How Christians tell time differently
The Church Calendar: Liturgical Year
(Part 2 in Liturgical Church)
The way someone organizes time tells you a lot about their priorities. Conversely, the way culture tells time shapes our priorities. In Western culture, we tell time by using a solar calendar and we mark time down to the second. The way we tell time prioritizes efficiency and accuracy above all else.
I remember when I spent nearly a month in Eastern Africa and time meant something different. We marked time by “sun-up” (time to get breakfast ready), “high sun” (take a break") and “sundown” (time for our communal meal). The way they told time prioritized community and fostered patience.
The Liturgical Year: The Church Calendar
Christians developed their own way of telling time: the church calendar. We tell time by retelling the story of Jesus year after year after year. Even if you have never heard of the “Church calendar” you probably still follow it with the two biggest days: Christmas and Easter.
The Church calendar oscillates between seasons of feast and fasting or celebration and preparation. The church year is marked by seasons formed around Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. Each season has a time that flows into it or flows out of it. The seasons are organized: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and Lent, Easter, Pentecost.
Advent
The beginning of the church year is set off by Advent which comes from a Latin word meaning arrival or coming. During Advent, we look back to a time when Jesus wasn’t here yet but we also look forward to when Jesus will come again. Typically churches decorate with blue or purple during this season. Advent starts at a different time every year but it is typically the end of November.
Some churches make use of an “Advent Wreath” to mark the four weeks of Advent before Christmas. During this time the four candles mark different aspects of preparing for the coming of Jesus. Some remember the weeks as themes: Love, Peace or Faith, Joy and Love. Others commemorate these weeks by remembering the people who came before Jesus: Prophets, Mary and Joseph, Shepherds, and Angels. The “fifth” candle in the Advent Wreath is a white candle that is lit on Christmas.
Christmas
Every year, December 25th is when the Western church celebrates Christmas. Christmas is the time that we celebrate the incarnation — the birth of Jesus. In the Liturgical Year, Christmas is a season and not just a day. We celebrate the 12 days of Christmas starting on December 25th until the 6th of January. Christmas is marked by the color white which represents joy or victory.
Epiphany
Epiphany is a unique season that flows out of Christmas. While Christmas is Jesus being born in the world, Epiphany is the time Jesus is shared with the world. Epiphany marks the revealing of the Gospel to the Gentiles and is marked by the Maji giving gifts to Christ as a toddler. January 6th is when the church celebrates this Feast Day and we mark the weeks after as “the Season after the Epiphany.” During this season the focus is on the life and ministry of Jesus as revealed in the Gospels.
Technically Epiphany is not a true “season” and is simply a special Feast Day. Nonetheless, it operates like a season by influencing the weeks following it with a different liturgical bent. “Ordinary Time” is the traditional name for those weeks following Epiphany which comes from a Latin word meaning meaning “counted weeks.” The liturgical color for these weeks is always green which is the color of the Holy Spirit and hope of new life.
Lent
You may be surprised to know that Ash Wednesday is one of, if not the, most attended church service in all of the year. It competes with Christmas and Easter in the Catholic Church. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent.
Lent is a penitential season that follows the 40 days of preparation Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness before beginning his earthly ministry. Lent started as a time for new converts to prepare for Baptism on Easter. During this season everyone is invited to join Jesus in his journey by fasting in preparation for Easter.
During Lent, the service is quite different. Churches often times get rid of the flowers that typically decorate the altar. No one says “alleluia” as a liturgical response in the service. Confession is often made more prominent or done publically if it isn’t typically done. The music can be a bit dreary and less joyful. The sermons might focus on our own mortality and brokenness. Lent is not a time of “earning God's favor by fasting.” Lent is a time to remind ourselves that we are broken and mortal. Lent is a time when we, like Jesus, are invited to take a special time of fasting and spiritual dedication to set ourselves apart for God.
Easter
Easter is the Feast Day and season that the Ressurection of Jesus Christ is celebrated. The date for Easter changes each year because it follows the Jewish lunar calendar as it is tied to Passover. During Easter, everything changes. Suddenly the whole church is filled with flowers and colors. Churches often change the words and flow of the service during this season. Sometimes there is no confession at all as a reminder that God has already forgiven us. There are more alleluias shouted in the service. The music is grandiose and the service is designed in a joyous celebratory fashion. We celebrate in Easter because Jesus is alive. During Easter, the liturgical color is white, the same as Christmas because these two seasons tell the gospel story: Jesus was born and Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus is always alive, but during the Easter season, we take a poignant time to celebrate and remember that reality.
The Easter season has a few unique aspects to it. The week before Easter Sunday is Palm Sunday where many churches hold a special service and wave Palm branches telling the story of the Triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Easter also has a “warm-up” week we call Holy Week. While many churches celebrate Holy Week in different ways, the three highlights are Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Thursday is often called Maundy Thursday and celebrates the Last Supper and Jesus washing the disciple's feet while ending with the “Stripping of the Altar.” Good Friday is a shorted service recognizing the day Jesus died on the cross. The Easter Vigil is held Saturday night to mark that Jesus rose from the dead. At the end of Easter, the Feast of the Ascension is celebrated when Jesus ascended into Heaven.
Pentecost
Pentecost is another “season” like Epiphany that is technically a Feast Day followed by “Ordinary Time.” On Pentecost, the Church celebrates the sending of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles. On that Day, the disciples of Jesus had tounges of fire over their heads and they spoke in many tounges. In recognition of that the liturgical color for Pentecost is a deep and vibrant red. Sometimes churches will have a congregational reading where members read in different languages or different scripts all at once which can be quite chaotic. Pentecost, in a way, is the undoing of the Tower of Babel where the languages were confused. Instead of the people of God being divided, Pentecost is when we are all brought together so that we can be sent out together in the power of the Holy Spirit. Some churches will decorate their sanctuaries or naves with balloons almost like Pentecost is the birthday of the Church.
In those weeks after Pentecost, the Church has other “special days” that are celebrated. There is Trinity Sunday where we talk (or don’t talk) about the Trinity and the end of the year: Christ the King Sunday. Christ the King is the last day of the Church Year, right before Advent, when we celebrate where all of history is headed: the Kingdom of God on Earth as in Heaven. Throughout the Church year, there are other days such as special saint days or local traditions.
The Liturgical Year
The Liturgical Church Year is a special way of telling time because we retell the same story every year. Many Churches will use a “Lectionary” which is a special Bible reading plan that with four readings: a gospel, a psalm, and two “lessons.” The next article in this series is about the Lectionary and you can find it here when it is published. To see the Lectionary readings for this week, view them here.
While are many different ways of presenting the Liturgical Church Calendar, this one is my favorite:
What I love about this version of the Church Year (which I found here) is how it divides the Church year between the story of Jesus and the story of God’s people. And in truth, that is often how Liturgical churches operate. Every year we retell the story of Jesus, but it is never at the expense of our own stories and needs. The Church Year operates as a dance between the story of Jesus, the place of the congregation and the direction of the Spirit.
Why do Christians use a special calendar? Because we orient our lives around Jesus and not what the world’s culture tells us to. We follow it to guide ourselves through the whole story of God: the hard parts and the happy parts. We do it because it is something we share—not only among ourselves, but with the whole world.
If you’d like to learn more about liturgical worship, subscribe to learn more. This is part of a series on Liturgical Churches. Find part one here and see the next article here when it is published.