The Church Year Explained: Liturgical Seasons and Colors

The church year, also called the liturgical year or Christian year, is the yearly cycle of seasons and feasts that retells the life of Christ. In Western churches it begins with Advent, moves through Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost, then settles into Ordinary Time until Advent comes around again. This guide explains the seasons and their colors; for this year's dates, see the Christian holiday calendar.

At a Glance

• The Western church year begins on the First Sunday of Advent, the fourth Sunday before Christmas, not on January 1.
• Its major seasons, in order, are Advent, Christmas, Lent, the Easter Triduum, Easter, and Ordinary Time, with Epiphany and Pentecost as hinge feasts.
• Christmas has a fixed date. Easter moves every year because it is tied to the spring full moon, and Lent, Holy Week, Ascension, and Pentecost move with it.
• Liturgical colors mark the seasons: violet or blue for Advent, white for Christmas and Easter, violet for Lent, red for Pentecost, and green for Ordinary Time.
• Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, and Methodist churches keep the full calendar. Many Baptist, Pentecostal, and nondenominational churches keep Christmas and Easter, with varying attention to the seasons around them.

What Is the Christian Church Year?

The church year is a way of marking time by the story of Jesus rather than by the civil calendar alone. Over twelve months, a congregation that follows it waits for his coming, celebrates his birth, walks with him toward the cross, rejoices in the resurrection, remembers the gift of the Holy Spirit, and then spends a long stretch of the year learning to live as his followers. The Bible itself names the instinct behind it: "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3:1, KJV).

The calendar is old, but it was not handed down in one piece. Feasts were added over centuries, and different branches of the church still arrange some of them differently. What follows is the shape most American Christians will recognize, with notes on where traditions part ways. For dates and short guides to each individual feast, see our full Christian holiday calendar.

When Does the Church Year Begin?

The church year does not begin on January 1. In Western churches, it begins on the First Sunday of Advent. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops puts it plainly: "Each liturgical year begins on the First Sunday of Advent during the preceding calendar year." That Sunday is the fourth Sunday before Christmas, which always falls between November 27 and December 3.

Eastern Orthodox churches count differently. Their church new year traditionally begins on September 1, so an Orthodox Christian and a Catholic or Protestant neighbor start their liturgical years about three months apart.

What Happens During Advent?

Advent is the season of waiting and preparation before Christmas. In the West it spans four Sundays, often marked with an Advent wreath and a new candle each week. It looks two directions at once: back to the first coming of Christ at Bethlehem, and forward to the promise that he will come again. The mood is hopeful but restrained, more about readiness than celebration.

The Eastern churches keep a longer version. Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Christians fast for 40 days before Christmas, a season often called the Nativity Fast. A few Western rites, such as the Ambrosian rite in Milan, also keep a six week Advent. For a fuller look at the season's prayers, readings, and customs, see our guide to Advent.

What Is the Christmas Season, and When Does It End?

Christmas is not a single day on the church calendar. It is a season that begins on December 25. In many traditions it runs for the Twelve Days of Christmas, from December 25 through January 5, ending with Epiphany on January 6. In the Catholic calendar, the Christmas season continues a little longer and closes with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, according to the liturgical rules for Christmastide.

Some Orthodox churches still follow the older Julian calendar for fixed feasts, which is why they celebrate Christmas on what the civil calendar calls January 7. They are not celebrating a different event, just counting December 25 on a different calendar.

What Is Epiphany?

Epiphany, on January 6, means "manifestation" or "appearing." In Western churches it focuses on the visit of the Magi, the wise men from the East, and the revealing of Christ to the nations beyond Israel. In Eastern churches the same day is kept as Theophany, which centers on Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River.

After Epiphany, Western churches enter the first stretch of Ordinary Time, which some Protestant churches call the Season after Epiphany. Its length depends on how early or late Easter falls that year.

What Are Lent and Holy Week?

Lent is the season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that prepares for Easter. In Western churches, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. It is described as 40 days, the number of days Jesus fasted in the wilderness, counted without its Sundays, which makes it 46 days on the calendar. Eastern Orthodox Christians keep Great Lent for 40 continuous days beginning on Clean Monday.

Lent ends in Holy Week, the most solemn week of the year:

• Palm Sunday remembers Jesus entering Jerusalem to crowds waving branches.
• Maundy Thursday remembers the Last Supper and Jesus washing his disciples' feet.
• Good Friday remembers the crucifixion.
• Holy Saturday is the quiet day of waiting at the tomb.

The USCCB calls the three days from Thursday evening through Easter Sunday the Sacred Paschal Triduum, "the holiest 'Three Days' of the Church's year." Lent is widely kept by Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, and Anglican churches, and also by many Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, and nondenominational congregations, though many churches in those last traditions do not formally observe it.

