Overview

Easter is the preeminent season of celebration in the Church Year. The “Great Fifty Days” are established by the dates given in Luke’s Gospel and Acts, and correspond with the forty days from the resurrection of Jesus until his Ascension, then the remaining ten days from the Ascension until Pentecost. Accordingly, Easter is a period always having 8 Sundays, the first being the Sunday of the Resurrection and the eighth being the Feast of Pentecost.

There are three distinct periods within the Easter Season identified by the Church: the Octave of Easter, the regular Easter time from the Second Sunday until the Ascension, then Ascension-tide consisting of the ten days from the Ascension to Pentecost.

The Easter season may begin as early as March 22nd or end as late as June 13th. Thus, there is an 83 day period within which the 50 days of Easter will fall. No matter when in this span it falls, the 15 days between April 25th and May 10 will always occur within the Easter season.

Historical Treatment

Under the early 20th century Pian rules, the Easter Sunday of the Resurrection received highest honors as both a privileged Sunday of the First Class and a Double of the First Class with a privileged Octave. The Monday and Tuesday were also Doubles of the First Class in their own right, the other days being Primary Greater Doubles by virtue of their octave status. As a result, no feasts aside from these could be kept until the second week of Easter. After this Octave, however, the ordinal Sundays of Easter receive no special treatment, being Lesser Sundays.

The days between the 7th Sunday of Easter and the Ascension, though, were the Rogation Days; the Monday and Wednesday (which is also the Vigil of the Ascension) were non-privileged Greater Feria meaning that a Double feast would take precedence but even then the ferias would be usually commemorated. These were solemn penitential days and, even in the midst of Easter, the liturgical color for these days was purple.

The Ascension which always falls on a Thursday is also a Double of the First Class with a non-privileged Octave.  The time from Ascension to the Vigil of Pentecost was its own mini-season with hymns proper to it. The Vigil of Pentecost only ranked as a Semi-double but was a privileged Vigil—no feast could be celebrated upon it. Pentecost received the same rank as Easter and therefore the week following was bound by the same rules: Monday and Tuesday in Pentecost week were Primary First Class Doubles, the rest of the weekdays were Primary Greater Doubles with the added twist that the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday were the Summer Ember Days. The Octave concluded on Saturday before the First Vespers of the Feast of the Holy Trinity.

Thus, there were three periods during the Pian Easter where the kalendar rules were in full play, first during the Octave of Easter itself, then in the days around the Ascension, and finally the Octave of Pentecost which effectively expanded the Easter season by an additional week.

Under the rules immediately before Vatican II, the ranks were altered but the effects were the same with one exception; the Octave of the Ascension was suppressed.

Thus the temporal days within Easter fell into the following categories; rank/order of precedence is per Ritual Notes:

Within the “Rules to Order the Service” in the English 1662 BCP, rules 1 through 3 address, among other things, occurrence with the octaves of Easter and Pentecost. Rule 1 states that:

When some other greater Holy Day falls on . . .  Palm Sunday or one of the fourteen days following, on Ascension Day, or on Whitsunday or one of the seven days following, it shall be transferred as appropriate to the . . . Tuesday after Easter 1 [Low Sunday], or the Friday after Ascension Day, or the Tuesday after Trinity Sunday: except that if Easter Day falls on April 22nd, 24th or 25th, the festival of St. Philip and St. James shall be observed on the Tuesday of the week following Easter 1, and the festival of St. Mark shall be observed on the Thursday of that week.

Thus, Holy Days are transferred after the Octave of Easter and special rules are in force when said transference might interfere with other Holy Days.

Rule 2 prohibits a greater Holy Day from superseding Easter day, Low Sunday or Pentecost. No other Sundays in the Easter season are protected in this way, however.

Rule 3 states, “A lesser Holy Day shall lapse if it falls on any Sunday, . . . on Palm Sunday or any of the fourteen days following, on Ascension Day, or on Whitsunday or any of the seven days following.”

Rule 4 concerns the Rogation Days and states that “a greater or lesser Holy Day” will supersede the feria but the collect of the Rogation Day should be said as a memorial.

