Liturgical Calendar

The liturgical year, also known as the church year, Christian year, ecclesiastical calendar, or kalendar, comprises a cycle of liturgical days and seasons. This cycle determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which portions of scripture are to be read.

The liturgical cycle divides the year into a series of seasons, each with its own mood, theological emphases, and modes of prayer. These can be signified by different ways of decorating churches, colors of paraments and vestments for clergy, scriptural readings, themes for preaching, and various traditions and practices often observed personally or in the home.

Distinct liturgical colors may be used in connection with different seasons of the liturgical year. The dates of the festivals vary somewhat among different churches, although the sequence and logic are largely the same.

In churches that follow the liturgical year, the scripture passages for each Sunday (and even each day of the year in some traditions) are specified in a lectionary. Adaptations of the revised Roman Rite lectionary were adopted by Protestants, leading to the publication in 1994 of the Revised Common Lectionary for Sundays and major feasts, which is now used by many Protestant denominations, including Methodists, United, some Reformed, and others.

This has led to a greater awareness of the traditional Christian year among Protestants, especially among mainline denominations.