Why Does Easter Move Every Year?

Easter is a movable feast because it is tied to the moon as well as the sun. In Western churches, Easter falls on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, the church's calculated full moon on or after March 21. That rule puts Western Easter anywhere from March 22 to April 25. The link to the spring full moon goes back to Passover, the feast during which Jesus was crucified and raised.

Eastern Orthodox churches calculate Easter, which they call Pascha, using the Julian calendar. Their date sometimes matches the Western date and often falls one or more weeks later.

Because Easter moves, much of the calendar moves with it. Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Ascension Day forty days after Easter, and Pentecost fifty days after Easter all shift together each year.

What Is the Easter Season?

Easter is not a single Sunday either. The USCCB describes the Easter season as "50 days of joyful celebration of the Lord's resurrection from the dead and his sending forth of the Holy Spirit." It runs from Easter Sunday to Pentecost. Along the way, many churches mark Ascension Day, remembering Jesus' return to the Father forty days after the resurrection, as Acts 1 describes.

What Is Pentecost?

Pentecost closes the Easter season. It remembers the day the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in Jerusalem: "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place" (Acts 2:1, KJV). Many churches call it the birthday of the church, because the apostles began preaching publicly that day and the first converts were baptized. Red is the color of the day, recalling the tongues of fire in Acts 2. The Sunday after Pentecost is Trinity Sunday in many Western churches.

What Is Ordinary Time?

Ordinary Time is the longest part of the church year. In the Catholic calendar it comes in two parts: a stretch of four to eight weeks after the Christmas season, and a stretch of about six months after the Easter season that runs until Advent. "Ordinary" here does not mean dull. The name comes from the ordinal numbering of its weeks, the second week, the third week, and so on.

Protestant churches that follow the calendar often use other names, such as the Season after Epiphany and the Season after Pentecost, and some have used Kingdomtide for the final weeks. The color is green, a sign of growth, because this is the time for the steady work of discipleship between the great feasts.

The year closes with a look ahead. Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King in 1925, and since 1970 Catholics have kept it on the last Sunday before Advent. Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist, Reformed, and other Protestant churches celebrate it too. Then Advent begins, and the cycle starts again.

What Do the Liturgical Colors Mean?

Churches that follow the calendar often change the colors of altar cloths, banners, and clergy vestments with the seasons. The common Western pattern is:

• Violet: Advent and Lent, seasons of preparation and repentance. Some Anglican and Protestant churches use blue for Advent instead.
• White: Christmas and Easter, seasons of celebration.
• Red: Pentecost and the remembrance of the Passion, including Good Friday in many churches.
• Green: Ordinary Time.

These are customs, not commands, and the details vary by denomination and region. A visitor who notices the color in the front of a sanctuary can usually tell what season the congregation is in.

How Do Different Christian Traditions Keep the Church Year?

The calendar is shared, but it is not uniform. A few honest generalizations:

• Catholic and Orthodox churches keep the full calendar, with many additional feasts of Mary and the saints. The Orthodox year begins in September and dates Easter on the Julian calendar.
• Lutheran, Anglican, and Methodist churches generally follow the full Western cycle of seasons, and many use the Revised Common Lectionary, a shared three year schedule of Scripture readings published in 1994.
• Presbyterian and Reformed churches vary. Many follow the lectionary and observe Advent and Lent, while others give the seasons little formal place and focus on the weekly Lord's Day.
• Baptist, Pentecostal, and nondenominational churches almost always celebrate Christmas and Easter, and many also mark Advent, Palm Sunday, or Good Friday, but many do not organize their worship around the full set of seasons.

None of these differences is a measure of faithfulness. Some Christians find the seasons a steady teacher that walks them through the whole gospel each year. Others prefer to let every Sunday stand on its own as a celebration of the resurrection. Both approaches are rooted in long Christian practice.

How Can You Follow the Church Year at Home?

You do not need to belong to a liturgical church to let the calendar shape your year. A few simple ways to start:

• Light an Advent wreath at dinner on the Sundays before Christmas and read a short passage of Scripture.
• Keep celebrating through the Twelve Days of Christmas instead of packing everything away on December 26.
• Choose one small, concrete practice for Lent, such as a daily prayer time or a regular gift to people in need.
• Read the resurrection accounts in the Gospels during the fifty days of Easter.
• Mark Pentecost by reading Acts 2 together and praying for the work of the Holy Spirit.

The point of the church year is not to add obligations. It is to let the story of Jesus set the rhythm of ordinary life, one season at a time.