The year is divided up into seasons which are based on the two great festivals of the Church: Christmas, when we remember the birth of Christ, and Easter, when we commemorate his death and resurrection.
Advent (December)The four weeks before Christmas are traditionally a time when we get ready spiritually for Christmas (while the practical preparations keep us very busy indeed). Because it is a serious time, the church furnishings are clothed in sombre Purple and the priest wears a similar coloured garment (vestment). At St Mary's the many flowers displays that fill the church at other times of the year are taken out.
ChristmasThe festival lasts not one day but twelve starting on Christmas Day. Before carols were played in supermarkets from the middle of November, this was the time for carols. At Christmas, the altar, the vestments and all the fabric coverings are White (or Gold).
Epiphany (January)The twelve days of Christmas are followed by a day when we remember the coming of the wise men. Epiphany means ‘revelation’, the day when non-Jews first came to know about Jesus. During the Epiphany season, we continue to wear White. The season ends with Candlemass, when we turn towards Lent, Holy Week and Easter.
This is the season of preparation for Easter and Easter’s date, and Lent's with it, are fixed by the cycles of the moon. (It has been like this for a very long time and no one seems able to fix the date). Easter can fall between the third Sunday in March and the third Sunday in April. Lent lasts for forty days (leaving out Sundays) from Ash Wednesday to Easter Eve. In the middle, comes Mothering Sunday (often known as Mother's Day), when flowers are given to children to give to their mothers. During Lent, as with Advent, we wear Purple and St Mary's is devoid of flowers.
Lent becomes more serious in its last week. The Sunday before Easter, when we remember the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, is called Palm Sunday because the crowds threw palms at Jesus’s feet. We wear Red on that day as on all the days until Maundy Thursday, the day of Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples when we wear White; Good Friday, the day of his death, when we wear Red and Easter day when we wear White. Easter lasts six weeks and ends with Pentecost – which means fifty – when we wear Red. Here, the colour represents the flames which symbolise the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples.
Trinity and after (May to November)So far the year has covered the events from Jesus’s birth to his death and resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit. The Sunday following, Trinity Sunday, which falls usually in May commemorates our belief in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit – the Trinity. The Sundays after Trinity, until Advent, we wear Green. During this time we concentrate on different aspects of Jesus’s teaching. Top |
