What are the seven seasons of the Christian calendar?
Early
in its history, the Church divided the year into liturgical seasons
based on the life and ministry of Jesus.
Advent,
starting four weeks before Christmas, tells of the coming (or advent)
of Jesus.
Christmas
tells of his birth.
Epiphany
starts with the Manifestation to the Gentiles—when three wise
men from the Orient came to see the baby Jesus—and proceeds
through key moments in Jesus’s life.
The
forty days of Lent—calling
to mind the Hebrews’ 40 years of wilderness wandering, and
Jesus’s 40 days of testing in the wilderness—are a time
of repentance, fasting and preparation for baptism.
Lent
leads up to Holy Week
and the death of Jesus.
Easter
tells of Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, his appearance
to certain disciples, and his ascension to God.
The
season of Pentecost
begins with the Day of Pentecost (concerning the gift of the Holy
Spirit) and is basically a teaching season.
Each
liturgical season is grounded in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s
life. Old Testament readings and passages from the Epistles are
read in worship, as well.
In
liturgical churches like the Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Episcopal,
each season has certain special days, special music and special
ways of preparing the worship space.
—Tom
Ehrich
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