CHURCH FEASTS AND FASTS WHOSE DATE DEPEND ON THE DATE OF EASTER.

Feasts, or Festivals, are days set apart by the church, either for the grateful memorial of the most remarkable events connected with the plan of redemption, or upon which to commemorate the actions and sufferings of such persons as have been most instrumental in carrying forward the designs of God for the salvation of mankind.

The ecclesiastical year is divided into eight seasons, namely: Advent-tide, Christmas-tide, Epiphany-tide, Lenten-tide, Easter-tide, Ascension-tide, Whitsun-tide, and Trinity-tide. The first day of each of these seasons has been, and is now observed by the church in commemoration of some of the most remarkable events connected with the plan of redemption. All these will be noticed in the order in which they occur in the ecclesiastical year, while many other days intervening, which are observed as feasts or fasts, will be given a passing notice.

a—Advent Sunday, which is the day nearest St. Andrew’s Day (Nov. 30), or the first Sunday after the 26th of November, has been recognized since the sixth century as the first day of the ecclesiastical year.

Advent (Latin Adventus, the coming,) signifies the coming of our Saviour, the period of the approach of the nativity. As Advent-tide lasts from Advent Sunday to Christmas, the length of the season depends upon the day of the month on which Advent Sunday falls. As it may happen as early as the 27th of November or as late as the 3d of December, so Advent-tide will contain no more than twenty-eight days nor less than twenty-two. It should be borne in mind that, though this festival is classed among the movable feasts, it does not depend upon the date of Easter, but upon the day of the month on which Advent Sunday falls. The four Sundays before Christmas were made preparation days for the festival of Christmas, and were called the first, second, third, and fourth Sundays in Advent.

Ember days and Ember weeks are the four seasons set apart by the Western church for special prayer and fasting, and the ordination of clergy; known in the church as quatuor tempora, (the four seasons.) The Ember weeks are the weeks next following St. Lucy’s Day (Dec. 13th), the first Sunday in Lent, Whitsun Day, and Holy Cross Day (Sept. 14th). The Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays of these weeks are the Ember days distinctively. The name by some is supposed to be derived from a German word signifying Abstinence; by others it is supposed to signify Ashes.

b—Christmas (from Christ and the Saxon maess, signifying the mass and a feast), is a festival held in commemoration of the nativity of our Saviour throughout nearly the whole of Christendom. It is occupied, therefore, with the event (the incarnation) which forms the center and turning point of the history of the world. Though the day of Christ’s birth cannot be ascertained from the New Testament, nor from any other source, yet the whole Christian world for more than 1300 years have concurred in celebrating the nativity on the 25th of December. This is the first of the four great feasts in the ecclesiastical year; the other three are Easter, Ascension, and Whitsun Day. The length of Christmas-tide or season is twelve days, lasting from the 25th of December to Epiphany.

c—Epiphany (Greek Epiphania, Theophania or Christophania,) is a festival in commemoration of the manifestation of Jesus Christ to the world as the Son of God, and referring to the appearance of the star which announced our Saviour’s birth to the Gentiles, and the visit of the Magi, or wise Men of the East to the infant Jesus. This festival is held on the 6th of January invariably, consequently is not a movable feast, though the length of Epiphany-tide depends upon the date of Easter. As Easter may happen as early as the 22d of March or as late as the 26th of April (a variation of thirty-five days), so Epiphany-tide may consist of no less than twelve days nor more than forty-seven, as the season always ends the day before Septuagesima Sunday. (See tables at the close of this chapter.)

Septuagesima, Sexagesima, Quinquagesima. There being exactly fifty days between the Sunday next before Lent and Easter Day, inclusive, that Sunday was termed Quinquagesima, i. e., the fiftieth; and the two immediately preceding Sundays were called from the next round numbers Sexagesima, the sixtieth; and Septuagesima, the seventieth.

The Paschal Season extends from Septuagesima Sunday to Low Sunday, a period of seventy days. It takes its name from the Paschal festival or Easter, whose services end with Low Sunday, the octave, or eighth day, of Easter. It begins with Septuagesima Sunday because the church services then begin to prepare the minds of the faithful for the services of Lent, which are themselves the preparation for Easter. May not Septuagesima Sunday be so called because there are just seventy days in the Paschal Season?

