Feasts and Festivals of Our Lord

Christmas Day, Naming and Epiphany

First of all we will take the chief Feasts and Festivals in honour of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  First, there is his Birthday, Christmas Day, December 25th, when he was born in the stable at Bethlehem.  Then comes the Naming and Circumcision, January 1st, when he was given his Name.  Five days later, on January 6th, we come to the Epiphany or the Making Known, because then Jesus made himself known to the Wise Men when they brought him their gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

Presentation of Christ in the Temple

The next Feast in honour of Our Lord is the Presentation of Christ in the Temple on February 2nd.  It commemorates the day when Our Lady and St Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem to present him to God.  This day is also kept in honour of Our Lady and so has the second name of the Purification of the St Mary the Virgin.  It has also a third name, Candlemas, on account of the custom of holding lighted candles on that day at the Eucharist.  This custom honours Our Lord as the “Light to lighten the Gentiles”.  This is what old Simeon called Jesus when he took him in his arms in the Temple that day.

(Good Friday) and Easter Day

After that we come to a day which is not a Feast or a Festival but it is a Holy Day, and that is Good Friday when Jesus was crucified.  The third day after is the greatest Feast of all, Easter Day, when Jesus rose again from the dead.  Easter Day is not the same each year, as you will know.  This is because the date of Easter, like the date of the old Jewish Passover, is fixed according to the moon.  As the Prayer Book tells us, “Easter Day…is always the First Sunday after the Full Moon, which happens upon, or next after the Twenty-first day of March; and if the Full Moon happens on a Sunday, Easter-Day is the Sunday after”. (3)

Ascension Day and Corpus Christi

Forty days after Easter, on a Thursday, is Ascension Day when Jesus went back to Heaven.  Three weeks later there is another very important celebration, and that is Corpus Christi.  Corpus Christi is the Latin for the Body of Christ and it is a day of thanksgiving in honour of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  It is always on the first Thursday after Trinity Sunday. 

Pentecost, Trinity Sunday and Christ the King

Trinity Sunday is, of course, in honour of the Holy Trinity, One God in Three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The previous Sunday, Pentecost or Whitsunday, is a great Feast in honour of God the Holy Spirit.  It is sometimes called the Birthday of the Church, because at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came to the Apostles, the Church was formed, and the first Christians were baptised and became members of it.  On the last Sunday in the Church’s Year (the Sunday before Advent Sunday), we celebrate the Festival of Christ the King.