The Traditional Liturgical Calendar

This is the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal — the form of the Mass our community keeps. A few of its terms may be unfamiliar:

The seasons

The year turns through seasons, each with its own character and colour: Advent (preparing for Christmas), Christmastide, the Time after Epiphany, Septuagesima (pre-Lent), Lent and Passiontide (preparing for Easter), Eastertide (the fifty days of Paschal joy), and the long green Time after Pentecost that carries us back to Advent.

The rank, or “class,” of a day

Not every day is of equal solemnity. First Class days are the greatest feasts (Christmas, Easter, the Assumption); Second Class are major feasts; Third Class are lesser feasts or the privileged weekdays of Advent and Lent; Fourth Class are ordinary weekdays and simple commemorations. When two days fall together the higher one is kept, and the other is often commemorated — remembered with its own prayer in the same Mass.

Feasts & ferias

A feast honours a mystery of the faith or one of the saints. A feria is simply a weekday with no feast of its own, kept in the spirit of its season — which is why you will see names like “Wednesday after the Fourth Sunday of Advent.”

The liturgical colours

The colour of the vestments preaches the day: white for joy, red for the martyrs and the Holy Ghost, green for the ordinary weeks, violet for penance, rose twice a year as a foretaste of joy, and black for Good Friday and the Masses of the dead.

Octaves & vigils

An octave is the eight-day prolongation of a great feast — in 1962 only Christmas, Easter and Pentecost keep one. A vigil is the day before a great feast, traditionally kept with fasting and preparation.

Ember & Rogation days

Ember Days (the Quatuor Tempora) fall four times a year — three days of fasting and prayer that hallow the seasons and beg a fruitful harvest and holy clergy. Rogation Days are days of litanies and procession imploring God’s blessing on the fields and our needs.

Holy Days of Obligation

On these days, as on Sundays, Catholics are bound to assist at Mass. In the United States they are the Circumcision (1 January), the Ascension, the Assumption (15 August), All Saints (1 November), the Immaculate Conception (8 December) and Christmas.

Fast & abstinence

Abstinence is refraining from meat; fasting is limiting oneself to one full meal. These mark the penitential days — Lent, the Ember days, the vigils, and traditionally the Fridays of the year. The notes here are offered for devotional reference.

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