What is the Liturgical Year?

Liturgical | Seasonal | Agricultural

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:

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LITURGICAL

The modern word “liturgy” traces its roots back to the Greek λειτουργία (leitourgia): the “work of the people.” It is 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.

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SEASONAL

The liturgical year approaches nature, the cosmos, and the passage of time - the changing seasons, the solar 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.

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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.

Sacred Time

The liturgical calendar is shaped by cycles:

• CHRISTMAS CYCLE: Seasons & holy days focusing on 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 of Spring)
  

• SANCTORAL CYCLE: Holy days recognizing the lives of Saints & other aspects of Church rhythms.

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.

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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.

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ORDINARY TIME I

• 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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ORDINARY TIME II

• 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, Ordinary Time II reminds us of the transformational work of daily life - in which we’re called to steward ourselves, our communities, and our landscape.

Go deeper

• Hop over to my About page to learn more about my work here!

• Visit the Hearthstone Bookshelf to find a list of some of my go-to resources that explore the seasonal, agricultural, & historical aspects of the liturgical calendar.

• Explore printable art & resources in the Scriptorium!

• Visit Signs + Seasons: a liturgical living guild to encounter more perspectives and share your own thoughts & ideas