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The Christian church celebrates 6 liturgical seasons based on the life and ministry of Jesus. Each liturgical season is grounded in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life. Each season has a different emphasis, theme & mood, and each has special days, music & decorations in the church santuary.

Advent

Advent is the start of the Christian year. It starts on the 4th Sunday before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve. Advent means "coming," and it prepares us for the coming of Jesus. The color for Advent is purple.

The lighting of an Advent wreath is a familiar custom during this season. The wreath is holds four candles symbolizing hope, faith, joy, and love. Each Sunday during Advent a new is lit until, at last, all four candles are burning. The increasing light shed by the candles represents the believers' increasing joy as the day of Jesus' coming approaches. On Christmas Day the white candle in the middle of the wreath is lit to proclaim that the Light of the World has come.

Christmas

Christmas is a 12-day season celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and the Incarnation of God. It begins at sundown on Christmas Eve and ends at sundown on January 5th. The word "Christmas" is a contraction of "Christ Mass", the name given to the worship service for the day. December 25th was (incorrectly) chosen by the Emperor Constantine in 338 A.D. as the birth of Christ to coincide with the winter solstice. The color for Christmas is white.

Despite what many people believe, the 12 days begin on Christmas Day, instead of ending on it. For an interesting and highly informative essay on the meaning of the 12 Days of Christmas, including the popular song of the same name, visit www.cresourcei.org/cy12days.html

Epiphany

Epiphany means "to be made manifest" and it represents the manifestation of Jesus Christ as "God's beloved Son". It celebrates the showing forth of Christ as represented when the 3 Wise Men from the Orient came to see the baby Jesus. The season starts on January 6th, the date of Jesus' baptism, and ends on the day before Ash Wednesday. It originated with the Egyptian date of the showing forth of the Sun. Epiphany is also an occasion for baptism. The color for the season after Ephiphany is green.

Lent

Lent is a 40-day period (not including Sundays) beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending at sunrise on Easter morning. Lent is a time of personal reflection, repentance, fasting and renewal. It celebrates the Hebrews’ 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, and of Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the wilderness. Sundays are not included in Lent because worship services on the Lord’s Day are a celebration of the Resurrection, and the Lenten observance must be set aside for such a joyful day. The word "Lent" comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lencten, which means "springtide".

The final week of Lent is known as Holy Week. Palm Sunday celebrates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Maundy Thursday, usually celebrated with Holy Communion, commemorates the Last Supper, the Passover meal Jesus celebrated with His disciples the night he was betrayed. Good Friday, a somber day of reflection and repentance, is an observance of Jesus' crucifixion. (The name "Good Friday" is probably a variant of "God's Friday", the same way we say "good-bye" today as a variant of "God be with ye".)

The color for Lent is purple, except Holy Week where red or purple used. There is no color used on Good Friday.

Easter and Pentecost

Easter is the most joyous day in the Christian church. It tells us of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, His appearance to the disciples, and His ascension to God. The season of Easter begins on Easter morning and lasts for 50 days, ending on Pentecost.

Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon on or after the 1st day of spring (March 21). Thus Easter falls at the same time as the Jewish Passover, since the first Easter coincided with that feast.

The season of Easter has 2 additional special days. Ascension Day, the 40th day of Easter, is always a Thursday. It celebrates Jesus' ascension to God 40 days after His Resurrection. Pentecost, the 50th day of Easter, is always a Sunday, and is considered the anniversary of the formation of the Christian church. It celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the 11 Apostles when they were empowered to preach to people from every nation.

The color for Lent is white, except on Pentecost, when the color is red.

After Pentecost

The season After Pentecost is a teaching time that offers us a chance to explore the meaning of our lives and the church’s mission in the world. The general theme of the season is about how the church fulfills the Great Commission, the instruction Jesus Christ gave to his disciples that they spread the faith to all the nations. It has become a tenet in Christian theology emphasizing evangelism, and is the basis for Christian missionary activity. The season begins with the Day after Pentecost and ends on the Saturday before the First Sunday of Advent.

The season after Pentecost has 3 special days. Trinity Sunday, the 1st Sunday after Pentecost, is the celebration of the Holy Trinity. It is the only major Christian festival that celebrates a doctrine of the church rather than an event in its sacred history. All Saints Day, November 1st, is the Christian Memorial Day which remembers all who died for their testimony of Jesus. (The previous day, "Halloween", is a contraction of "All Hallows’ Evening". "Hallow" is an old English word for "saint.") All Saints Sunday is the first Sunday in November.

The color for the season After Pentecost is green, except on All Saints Day and All Saints Sunday, when the color is white.

The Christian year contains two cycles: the Christmas Cycle (Advent-Christmas-Epiphany) and the Easter cycle (Lent-Easter-Pentecost). Within each cycle are a preparatory season symbolized by the color purple and a festival season symbolized by the color white. After each cycle there is an ordinary time of growth symbolized by the color green. Thus there is a sequence of seasons using purple, white and green in that order twice each year.

Purple is a color of both penitence and royalty used during the preparatory seasons of Advent and Lent. Blue, a color of hope, may also be used during Advent.

White and gold are joyous and festive colors used during the Christmas and Easter Seasons (except on the Day of Pentecost) and in other seasons on festive days such as Baptism of the Lord, Transfiguration, Trinity, All Saints and Christ the King. White may also be used at weddings and at services where the Sacrament of Baptism is central. White is recommended at services of death and resurrection because it symbolizes both death and resurrection. At services of Holy Communion white linens on top of the Lord's table are customary, but the paraments hanging over the front or sides of the table and the other visuals should reflect the day or season of the year.

Green is a color growth, used in the Seasons after the Epiphany and After Pentecost, except when special days call for white or red.

Red is a color of fire, symbolizing the Holy Spirit. It is used on the Day of Pentecost and at other times when the work of the Holy Spirit is emphasized. Red is also the color blood-the blood of Christ and the blood of martyrs. Because of its intensity, red is most effective when used occasionally rather than continuously for a whole season. It is appropriate for evangelistic services, for ordination and consecrations, for church anniversaries and homecomings, and for civil observances such as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day or Memorial Day. It may be used beside white and gold through the Easter Season, It may be used during Holy Week beginning with Passion/Palm Sunday, to symbolize the blood of Christ.

Although use of these colors is based on broad ecumenical tradition, other colors have been and are being used in Christian churches. Creativity with colors and other sign for days and seasons is encouraged.

          * from The United Methodist Book of Worship.

More information on liturgical colors can be found at www.kencollins.com/glossary/liturgy.htm#colors.