use blue for the occasional hope; Gold, for greatness; and red for sacrifice and martyrdom Below, we associate each of these colors with their respective seasons Season of Advent Dates: Fourth Sunday before Christmas (December 25) to noon on December 24 Mass Color: Purple or Blue, Rose The church year begins with Advent, the sequence of four Sundays before Christmas. The name is derived from the Latin word adventus, which means “to come”. This name acknowledges that during Advent the Church looks forward to Christ’s past, present and future – in the past when he was born as a child, in the present when he comes to us in his word and in his sacraments, and in the future when he returns to judge the world. Advent highlights the coming of Christ Reading from Old Testament prophecies about Christ and the ministry of John the Baptist reminds us that Christ is God’s promise to us from the beginning (see Genesis 3:15). Often, congregations add an evening service to mark the season and reflect on God’s promise of deliverance. The typical color of the season is purple, which indicates that Christ is the Prince of Peace and Savior, or blue, which evokes the hope of the Messiah promised to Israel and the world. Many churches use an Advent wreath with three purple and one pink (or pink) candles surrounding a large white candle. Each Sunday, a candle is lit in the wreath as a countdown to Christmas, when at the end the white candle is lit as a sign of Christ’s incarnation. This season includes the feast days of Andrew the Apostle (November 30) and St. Thomas the Apostle (December 21). Christmas Season: Evening Prayer on Christmas Eve (December 24th) until Afternoon Prayer on January 5th Colors: Gold and White On Christmas Day, the Church celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ by the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. This is a great job! So the traditional season of Christmas isn’t just one day, it’s twelve! To begin the season, some churches hold Christmas Mass, which derives from the tradition (sometimes practiced) of a midnight service as the first and immediate celebration of Christ’s birth. Beginning on Christmas Day, the season lasts for twelve days and ends with the new season, the Epiphany of Our Lord. The colors of the Christmas season are gold for Christmas Day, one of the two golden days of the calendar, and white for the rest of the season. There are several important feast days between Christmas and Epiphany, including Stephen the Martyr (December 26), John the Apostle and Evangelist (December 27), and the Feast of the Holy Innocents and Martyrs (December 28). ) In addition to Christmas, this season also includes two feast days – both Eve (December 31) and the Day of the Circumcision (January 1) and the Nativity of Jesus, the eight days in which Christ has already fulfilled the law for us. Season of Advent Dates: Tuesday 5th January to Tuesday Evening Prayer: White and Green Epiphany begins with the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord, which celebrates the Magi’s visit to the Christ Child. The word epiphany means “appearance” or “manifestation”. It comes from the Greek word epiphania Epiphany is also the first time that Christ shared with Gentiles outside of Israel When the Gentiles come to worship Jesus, they show that everyone has access to God Now all Jews and Gentiles can come and worship in the temple of God, because Jesus is the new temple: God in the flesh – Treasury of Daily Prayer, p. 9 The first Sunday of Epiphany is the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, which celebrates Christ’s atonement for the sins of Israel and all mankind, and shows repentance for our lost world. The last Sunday of Epiphany celebrates the Transfiguration of Christ It commemorates the day when Christ spoke of his divinity to the disciples Peter, James and John on the mountain Between Moses, the symbol of the Torah, and Elijah, the prophet, the symbol of the Torah appeared, Christ revealed himself as the fulfiller of both. The color of Epiphany itself is white for the Feast of the Epiphany and green for the remaining Sundays Celebrations this season include the Confession of St. Peter (January 18), Timothy (January 24), Conversion of Paul (January 25), St. Titus (January 26) and others depending on when the Wednesday. Fall Lent Season: Noon Prayer Wednesday through Holy Saturday Colors: Black, Purple, Purple,
