The Christian Year

Advent, Christmas, Lent, Holy Week and Easter for every tradition

By the editors of Weekday GraceReviewed October 2026No ads, no sign-up

The Christian year, also called the church year or the liturgical year, is the calendar most churches use to walk through the life of Jesus every twelve months. It runs from his coming, through his birth, ministry, death and resurrection, to the gift of the Spirit. Then comes a long ordinary stretch for growing in all of it.

Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist churches keep it in full. Many Reformed and free churches keep part of it, and some keep none of it on principle. This guide is written for all of them. Where the traditions differ, it says so and leaves the difference standing.

The shape of the year

The year has two great cycles with ordinary time between them.

• The Christmas cycle is fixed to the calendar. Christmas is always December 25 in the West, so Advent always begins on the fourth Sunday before it, between November 27 and December 3.
• The Easter cycle moves. Easter is set by the moon, so Lent, Holy Week, Ascension and Pentecost all shift by up to five weeks from year to year.
• Ordinary Time fills the rest. It is “ordinary” because its Sundays are counted with ordinal numbers (the Second Sunday, the Third Sunday), not because nothing happens in it.

In Western churches the year begins on the First Sunday of Advent. The Orthodox church year begins on September 1, though Orthodox Christians keep the same great feasts.

• Advent Nov 29–Dec 24
• Christmas Dec 25–Jan 5
• After Epiphany Jan 6–Feb 9
• Lent Feb 10–Mar 20
• Holy Week Mar 21–Mar 27
• Easter Mar 28–May 15
• Pentecost May 16
• Ordinary Time May 17–Nov 27

Advent

In 2026

November 29 to December 24Four Sundays

Color

Violet or blueRose is an option on December 13

Orthodox

The Nativity FastNovember 15 to December 24

Key texts

Isaiah 40 · Mark 1 · Luke 1The prophets and the forerunner

Advent means “coming.” It is four Sundays of waiting before Christmas, and it looks two ways at once: back to the first coming of Jesus at Bethlehem, and ahead to his return. That is why the first Sunday’s Gospel is usually about the end of the age, not the manger. It is a season of hope and honest longing more than of early celebration.

How it is kept

In the West, Advent has four Sundays and lasts between 22 and 28 days, depending on what day of the week Christmas falls. The Ambrosian rite of Milan keeps six weeks. Orthodox churches keep the Nativity Fast, forty days from November 15 to December 24, as their preparation for Christmas. On the Julian calendar that is November 28 to January 6 of the civil calendar.

The Advent wreath, with four candles lit one more each week, is a custom, not a rule. It is usually traced to a Lutheran pastor in Hamburg in the 1830s and spread from German homes to churches of almost every kind. The rose candle belongs to the third Sunday, which has long been called Gaudete, “rejoice,” from the old Latin opening of that day’s service. The candle themes you may see (hope, peace, joy, love) are a modern devotional custom and vary from church to church.

The Scriptures of Advent

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

Isaiah 40:3 (ESV)

Advent belongs to the prophets, above all Isaiah, and to the people who stood at the edge of the Gospel story: John the Baptist, Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph. The passages read most widely are Isaiah 2, 7, 9, 11, 35, 40 and 61; the end-of-the-age discourse in Mark 13 and its parallels; John the Baptist in Mark 1 and Luke 3; the announcement to Mary in Luke 1:26-38; and Mary’s song in Luke 1:46-55. We have written about that song and what it says out loud. Isaiah 61 is the passage Jesus read in the synagogue at Nazareth. Where he stopped reading it is worth noticing.

These are the Sunday Gospels for Advent 2026, which begins Year B of the three-year cycle, the year of Mark:

Christmas and Epiphany

Christmas is a season, not a single day. In the Western calendar it runs twelve days, from December 25 to January 5, and ends with Epiphany on January 6. Epiphany means “appearing” or “showing.” In the West it centers on the Magi, the first Gentiles to come to Jesus. In the East the same day is Theophany and centers on his baptism in the Jordan, where Father, Son and Spirit are all shown together.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14 (ESV)

The Christmas readings are shared across nearly every church: Isaiah 9:2-7, Luke 2:1-20, Titus 2:11-14 and John 1:1-14, with Matthew 2:1-12 at Epiphany. Matthew 1 belongs here too. The genealogy almost nobody reads aloud is a story in its own right.