Rule 5 states that the collect of the Ascension shall be used on the days following it until Sunday and also that the collect of the Ascension will be the only collect at Evening Prayer on that day (i.e., no memorials).

Rule 6 which gives permission for First Vesper services, explicitly forbids a First Vespers for Ascension day.

The Table of Precedence in the American 1928 BCP shows an expansion of protections to the Easter season. It gives precedence to “Easter Day and the seven following days [including Low Sunday (Easter 2)]; Rogation Sunday [Easter 6]; The Ascension Day and the Sunday after Ascension Day [Easter 7]; Whitsunday and the six following days.”

Current Status

The ‘79 BCP simplifies the Easter season. In following the greater tradition, it keeps the Octave of Easter as a privileged octave; feasts are transferred until after Easter 2  and every day is a named holy day with its own collect and propers. Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost are Principal Feasts but they have no octaves. The days following Pentecost are explicitly those of the next numbered proper of Ordinary Time and thus the collect of Pentecost is only said on the Day of Pentecost itself.

The Sundays of Easter have received a promotion, though, and no feasts may replace them. Indeed, the Easter season as the great baptismal season of the church has received a boost in the ’79 BCP and the practices around it and many parishes again make reference to Canon XX of Nicaea which forbids kneeling “during the Days of Pentecost [Easter]” and on Sundays. I’ll take no hard position on this either way except to make note of three things: 1) An appeal to 4th century practice completely by-passes the next 16 hundred years within which it became the standard Western practice to kneel on Sundays and during Easter; 2) the 4th century insistence on not kneeling was a reference to and was set in the context of the usual daily practice of multiple prostrations—to enforce the “no kneeling” without reference to lots and lots of kneeling the rest of the time seems to throw the practice off-kilter; 3) The current trend in the Episcopal Church tends not to revere the other actions of the Council, perhaps I’d be more enthusiastic to follow this canon if the other were equally promoted.

One other point on Easter is that the ’79 BCP attempts to restore the Vigil of Pentecost, making it an evening baptismal service analogous to the Easter Vigil. Despite this intention, I have never seen or heard of this being put into practice.

The current Roman rules concur concerning the new prominence of Easter and likewise give Sundays of Easter precedence over other feasts and solemnities with one exception—the Ascension may be transferred to Easter 7 (GNLY 7.2). The Octave of Easter is observed, each of the days being a solemnity of the Lord (GNLY 24). The status of Ascension-tide seems rather ambiguous; the norms say only that “The weekdays after the Ascension of the Lord until the Saturday before Pentecost inclusive are a preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete” (GNLY 26) but fail to note whether this preparation has any liturgical implications.

The order of precedence established in the GNLY 59 is:

Liturgical Days within Easter

Holy Days

There are 5 Holy Days that may fall within the Easter season:

The Octave of Easter may fall any time between March 22nd and May 2nd. As a result, the first three feasts may fall within this span and require transference. In each case, the feast is transferred outside of the Octave of Easter as stated in the BCP: “Major Feasts falling in [this week] are transferred to the week following the Second Sunday of Easter, in the order of their occurrence” (p. 17).  Current Roman practice seems to be that transferred feasts are placed on the Monday of the week (GNLY 5), but Sarum and the example of the 1662 BCP suggest that transference to the next Tuesday is optimal allowing full celebration of the prayer book appointed Eves/First Vespers.

If the Annunciation falls within Easter, chronologically it must fall within the Octave and cannot be celebrated on the 25th.

St Mark the Evangelist will always fall within the Easter season and, when Easter is late, may fall within the Octave. As it precedes the feast of Sts Philip and James by six days, transferences around this time must adequately accommodate both occasions; the recommendation of the 1662 BCP seems solid, suggesting that when Easter is on April 22nd (and thus Philip and James naturally fall on the Tuesday after Easter 2) or when Easter falls on April 24th or 25th (and thus Philip and James also fall within the Octave), that Sts Philip and James be celebrated on the Tuesday and St Mark receives the Thursday.

