The
liturgical year, also known as the
Christian year, consists of the cycle of
liturgical seasons in
Christian churches which determines when
Feasts,
Memorials,
Commemorations, and
Solemnities are to be observed and which portions of
Scripture are to be read. Distinct
liturgical colours may appear in connection with different seasons of the liturgical year. The dates of the festivals vary somewhat between the
Western (
Roman Catholic,
Anglican,
Lutheran, and
Protestant) churches and the
Eastern Orthodox Churches, though the sequence and logic is the same.
In both the East and the West, the dates of many feasts vary from year to year, though in almost all cases this is due to the variation in the date of Passover, and all other dates follow from that. The extent to which the feasts and festivals are celebrated also varies between churches; in general Protestant churches observe far fewer of them than Catholic and Orthodox churches, and in particular are less likely to celebrate feasts of the Virgin Mary and the Saints. See moveable feasts.
The liturgical cycle divides the year into a series of seasons, each with their own mood, theological emphases, and modes of prayer, which can be signified by different ways of decorating churches, vestments for clergy, scriptural readings, themes for preaching and even different traditions and practices often observed personally or in the home. 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 by a list called a lectionary.
Among non-Catholic Western Christians, Anglicans and Lutherans have traditionally followed the lectionary since the days of the Protestant Reformation. Following the Roman Catholic liturgical reform of the Roman Rite instituted by Pope Paul VI in 1970, the adoption and use of lectionaries in other Protestant churches (Methodist, Reformed, United, etc.) increased. In particular, the growing influence of the Revised Common Lectionary led to a greater awareness of the Christian year among Protestants in the later decades of the 20th century, especially among mainline denominations.