Where the dates differ

Most Orthodox churches (the Greek, Antiochian, Romanian and Bulgarian churches among them, and many parishes in North America) keep Christmas on December 25 by the Revised Julian calendar. Others, including the Russian, Serbian, Georgian and Jerusalem churches, keep the older Julian calendar, which is now thirteen days behind. Their December 25 falls on January 7 of the civil calendar. That is not a different date for Christmas so much as the same date counted on a different calendar. The Coptic and Ethiopian churches also celebrate in early January, usually on January 7, and the Armenian Apostolic Church keeps the Nativity and Theophany together on January 6.

Some Catholic dioceses, including those in the United States, move Epiphany to the Sunday between January 2 and January 8. In 2027 that is Sunday, January 3. Many churches then mark the Baptism of the Lord on the following Sunday and begin the green Sundays after Epiphany.

Lent

In 2027

Ash Wednesday, February 10to Holy Saturday, March 27

Color

VioletRose is an option on March 7

Orthodox

Great Lent from March 15Holy Week from April 25

Key texts

Joel 2 · Psalm 51 · Matthew 6And the temptation in the wilderness

Lent is the forty days of preparation for Easter. It recalls the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness, and before that Moses on the mountain and Elijah on the road to Horeb. It grew in the early church partly out of the final weeks of preparation for people to be baptized at Easter, and the whole church came to keep those weeks with them. Its three classic practices come from Matthew 6: prayer, fasting and giving to the poor.

How the forty days are counted

Western and Eastern churches count the forty days differently, and both arrive at forty.

• In the West, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. Sundays are not counted, because every Sunday is a little Easter, so the forty days run from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday with the six Sundays left out. In the Catholic calendar, Lent formally ends on Holy Thursday evening, when the three days of Easter begin.
• In the Orthodox churches, Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, after Forgiveness Vespers the evening before. Its forty days include the Sundays and end on the Friday before Lazarus Saturday. Holy Week follows as a fast of its own.

Ash Wednesday is kept by Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist churches and a growing number of others. Ashes are marked on the forehead with words from Genesis 3:19, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Fasting differs widely. Catholics fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and abstain from meat on the Fridays of Lent. The traditional Orthodox fast gives up meat, dairy and fish for the whole season, with wine and oil allowed on some days. In many Protestant churches the fast is voluntary and personal, and “giving something up” or “taking something on” is common.

The Scriptures of Lent

“Rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

Joel 2:13 (ESV)

The Ash Wednesday readings are nearly universal in the West: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, Psalm 51, 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10 and Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21. The First Sunday of Lent always tells the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. These are the Sunday Gospels for Lent 2027:

Catholic parishes preparing adults for baptism often use the Year A Gospels on the Third, Fourth and Fifth Sundays (the woman at the well, the man born blind, and the raising of Lazarus) in any year.

Orthodox Great Lent has its own Sundays, each with its own theme. The four Sundays before it prepare the way with the parables of the Publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:10-14) and the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), the Last Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46), and Forgiveness Sunday (Matthew 6:14-21). In 2027 the five Sundays of Great Lent fall here:

When March 25, the Annunciation, falls in Holy Week, as it does in 2027, the Catholic calendar moves the feast to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter, April 5. Orthodox churches never move it.

Holy Week

Holy Week runs from Palm Sunday to Easter. It is the one week of the year that all four Gospels tell nearly day by day, and many churches follow them in order. In the West, the last three days (Maundy Thursday evening through Easter Sunday) are kept as a single celebration called the Triduum, “the three days.” Maundy Thursday takes its name from the Latin mandatum, the “new commandment” of John 13:34, given on the night Jesus washed his disciples’ feet.

Orthodox churches keep the same days on their own date, which in 2027 is five weeks later. The table gives both.