Some uses have special material for feasts of apostles within Easter, however, not all have Commons for Evangelists (yes, English Office, I’m looking at you…). If such supplementary materials are used, St Mark should receive the honors as an apostle within Easter-tide.

As noted above, Sts Philip and James will only fall within the Octave of Easter if Easter lands on one of its two latest days. In most years, therefore, the feast may be celebrated on its appointed day.

Days of Optional Observance

The only Days of Optional Observance that are impacted by Easter are those that fall within the Octave and lapse. There are a few feasts that fall within the March 22nd to May 2nd window that may be feasts of title or patron. Too, the Rogation Days are explicitly classed and listed as Days of Optional Observance in the BCP. Here are the significant Easter-tide feasts that may need to be transferred or otherwise noted:

If any of these days fall in the Octave of Easter and would be feasts of patron or title, they should be transferred to the first open day in the week after Easter 2. They may not replace the Mass of the Sunday during Easter.

Overview

Holy Week is the week beginning with Palm/Passion Sunday and ending at the Eucharist of the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday. While it falls within Lent, it represents an intensification of Lent and includes the Triduum, the Three Great Days.

Triduum is not a term used by the ’79 BCP. Nevertheless, attention to Triduum is perhaps one of the major differences between the ’79 BCP and all other Books of Common Prayer. Specific liturgies for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday including an Easter Vigil particularly focus attention around this greatest festival of Christ’s self-giving, death, and resurrection.

Every day in Holy Week is an officially named holy day in the BCP. Holy Week begins with “The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday,” extends from “Monday in Holy Week” through “Wednesday in Holy Week” before arriving at “Maundy Thursday,” “Good Friday,” and “Holy Saturday.”

Holy Week may start as early as March 15th or end as late as April 24th—giving a 40 day span within which these seven days may be located.

Historical Treatment

Under the early 20th century Pian rules, the first three weekdays of Holy Week are privileged ferias. Doubles of the First or Second Class were transferred until after the Easter octave; lesser feasts were commemorated at Vespers and Lauds. No commemorations were allowed during the Triduum.

Under the rules immediately before Vatican II, all the days in Holy Week were ferias of the first class. Feasts of the first class would be transferred until after the Easter octave; any lesser feasts would be omitted for the year without commemoration.

Thus the temporal days within Lent fell into the following categories; rank/order of precedence is per Ritual Notes:

Within the “Rules to Order the Service” in the English 1662 BCP, rules 1 through 3 address, among other things, occurrence with the days of Holy Week. Rule 1 states that:

When some other greater Holy Day falls on…Palm Sunday or one of the fourteen days following…it shall be transferred as appropriate to the Tuesday after Easter 1…: except that if Easter Day falls on April 22nd, 24th or 25th, the festival of St. Philip and St. James shall be observed on the Tuesday of the week following Easter 1, and the festival of St. Mark shall be observed on the Thursday of that week.

Thus, Holy Days are transferred after the Octave of Easter and special rules are in force when said transference might interfere with other Holy Days.

Rule 2 prohibits a greater Holy Day from superseding Palm Sunday.

Rule 3 states, “A lesser Holy Day shall lapse if it falls…on Palm Sunday or any of the fourteen days following.”

The Table of Precedence in the American 1928 BCP follows the same principle, giving “All the days of Holy Week” precedence and transferring Holy Days to the next open day after the Octave of Easter.

Current Status

The ’79 BCP agrees with both the classical Anglican and modern Roman rules. While the days of Holy Week are not ranked in the BCP’s minimalist system, a note under Holy Days clarifies their place:

Feasts appointed on fixed days in the calendar are not observed on the days of Holy Week or of Easter Week. Major Feasts falling in these weeks are transferred to the week following the Second Sunday of Easter, in the order of their occurrence. (p. 17)

Otherwise, only Good Friday is identified alongside Ash Wednesday as the other “Fast” under Class 3 Holy Days.