Shrove-tide literally means confession-time, and is the name given to the days immediately preceding Ash Wednesday. These days were so called because on them, and especially on the last of them (Shrove Tuesday) people were accustomed to confess their sins as a preparation for Lent. In most Roman Catholic countries it begins with Quinquagesima Sunday, the Sunday before Lent.

Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, (Latin dies cinerum, the day of Ashes), was so called because it was customary on that day for penitents to appear in sackcloth, upon which occasion ashes were sprinkled upon them.

d—Lent, (Anglo-Saxon lengten. Perhaps from lenegan, to lengthen, because at this season the days lengthen) the forty days fast, is the preparation for Easter, and is observed in commemoration of our Lord’s fast in the wilderness. In most languages the name given to this fast signifies the number of days—forty; but our word Lent signifies the Spring Fast, for Lenten-tide in the Anglo-Saxon language was the Season of Spring, in German, Lenz.

The six Sundays in the Lenten-tide of forty-six days are not counted in the fast, as all Sundays in the year are reckoned as feast days, because our Saviour arose from the dead on the first day of the week.

Quadragesima Sunday, the first Sunday in Lent, is so called by analogy with the three Sundays which precede Lent, and which (as has already been stated) are called respectively Septuagesima, seventieth; Sexagesima, sixtieth; Quinquagesima, fiftieth; and then Quadragesima, fortieth; in round numbers forty days before Easter.

Holy Week, the last week in Lent, called also Passion Week, because within it is commemorated our Lord’s sufferings. The days specially solemnized are Palm Sunday, Spy Wednesday, Holy, or Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday.

Palm Sunday (Latin Dominica Palmarium, or Dominica in Palmis) is the name usually given the Sunday before Easter; a day celebrated in commemoration of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, so called because the people who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming, took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet him, and cried, “Hosanna; blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

Spy Wednesday, so called in allusion to the betrayal of Christ by Judas, or the day on which he made the bargain to deliver him into the hands of his enemies for thirty pieces of silver.

Maundy Thursday (from Dies mandati, mandate Thursday), so called either from the command given his disciples to love one another, or to commemorate the sacrament of His supper.

Good Friday, so called in acknowledgment of the benefit derived from the death of Christ.

The closing scenes in the life of Christ, the events of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of Holy Week, are events of much more importance than were ever before crowded into any one week in the history of the world. The betrayal on Wednesday, the institution of the sacrament on Thursday night, also the words of our Saviour as recorded in John’s gospel, from the 14th to the 17th chapters inclusive, the agony and the bloody sweat in the garden, the arrest and trial during Thursday night and Friday morning, the crucifixion at the third hour, the darkness that was over all the land from the sixth to the ninth hour, and the last words of the blessed Jesus, “It is finished,” (tasted death for every man); these we say, are events of more importance to man than were ever before crowded into any one week in the world’s history.

The prophets who prophesied of these things, inquired and searched diligently, “searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.” And about an hour before this prophecy began to be fulfilled our Saviour uttered these words: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” It was probably not more than an hour from the time these words fell from the Saviour’s lips, that he was arrested and led away to undergo a trial; cruel mocking and scourging, crucifixion and death upon the cross.

Then cometh Joseph of Arimathea, bringing fine linen, and Nicodemus with his hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes, and they two took the body of the Lord Jesus and wrapped it in the linen with the spices, and laid it in Joseph’s own new tomb, which he had hewn out in a rock, wherein never man before was laid, and rolled a great stone against the door of the sepulcher and departed. Thus endeth Passion Week. While the body of Jesus is in the sepulcher the world is rejoicing, and the disciples are weeping and lamenting, according to the words of the Saviour, “Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice.”

He dies! the friend of sinners dies!
Lo! Salem’s daughters weep around;
A solemn darkness veils the skies,
A sudden trembling shakes the ground.

e—Easter (German, Ostern, Old Saxon Oster, from osten, signifying rising,) is a church festival in commemoration of the resurrection of our Lord from the dead. But the apparent victory which the enemies of Christ had gained was of short duration, the rejoicing of the world did not long continue, the remaining words of our Saviour must needs be fulfilled: “But your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” Now, upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, (Easter morning) the two Marys came to the sepulcher bringing the sweet spices and ointments which they had prepared for the purpose of anointing the body of the Lord Jesus, but were greatly astonished when they saw that the great stone, which they had seen rolled against the door of the sepulcher on Friday afternoon, was rolled away, and an angel sitting upon it whose countenance was like lightning, and for fear of whom the keepers did shake and become as dead men. But to the women he said, “Fear not ye; for I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified, He is not here, for He is risen.” That you may know for a certainty that He is risen, come and see the place where you saw Him laid only a few hours ago. Now go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and behold He goeth before you into Galilee, there shall ye see Him. And they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy, and did run to carry the good news to the disciples. But how much greater their joy soon after their departure when Jesus himself met them with the comforting words, “Be not afraid, but go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see Me.”

