How the Church Got Here · Chapter 2
Why does the church have its own calendar, and what do the colors mean?
Your school year starts in the fall. The church year starts in Advent, four Sundays before Christmas. Every season has a color, and once you know them, you can walk into church and tell what time it is.
Start this chapterThe church year
The church year walks through the life of Jesus every year. It begins with Advent, four weeks of waiting and hope before Christmas. Many ELCA congregations use blue for Advent, and some use purple.
Christmas and Easter are the two great festivals, and their color is white, for joy and light. Christmas lasts twelve days. Easter isn't one day but a fifty-day season. The Council of Nicaea in 325 helped set how Christians decide Easter's date.
Lent is forty days, not counting Sundays, of turning back to God before Easter. Its color is purple. On the Day of Pentecost the color is red, for the fire of the Holy Spirit. Red also appears on Reformation Sunday.
The longest season is the time after Pentecost, from early summer until late November. Its color is green, for growing. If you see green on the altar in summer or fall, that's why.
Read it in your Bible
- Ecclesiastes 3:1. There is a right time for everything that happens under heaven.
Words to know
- Advent. The four weeks of waiting and hope that begin the church year. Advent means “coming.” We wait for Christmas, and for Christ to come again.
- Lent. Forty days of turning back to God before Easter, marked by purple. Lent isn't about being gloomy. It's about making room for God.
- Easter. A fifty-day season of joy, marked by white. Easter is so big the church celebrates it for seven weeks.
- Green. The color of the long season after Pentecost, for growing. Most Sundays of the year are green. Faith grows slowly, like plants.
- Paraments. The colored cloths on the altar and pulpit that change with the seasons. They're a quiet way the sanctuary tells you what time it is in the church year.