CHRISTIAN FESTIVALS

There are three categories of Christian Festivals:

• Immovable feasts such as Christmas Day or Saints Days
• Movable feasts such as Easter and all those festivals which take their dating from Easter (Ascension, Pentecost)
• Ordinary Sundays.

There is a large number of festivals in the Church's calendar, but you may find that your own local church celebrates particular days annually which are less important or unknown in neighbouring communities. An example of this would be the custom of well-dressing at Holywell (Cambridgeshire)with its associated celebrations.

Some festivals occur at the time they do because their roots go back to pre-Christian celebrations which the Church took on and Christianised. The most famous example of this is Christmas Day itself which was allotted the date of 25th December because this was originally a great Sun festival. Other festivals "move" because they are calculated on the lunar calendar, following Jewish custom - Easter Day is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 21st. If you wish to see how much the date varies over the years then you will find a list of the dates of Easter Day until the year 2025 on page 23 of the Alternative Service Book.

The furnishings and vestments used in churches will be in different colours according to the season and festival.

The Church's Year begins with Advent but in schools the first festival which falls in the academic year will undoubtedly be Harvest. The following pages are laid out in order of the Church's calendar, but appended here is a list of the most important festivals which fall in the academic year. This may be used as a basis for planning your RE programme or your Collective Worship themes. Click on the name of the festival for more information.

September. Harvest Festival. -the birth of Mary September 8th, Michaelmas September 29th.

October. Of interest St Luke's Day October 18th. Etheldreda's Day (founder of the monastery which became Ely Cathedral) October 17th.

November. All Saints' Day November 1st, All Souls' Day November 2nd, also of interest Remembrance Sunday (c. November 11th) and St Andrew's Day November 30th.

December. Advent Sunday (sometimes late November), Christmas Day December 25th. Also of interest St Nicholas' Day December 6th and St Lucy's Day December 13th.

January. Epiphany January 6th.

February. Candlemas February 2nd. Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Lent. Also of interest St Valentine's Day February 14th.

March/April. Mothering Sunday - fourth Sunday in Lent, Palm Sunday, Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Day. Also of interest St David's Day March 1st, St Patrick's Day March 17th, St Joseph's Day March 19th, The

Annunciation (Lady Day) March 25th, St George's Day April 23rd.

May/June. Ascension Day - 40 days after Easter, (Rogation days immediately before Ascension), Pentecost - ten days after Ascension Day, Trinity Sunday the first Sunday after Pentecost. Also of interest St Alban's Day June 20th, St John the Baptist's Day June 24th.

July. St Swithin's Day July 15th.

The church's year can be divided into two parts, centred upon Christmas and Easter.