General Norms for the Liturgical Year (GNLY) gives all the weekdays of Holy Week “precedence over all other celebrations” (GNLY 16.1). While the ’79 BCP does not define the term Triduum, the GNLY does:

Christ redeemed humankind and gave perfect glory to God principally through his paschal mystery: dying he destroyed our death and rising he restored our life. Therefore the Easter triduum of the passion and resurrection of the Lord is the culmination of the entire liturgical year.  Thus the solemnity of Easter has the same kind of preeminence in the liturgical year that Sunday has in the week.

The Easter triduum of the passion and resurrection of the Lord begins with the Evening Mass of the Lordʼs Supper, reaches its high point in the Easter Vigil, and closes with Evening Prayer on Easter Sunday, the Sunday of the Lordʼs resurrection.

On Good Friday and, if possible, also on Holy Saturday until the Easter Vigil, the Easter fast is observed everywhere.

The Easter Vigil, during the holy night when the Lord rose from the dead, ranks as the “mother of all holy vigils.” Keeping watch, the Church awaits Christʼs resurrection and celebrates it in the sacraments. Accordingly, the entire celebration of this vigil should take place at night, that is, it should either begin after nightfall or end before the dawn of Sunday. (GNLY 18-21)

Thus, the Roman reckoning of Triduum extends through Holy Week proper, encompassing the Sunday of the Resurrection as well as the preceding days.

The order of precedence established in the GNLY 59 is:

Liturgical Days within Holy Week

Holy Days

There are 2 Holy Days that may fall within Holy Week:

In each case, the feast is transferred outside of both Holy Week and the Octave of Easter as stated in the BCP: “Major Feasts falling in [this week] are transferred to the week following the Second Sunday of Easter, in the order of their occurrence” (p. 17). Given that the fall in quick succession, both feasts are often transferred. If this is the case, the feast of St Joseph should be placed on the Tuesday and the Annunciation on the Thursday after Easter 2 in order that the Eves of both feasts may be duly celebrated without concurrence with one another.

Days of Optional Observance

Days of Optional Observance that fall within Holy Week should lapse for the year.

Overview

Lent is a 40-day period spanning 46 days.  Sundays are excluded from the calculation and, in the Book of Common Prayer, are technically referred to as Sundays “in” Lent rather than Sundays “of” Lent.  Nevertheless, they share common liturgical traits and themes with the Lenten ferias.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. Despite being a Holy Day, Ash Wednesday is a ferial day and thus the day liturgically begins at midnight—there is no “First Vespers” of Ash Wednesday and it is technically incorrect to anticipate it on Tuesday night.

The ending of Lent is a matter of controversy due to how one construes Holy Week and Triduum. Ritual Notes (11th ed.) ends Lent just before the Mass of the Easter Vigil (p. 262); the BCP does not say; the Roman GNLY ends it at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday (GNLY 28).

Due to the variability of Easter, the dates of Lent vary from year to year. The earliest Lent can begin is February 4th; the latest that Lent can end is April 24th. Thus, there is a 79 day period within which Lent will fall. No matter when it begins and ends, the days between March 10th and March 21st will always fall within Lent.

There are always six Sundays within Lent. They are numbered consecutively until the last which is officially entitled “The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday.”

Historical Treatment

Lent is the season most affected by the changes of Vatican II. In the pre-conciliar period, Lent was, in essence, a graded season. the Pre-Lenten period proceeded it (starting at the 9th Sunday before Easter), liturgical Lent began at the First Sunday of Lent although the full penitential practices began a few days earlier on Ash Wednesday, and penitence was intensified at Passion Sunday which occurred on  the Fifth Sunday of Lent. Passiontide encompassed the last two weeks of Lent, the last week being Holy Week, concluding with the Triduum. (I will treat Holy Week and Triduum separately from Lent.)

In the immediately pre-conciliar Roman kalendar, the Sundays of Lent were of the first class, meaning that no observances or commemorations were permitted—the liturgical focus was entirely on Lent. The Sundays were (SBH):

• Invocabit: First Sunday (or Quadragesima)/Lent 1
• Reminiscere: Second Sunday/Lent 2
• Oculi: Third Sunday/Lent 3
• Laetare: Fourth Sunday/Lent 4
• Judica: Passion Sunday/Lent 5
• Palmarum: Sixth Sunday/Palm Sunday

The Fourth Sunday, Laetare (Rejoice), was the Rose Sunday, a day of penitential lessening before the on-set of Passiontide.

