science

Liturgical year

Liturgical year is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Liturgical year rather than just read about it. In short: The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year, ecclesiastical calendar, or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical days and seasons that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which portions of scripture are to be read. Distinct liturgical colours may be used in connection with different seasons of the liturgical year.

Key takeaways

Liturgical year belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Liturgical year to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Liturgical year from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year, ecclesiastical calendar, or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical days and seasons that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which portions of scripture are to be read. Distinct liturgical colours may be used in connection with different seasons of the liturgical year. The dates of the festivals vary somewhat among the different churches, although the sequence and logic is largely the same.

Liturgical cycle

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, colours of paraments and 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 in a lectionary. After the Protestant Reformation, Anglicans and Lutherans continued to follow the lectionary of the Roman Rite. Following a decision of the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church revised that lectionary in 1969, adopting a three-year cycle of readings for Sundays and a two-year cycle for weekdays. 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 also Methodists, United, some Reformed, etc. This has led to a greater awareness of the traditional Christian year among Protestants, especially among mainline denominations.

Biblical calendars Scholars are not in agreement about whether the calendars used by the Jews before the Babylonian exile were solar (based on the return of the same relative position between the Sun and the Earth), lunisolar (based on months that corresponded to the cycle of the moon, with periodic additional months to bring the calendar back into agreement with the solar cycle) like the present-day Jewish calendar of Hillel II, or lunar, such as the Hijri calendar. The first month of the Hebrew year was called אביב (Aviv), meaning the month of green ears of grain. Having to occur at the appropriate time in the spring, it thus was originally part of a tropical calendar. At about the time of the Babylonian exile, when using the Babylonian civil calendar, the Jews adopted the term ניסן (Nisan) as the name for the month, based on the Babylonian name Nisanu. Thomas J Talley says that the adoption of the Babylonian term occurred even before the exile. In the earlier calendar, most of the months were simply called by a number (such as "the fifth month"). The Babylonian-derived names of the month that are used by Jews are:

Nisan (March–April) Iyar (April–May) Sivan (May–June) Tammuz (June–July) Av (July–August) Elul (August–September) Tishrei (September–October) Marcheshvan (October–November) Kislev (November–December) Tevet (December–January) Shevat (January–February) Adar 1 (February; only during leap years) Adar (February–March) In Biblical times, the following Jewish religious feasts were celebrated:

Pesach (Passover) – 14 Nisan (sacrifice of a lamb), 15 Nisan (Passover seder) Chag HaMatzot (Unleavened Bread) – 15–21 Nisan Reishit Katzir (Firstfruits) – 16 Nisan Shavuot (Weeks) – Fiftieth day counted from Passover, normally 6–7 Sivan Rosh Hashanah (Trumpets) – 1–2 Tishrei Yom Kippur (Atonement) – 10 Tishrei Sukkot (Tabernacles) – 15–21 Tishrei Chanukah (Dedication) – 25 Kislev–2/3 Tevet (instituted in 164 BC) Purim (Lots) – 14–15 Adar (instituted in c. 400 BC)

Eastern Christianity

East Syriac Rite

The Liturgical Calendar of the East Syriac Rite is fixed according to the flow of salvation history. With a focus upon the historical life of Jesus Christ, believers are led to the eschatological fulfillment (i.e. the heavenly bliss) through this special arrangement of liturgical seasons. The liturgical year is divided into 8 seasons of approximately 7 weeks each but adjusted to fit the solar calendar. The arrangement of the Seasons in the Liturgical Year is based on seven central events on celebrations of the Salvation History. They are:

Nativity of Christ Epiphany of Christ Resurrection of Christ Pentecost Transfiguration Glorious Cross Parousia (the Dedication of Church after Christ's second coming) One of the oldest available records mentioning the liturgical cycle of east-syriac rite is handwritten manuscript named 'Preface to Hudra' written by Rabban Brick-Iso in 14th century. The manuscript mentions that the liturgical year is divided into nine seasons starting from Subara and ends with Qudas Edta. Catholic churches of east-syriac rite maintains the same liturgical calendar until the current date except that many consider 7th and 8th seasons as a single one. The biblical reading and prayers during Mass and Liturgy of the Hours vary according to different seasons in the liturgical calendar.

Liturgical Calendar The various seasons of the liturgical calendar of Syro-Malabar Church and Chaldean Catholic Church are given below.

Annunciation (Subara) Weeks of Annunciation (Subara) is the first season of the liturgical year. The liturgical year begins with the commemoration of biblical events leading to the annunciation and birth of Jesus as expected savior in the old testament. The season begins on the Sunday just before the first of December and ends with the feast of Epiphany that is the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus. The faithful practice abstinence during December 1–25 in preparation for Christmas; this period is called "25 days Lent". Feasts celebrated during this season

Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, mother of Jesus (December 8) Feast of Miraculous Cross of Mylapore (Saint Thomas Christian cross) (December 18) in Syro Malabar Church Nativity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ or Christmas (December 25) Feast of Holy Infants (December 28) Feast of Name Iso (January 1) Feast of Mary, mother of Jesus (last Friday of Season)

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Liturgical year

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Liturgical year claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Liturgical year before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Liturgical year ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Liturgical year

In research: Liturgical year appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Liturgical year in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Liturgical year is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Christian festivals and holy days, Liturgical calendar, Seasons, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Liturgical year outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Liturgical year” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Liturgical year in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Liturgical year means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Liturgical year out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Liturgical year in simple terms?

Why does Liturgical year matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Liturgical year?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Liturgical year.