The subject for conversation for the past two days had been Jesus and the crucifixion, but now Jesus and the resurrection. Some believed, but some doubted. Others ran to the sepulcher and found it even as the women had said. While the chief priests and elders hired the soldiers to say that the disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept. But how should they know what had become of Him if they were sleeping? The truth was they were so overcome with fear by the brightness of the angels’ countenance that they became as dead men, not knowing what was transpiring around them. But it was truly good tidings and great joy to the disciples of Christ on that Easter morning.

The rising God forsakes the tomb;
In vain the tomb forbids His rise;
Vain the stone, the watch, the seal,
Christ has burst the gates of hell;
Death in vain forbids His rise;
Christ hath opened Paradise.

The spirit of Christ in the prophets had testified beforehand the suffering of Christ and the glory that should follow. That morning and that day was not only joyful to the disciples of Christ, but glorious; it was “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Although 1863 years have rolled around since that Easter morning, yet we are as much interested in what then and there transpired as were the Marys, and Peter, and John, who were the first at the sepulcher, and who were permitted the same day to see their risen Lord, whom having not seen, we love; in whom, though now we see Him not, yet believing, we [as well as they] rejoice “with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

Low Sunday. The first Sunday after Easter is so called because it was customary to repeat on this day some part of the solemnity which was used on Easter day, whence it took the name of Low Sunday, being celebrated as a feast, but of a lower degree than Easter day itself. The next Sunday after Easter has been popularly, so called in England, perhaps by corruption for close, (Pascha Clausum) close of Easter. Dominica in Albis, (the Sunday of white garments) a title anciently given to the first Sunday after Easter, because on this day those persons who had been baptized at Easter appear for the last time in the chrysomes, or white robes which they received at baptism. These were laid up in the church as evidences of their baptismal profession.

Rogation Days, (Latin rogare, to beseech,) are the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday after Rogation Sunday and before Ascension Day, (Holy Thursday.) About the middle of the fifth century Mamertus, bishop of Vienna, upon the prospect of a great fire that threatened his diocese, appointed that extraordinary prayer and supplication should be offered up to God, with fasting, for averting the impending evils upon the above mentioned days; from which supplications (called by the Latins rogationes) these days have ever since been called Rogation Days. As retained in our present calendar, they are simply private fasts.

f—Ascension Day, or Holy Thursday, one of the great religious festivals of the Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches, is held on the fortieth day after Easter, and ten days before Whitsun Day, to commemorate the Ascension of our Lord into heaven. Ascension Day has been observed at least since the year of our Lord 64, and perhaps earlier. Saint Augustine believed it to have been instituted either by the apostles themselves, or the bishops immediately succeeding them.

Expectation Week is the whole of the interval between Ascension Day and Whitsun Day, so called because at this time the apostles, according to the command of our Saviour, continued at Jerusalem, in earnest prayer and expectation of the Holy Comforter which was to abide with them forever. The Sunday between Ascension Day and Whitsun Day is called Expectation Sunday.

Pentecost, (Greek, Pentecostos, fiftieth), a Jewish festival; so called because it was observed on the fiftieth day after the feast of unleavened bread, called also the feast of weeks, being celebrated seven weeks from the feast of the Passover. It also commemorated the giving of the law on Mount Sinai upon that day. The origin of the Anglo-Saxon name of White Sunday, which also occurs in Icelandic, is somewhat obscure, for in the Roman churches the Dominica in Albis, (Low Sunday, q. v.) so called from the white robes then worn by the persons baptized at Easter, has always been the Sunday immediately following Easter. It hardly seems probable that there should be another Sunday of White Garments within six weeks. In German it is known by the name Pfingsten, old German Wingsten, old English Whitsun, hence, probably, our word Whitsun Day, not White Sunday.