A note on the readings for Easter Day: Mark’s Gospel ends at 16:8 in the oldest manuscripts. Most Bibles print verses 9-20 as well, with a note. Churches read the passage either way.

Easter and the great fifty days

In 2027

Easter Day, March 28Pentecost, May 16

Ascension

May 6The fortieth day, a Thursday

Orthodox

Pascha, May 2Pentecost, June 20

Color

White or goldRed at Pentecost

Easter is the oldest and greatest feast of the Christian year, and every Sunday is a little Easter. It is not one day but fifty, ending at Pentecost. For centuries Christians have greeted each other through this season with “Christ is risen!” and the reply “He is risen indeed!”, or in Orthodox churches, “Truly he is risen!”

He said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.”

Mark 16:6 (ESV)

In the Western lectionaries, the book of Acts replaces the Old Testament reading on the Sundays of Easter, so the season tells how the first church began. The Orthodox churches likewise read Acts and the Gospel of John from Pascha to Pentecost.

The Second Sunday of Easter is Thomas Sunday in the Orthodox churches and Divine Mercy Sunday in the Catholic Church, and the Gospel in both is John 20:19-31. The Ascension falls on the fortieth day, always a Thursday (Acts 1:3). Many Catholic dioceses, and some Protestant churches, keep it on the following Sunday instead.

Pentecost

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

Acts 2:1 (ESV)

Pentecost is the fiftieth day after Easter. It was already a Jewish harvest festival, Shavuot, when the Holy Spirit came on the disciples in Jerusalem (Acts 2), and the church has kept it ever since as the day the Spirit was given. The readings are Acts 2:1-21 and a passage from John’s Gospel in which Jesus promises or gives the Spirit. The color is red in Western churches. In many Orthodox churches, especially in the Slavic tradition, the feast is also called Trinity Day, and the church is decorated with green branches and flowers.

Western churches keep Trinity Sunday on the Sunday after Pentecost. Orthodox churches keep that Sunday as All Saints.

Ordinary Time

The longest season has the plainest name. It runs in two stretches: from Epiphany to Ash Wednesday, and from Pentecost to Advent. Catholic calendars call it Ordinary Time. Many Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian calendars call it the Season after Epiphany and the Season after Pentecost. Older Anglican prayer books counted the Sundays after Trinity. Its color is green, the color of growth.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (ESV)

On these Sundays the lectionaries read steadily through one Gospel: Matthew in Year A, Mark in Year B and Luke in Year C. John is read mainly at Christmas, in Lent and at Easter, and in a block of Sundays in Year B. The season closes with Christ the King, also called Reign of Christ, on the last Sunday before Advent. It is the last turn of the wheel before the waiting begins again. It is the season most of life happens in.

Liturgical colors

Colors give the year a visible shape: on the altar, the pulpit, the stole, and sometimes the bulletin. The table shows what is most common in Western churches. Treat it as a guide, not a rule. Churches have their own customs, and many free churches use no colors at all.

Orthodox churches have no single universal color scheme. Practice differs between the Greek and Slavic traditions and from parish to parish. Bright vestments (often gold or white) are worn for the feasts of Christ, darker colors (often purple or black) on the weekdays of Great Lent, red at Pascha in Greek usage, and green at Pentecost in Slavic usage.

Dates for the coming years

The table gives the movable dates for the next ten church years, Western and Orthodox. Each church year starts at Advent, so a row such as 2026-27 begins in late 2026 and its Easter falls in 2027. The year letter is the Sunday cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary and the Catholic Lectionary: A for Matthew, B for Mark, C for Luke.

Every date was computed twice, by two independent methods for each calendar, and checked against published tables of Western and Orthodox Easter dates. The Orthodox dates are given on the civil (Gregorian) calendar, which is what you need for a classroom or a planner.

Why Western and Orthodox Easter usually differ

Both traditions use the same rule, the one inherited from the church of the fourth century: Easter is the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. They differ in how that rule is calculated.

• Western churches use the Gregorian calendar, adopted in 1582, and the tables reformed with it. The equinox is fixed at March 21 on that calendar.
• Orthodox churches keep the older Julian calendar and its tables for Easter, even those that use the Revised Julian calendar for Christmas. March 21 on the Julian calendar is April 3 on the civil calendar, and the old tables also place the full moon a few days later.

So the two dates fall either on the same Sunday or one, four or five weeks apart, with the Orthodox date never the earlier. The Finnish Orthodox Church is the main exception: it keeps Easter on the Western date. Proposals for a common date have been discussed for decades, again around the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in 2025, and none has yet been adopted. In 2028, 2031 and 2034, the two fall on the same day.

Churches that don’t keep the calendar

Not every church keeps the Christian year, and for some it is a matter of conviction, not neglect. Many Reformed and Presbyterian churches historically held that only what Scripture commands belongs in worship. The Westminster Assembly’s Directory for the Public Worship of God (1645) put it plainly: “Festival days, vulgarly called Holy-days, having no warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued.” The Lord’s Day, every Sunday, was the feast. Many Baptist, Brethren, Churches of Christ, Pentecostal and independent churches keep Christmas and Easter but little else of the calendar.

One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.

Romans 14:5-6 (ESV)

Christians on both sides of this question have pointed to the same passages, Romans 14:5-6 and Colossians 2:16-17. Over the last fifty years many evangelical churches have taken up Advent and Lent, and many liturgical churches have found new reasons to keep them. The aim of this guide is to help both understand it, not to settle it. Why Christians gather on Sunday at all is a question nearly everyone shares.

Free printable reading plans

Two one-page reading plans for 2026-27, one reading a day, for a household, a small group or a class, plus a one-page year at a glance for the classroom wall. The readings are references only, so they work with any Bible. The one verse quoted on each sheet is from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain, so the sheets can be copied freely.

No ads, no sign-up, no email wall. Download, print and photocopy as many as you need for your church, school, small group or home.

Advent and Christmas plan, read online

Week 1 · Keep awake

The first Sunday looks ahead to the end, not back to Bethlehem.

1. Sun Nov 29Mark 13:24-37Advent Sunday
2. Mon Nov 30Isaiah 2:1-5
3. Tue Dec 1Isaiah 11:1-10
4. Wed Dec 2Isaiah 35:1-10
5. Thu Dec 3Psalm 80
6. Fri Dec 4Romans 13:11-14
7. Sat Dec 5Isaiah 64:1-9

Week 2 · Prepare the way

John the Baptist and the voice in the wilderness.

1. Sun Dec 6Isaiah 40:1-11
2. Mon Dec 7Malachi 3:1-4
3. Tue Dec 8Mark 1:1-8
4. Wed Dec 9Luke 1:5-25
5. Thu Dec 10Luke 3:1-18
6. Fri Dec 11Psalm 85
7. Sat Dec 122 Peter 3:8-15

Week 3 · Rejoice

The old name for this Sunday is Gaudete, “rejoice.”

1. Sun Dec 13Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
2. Mon Dec 14Zephaniah 3:14-20
3. Tue Dec 15Philippians 4:4-7
4. Wed Dec 16Matthew 11:2-11
5. Thu Dec 17Psalm 126
6. Fri Dec 18Isaiah 9:2-7
7. Sat Dec 19John 1:6-8, 19-28

Week 4 · God with us

Mary, Joseph and the promise to David.

1. Sun Dec 20Luke 1:26-38
2. Mon Dec 212 Samuel 7:1-16
3. Tue Dec 22Luke 1:39-56
4. Wed Dec 23Luke 1:57-80
5. Thu Dec 24Matthew 1:18-25

Christmas Day

1. Fri Dec 25Luke 2:1-20Christmas Day

The twelve days of Christmas

Christmas is a season, not a day.

