14 November 2008

Sorting Out Calendar Questions

Using the Weedon handy-dandy color rule will get you right the vast majority of the time: Green is the only color that can be trumped.

St. Andrew falls on Advent I - which should I observe?

Advent I. You can add the collect for St. Andrew's Day after the appointed collect for Advent I if you wish. Red does not trump violet/blue.

Holy Innocents, Martyrs falls on First Sunday after Christmas - which should I observe? First Sunday after Christmas, again praying the Holy Innocents collect as a second collect if you wish. Red certainly does not trump white.

The Confession of St. Peter falls on Epiphany 2 this year - which should I observe? Here there may be disagreements, but I would argue that you MAY observe Confession of Peter on that Sunday, and likewise the Conversion of St. Paul on the following; however, if you are one of those "Epiphany is ALL WHITE" then no dice. Stick to the Sundays!

That's my counsel on the upcoming months.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

So the ordinary festivals trump the temporal festivals. That makes sense to me.

Rev. Eric J Brown said...

Hmmm. . . The three reds after Christmas I generally let take the fore. Besides, my Seminarian will be home and I want to make him preach on a text full of slaughter and chaos. I like to be mean to my seminarian, and next year he will be on Vicarage, so I won't get to tortur. . . let him assist when he comes home on breaks.

Brian P Westgate said...

I know that in the Roman rite Holy Innocents is celebrated on Sunday. In fact, it gets a promotion! Red is worn instead of violet, the Gloria is sung, and the Alleluia is such instead of the Tract (that one I might be not quite right on). The Sunday after Christmas liturgy then is only used between Dec. 29 and 31. The question then becomes what did Luther and friends do?

William Weedon said...

Luther and friends mostly ignored the three days following Christmas as saints days because they celebrated Christmas itself as a three-day feast. Easter and Pentecost also were three day feasts. You can read more in Stiller's book on how it was observed in Leipzig.

I do note that the good Deacon (who knows more about these things than any other American Lutheran alive today!) agrees with Rome and puts Holy Innocents as a second class feast, trumping the Sunday after Christmas.

William Weedon said...

One more thing, we should note that in LSB Christmas is NOT a three day feast. There are propers appointed for Christmas Eve (meaning, should the Fourth Sunday in Advent fall on that day); there are propers for the three Masses of Christmas: Midnight, Dawn, and Day. That's it.

For Easter, propers are appointed for Vigil and Day, of course, but then following Lutheran precedent (sort of) for Easter Monday and Tuesday. AND they added an Easter Wednesday. No idea where that came from!

For Pentecost, we have Eve, Day, Monday and Tuesday - the old Lutheran order.

Anonymous said...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but for Luther and Bach, weren't the three days of Christmas celebrated with the propers of St. John, St. Stephen, and Holy Innocents? I don't believe they had other propers they used. So if any of those three days fell on a Sunday, they were celebrated on the Sunday, no?

Viekerhaus