g—Whitsun Day, or Pentecost, is the last of the four great festivals in the ecclesiastical year, held in commemoration of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the infant church ten days after the Ascension. Among the last words of our Saviour to the apostles on the very day that He was taken up, were “Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endowed with power from on high.” After ten days of earnest, believing prayer, and expectation, suddenly, but not unexpectedly, there came a sound from heaven as a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance; and the multitude came together, and were amazed, saying one to the other what meaneth this? Others mocking said, these men are full of new wine. But Peter lifted up his voice and said, these are not drunken as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day, (nine o’clock in the morning,) men are not usually drunk so early in the morning; but this is that which the prophet Joel eight hundred years ago said should come to pass in these last days; the promise of the Father, the baptism of the Holy Ghost for which they had been waiting for the past ten days; something of that glory that should follow the crucifixion, death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus into Heaven, the glory of the Christian church, of the Christian dispensation, and which is destined to fill the whole earth.

“Waft, Waft, ye winds his story,
And you, ye waters, roll,
Till like a sea of glory,
It spreads from pole to pole.”

h—Trinity Sunday, the octave, or eighth day of the feast of Pentecost, is a church festival held in commemoration of the doctrine of the Trinity. The introduction of this day into the calendar is of comparatively recent date, it being established by Pope Benedict XI, in the year of our Lord 1305. It is probable that the zeal of many Christians against the use of images in the eighth and ninth centuries may have been the first cause of the appointment of a distinct day for meditating upon the nature of the Holy Trinity in unity, or the one true God as distinguished from idols. The reason for its late introduction is that in the creed of the church, and in its psalms, hymns, and doxologies, great prominence was given to this doctrine, and it was thought that there was no need to set apart a particular day for that which was done every day. This is the last of the movable feasts in the ecclesiastical year, being held eight weeks after Easter; so it may happen as early as the 17th of May or as late as the 20th of June. The length of both Epiphany and Trinity-tide depend upon the date of Easter. As Epiphany-tide is shortened by the early date of Easter, so Trinity-tide is lengthened proportionately, and as Epiphany-tide is lengthened by the later date of Easter so Trinity-tide is shortened proportionately; so Trinity-tide may contain no more than 196 days nor less than 161. (See tables at the close of this chapter.)

All Saints Day, or All hallowmass (Anglo-Saxon all, and halig, holy) a festival celebrated by the Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches on the first day of November, in honor of all Saints and martyrs. It was introduced into the Western church in the beginning of the seventh century by Boniface. The number of saints being exceedingly multiplied, it was found too burdensome to dedicate a feast day to each, there being, indeed, scarcely hours enough in the year to distribute among them all. It was therefore resolved to commemorate on one day all who had no particular day. By order of Gregory IV, it was celebrated on the first of November, 834; formerly the first of May was the day appointed. It was introduced into England about 870, and is still observed in the English and Lutheran churches, as well as the Church of Rome on the first of November.

All-Souls’ Day, a festival held by Roman Catholics on the 2d of November, for special prayer in behalf of all the faithful dead. It was first introduced in 998, by Odilon, Abbot of Clugni, who enjoined it on his own order. It was soon after adopted by neighboring churches. It is the day on which, in the Romish church, extraordinary masses are repeated for the relief of souls said to be in purgatory. Formerly on this day persons dressed in black perambulated the towns and cities, each provided with a bell of dismal tone, which was rung in public places by way of exhortation to the people to remember the souls in purgatory. In some parts of the west of England it is still the custom for the village children to go around to all their neighbors souling, as they call it, collecting small contributions, and singing the following verses, taken down from two of the children themselves:

Soul! Soul! for a soul-cake,
Pray good mistress, for a soul-cake,
One for Peter, two for Paul,
Three for Him that made us all.
Soul! soul! for an apple or two;
If you’ve got no apples, pears will do,
Up with your kettle, and down with your pan,
Give me a good big one and I’ll be gone.

The soul cake referred to in the verses is a sort of bun which the people used to make, and to give to one another on the 2d of November.

In the following tables there is presented at one view the day of the month on which the principal feasts and fasts fall in the ecclesiastical year 1817-18 and 1885-86. In the former Easter happens at its earliest possible date, in the latter at its latest date in this century: