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6.2.2.1.1.2
Common Dates A List |
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The following list is chronological by civil calendar date. The ecclesiastical calendar begins with Advent Sunday. |
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1.) The Feast of the Circumcision. The date of The Feast of the Circumcision occurs on 1 January of the year. This is the eighth day after Christmas and is intended to commemorate the circumcision of Christ, which would have occurred, by Jewish tradition, on that day (compare Luke 2.21, "when eight days were accomplished"). In the Christian ecclesiastical calendar, it is a holy day of obligation, celebrating the submission of Christ to Jewish law. |
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Observance dates to the middle of the sixth century, but the date was not established in Rome until the ninth century. The Church has generally been reluctant to introduce a festival on New Year's Day, which had been kept with "great riot and license" by the pagans. |
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2.) Epiphany. The word Epiphany comes from the Greek epiphaneia, meaning manifestation. This is an immovable feast in the Christian ecclesiastical calendar and occurs on 6 January of the year. This date has been celebrated for many centuries, but the explanations for its celebration have shifted repeatedly with various political currents. |
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Historically, the first Christians celebrated this day as the day of the birth of Christ. It is, in other words, the original date of Christmas. |
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In the third century, Epiphany was, in the East, a celebration of the baptism of Christ. Clement of Alexandria (died ca. A.D. 217) attests its observance for a Gnostic sect of the Basilidians. It ranked as one of the three principal feasts of the Church from the fourth century onward, along with Easter and Pentecost, and is the oldest feast in the Christian calendar. |
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Introduced from the East into the Western Church in the fourth century, it lost its character as a feast of the baptism of Christ and instead became associated with the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles in the person of the Magi. In this regard, see the Homilies of Saint Leo, on the Theophania, an alternate name for Epiphany. |
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Epiphany is the 12th day after Christmas. It commemorates, in the West, the star leading the Magi to Bethlehem. It is also called Feast of Kings, Twelfth Day, Twelfthtide, Day of the Three Wise Men, Day of the Three Kings, or Old Christmas. |
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3.) Candlemas. The date of Candlemas is celebrated on 2 February of the year. The date is also called Candelaria. |
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The date celebrates the presentation of Christ at the temple. It is also called the Purification of Mary, who would have undergone ritual purification, according to Jewish tradition, 40 days after the birth of a male child. The date is set to be 40 days after Christmas. The use of candles is said to derive from the story that Simeon took the Babe in his arms and said that Christ would be the Light to lighten the Gentiles. |
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Historical fact, however, suggests that the use of candles derives from the Roman custom of honoring the Roman goddess Ceres on 1 February with torches and other |
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