1. Sat Dec 26John 1:1-18
2. Sun Dec 27Luke 2:22-40
3. Mon Dec 28Matthew 2:13-18
4. Tue Dec 29Galatians 4:4-7
5. Wed Dec 30Hebrews 1:1-12
6. Thu Dec 31Psalm 90
7. Fri Jan 1Luke 2:15-21Naming of Jesus
8. Sat Jan 2Colossians 1:15-20
9. Sun Jan 3Psalm 72
10. Mon Jan 4Isaiah 60:1-6
11. Tue Jan 5Luke 2:41-52

Epiphany

1. Wed Jan 6Matthew 2:1-12Epiphany

Lent and Holy Week plan, read online

Ash Wednesday and the first days

Mark begins at a run. So does Lent.

1. Wed Feb 10Mark 1:1-13Ash Wednesday
2. Thu Feb 11Mark 1:14-28
3. Fri Feb 12Mark 1:29-45
4. Sat Feb 13Mark 2:1-17

Week 1

1. Sun Feb 14Psalm 91
2. Mon Feb 15Mark 2:18-28
3. Tue Feb 16Mark 3:1-19
4. Wed Feb 17Mark 3:20-35
5. Thu Feb 18Mark 4:1-20
6. Fri Feb 19Mark 4:21-34
7. Sat Feb 20Mark 4:35-41

Week 2

1. Sun Feb 21Psalm 25
2. Mon Feb 22Mark 5:1-20
3. Tue Feb 23Mark 5:21-43
4. Wed Feb 24Mark 6:1-13
5. Thu Feb 25Mark 6:14-29
6. Fri Feb 26Mark 6:30-44
7. Sat Feb 27Mark 6:45-56

Week 3

1. Sun Feb 28Psalm 32
2. Mon Mar 1Mark 7:1-23
3. Tue Mar 2Mark 7:24-37
4. Wed Mar 3Mark 8:1-21
5. Thu Mar 4Mark 8:22-30
6. Fri Mar 5Mark 8:31–9:1
7. Sat Mar 6Mark 9:2-13

Week 4

1. Sun Mar 7Psalm 130
2. Mon Mar 8Mark 9:14-29
3. Tue Mar 9Mark 9:30-41
4. Wed Mar 10Mark 9:42-50
5. Thu Mar 11Mark 10:1-16
6. Fri Mar 12Mark 10:17-31
7. Sat Mar 13Mark 10:32-45

Week 5 · The Servant Songs

Isaiah's four Servant Songs are read in Holy Week in many churches.

1. Sun Mar 14Psalm 51
2. Mon Mar 15Mark 10:46-52
3. Tue Mar 16Isaiah 42:1-9
4. Wed Mar 17Isaiah 49:1-7
5. Thu Mar 18Isaiah 50:4-9
6. Fri Mar 19Isaiah 52:13–53:12
7. Sat Mar 20John 11:1-44Lazarus’s raising

Holy Week

Mark's last six chapters, one day at a time.

1. Sun Mar 21Mark 11:1-11Palm Sunday
2. Mon Mar 22Mark 11:12-25
3. Tue Mar 23Mark 11:27–13:37
4. Wed Mar 24Mark 14:1-11
5. Thu Mar 25Mark 14:12-72Maundy Thursday
6. Fri Mar 26Mark 15:1-41 and Psalm 22Good Friday
7. Sat Mar 27Mark 15:42-47Holy Saturday

Easter Day

1. Sun Mar 28Mark 16:1-8Easter Day

For educators and librarians

Using this guide with a class or group

• Color match. Print the year at a glance, cut the legend apart, and have students place each season on the wheel before they read about it.
• Two calendars. Give pairs the dates table and ask them to find the years when Western and Orthodox Easter fall together, then read the section on why.
• One Gospel, one Lent. Use the Lent plan as a whole-class read of Mark, one chapter a week, with Holy Week read aloud day by day.
• Ask a neighbor. Invite students to ask a family member or a local church which seasons they keep and why. The section on churches that don’t keep the calendar gives both sides a fair hearing.

Further reading

For the full readings for any date, go to the lectionary your church uses:

• Revised Common Lectionary. Vanderbilt Divinity Library: every Sunday's readings, by date.
• Daily readings, Catholic Lectionary. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
• Daily readings, Orthodox. Orthodox Church in America.
• The Church's Year. Church of England, Common Worship.