Leaving Holy Week aside, the ferial days of Lent were liturgically of the third class, meaning that they outranked any third class feasts; feasts would be commemorated rather than celebrated. First and second class feasts would be celebrated but the feria would receive a commemoration.

The prior Pian kalendar rules from the turn of the 20th century, still observed by those who use the Anglican Breviary, legislated that weekdays in Lent were Greater Non-Privileged Ferias meaning that they superseded Simple feasts. While the ferias gave way to feasts from Semidoubles on up, a commemoration of the feria was required.

Thus the temporal days within Lent fell into the following categories; rank/order of precedence is per Ritual Notes:

Current Status

Vatican II and the ’79 BCP put a very heavy emphasis on Lent’s early function as a preparation for Baptism. Theologically, the “grading” qualities of Lent were abolished. Liturgically, this meant the Pre-Lenten period disappeared, and Passion Sunday was collapsed into Palm Sunday.

The ’79 BCP does not differentiate the Sundays in Lent from other Sundays except to say that they may not be superseded by local feasts of dedication, patron, or title. Ash Wednesday is placed within Class 3 (Holy Days) and is one of two officially appointed fasts. The notes indicate that “Feasts appointed on fixed days in the Calendar do not take precedence of Ash Wednesday” (p. 17). The ferias of Lent are found in Class 4 (Days of Special Devotion). This is properly an ascetical category rather than a liturgical one; the instructions state: “The following days are observed by special acts of discipline and self-denial…Ash Wednesday and the other Weekdays of Lent…except for the feast of the Annunciation” (p. 17). The liturgical impact of these dates is not addressed.

The motu proprio on the kalendar following Vatican II, General Norms for the Liturgical Year (GNLY), make the Roman position a bit more clear.  As in the ’79 BCP, the Sundays of Lent have precedent over any other solemnity or feast (GNLY 5) which are equivalent to the BCP’s Classes 2 and 3. Ash Wednesday has precedence over any other celebration which could fall on this day (GNLY 16.1). All of the other weekdays of Lent have precedence over obligatory memorials (GNLY 16.3) which are equivalent to the BCP’s Class 5.

The order of precedence established in the GNLY 59 is:

Liturgical Days within Lent

Holy Days

There are 2 Holy Days that may fall within Lent and 1 that will always fall in Lent:

The Annunciation is the only feast excepted from the ascetical requirements of Class 4.

The Feast of St Matthias is the only one of the three that may be in occurrence with Ash Wednesday. When this happens, St Matthias should be transferred to the Friday.

In each case, the feast should be kept and, if commemorations are used, the feria should be commemorated. If the feast falls on a Sunday it should be transferred to Tuesday unless this would place it into Holy Week.

Days of Optional Observance

The BCP is not clear on what happens during Lent with Days of Optional Observance (Class 5). As noted above, all weekdays of Lent appear in Class 4, however, this class seems to be more ascetical than liturgical. Lesser Feasts and Fasts, however, includes collects for each day of Lent and states that:

“In keeping with ancient tradition, the observance of Lenten weekdays ordinarily takes precedence over Lesser Feasts occurring during this season. It is appropriate, however, to name the saint whose day it is in the Prayers of the People, and, if desired, to use the Collect of the saint to conclude the Prayers.”

Roman practice concurs based on the precedence of Lenten weekdays to memorials.

Ritual Notes, 11th Ed. states that third class feasts receive no commemorations on Sundays in Lent; on weekdays they receive commemoration only at Matins and low Mass. (p. 283)

There are a few significant Days of Optional Observance that should be mentioned:

The Spring Ember days always fall in Lent. Under the old rules they were ferias of the second class taking precedence over the weekdays of Lent; according to the ’79 BCP they are Class 5 but are not recognized in the weekdays of Lent section within Lesser Feasts and Fasts.

The other saints listed my either be patrons of dioceses or regions or may be saints of title. If so, patronal festivals or feasts of title may not displace the Mass of the Day on a Sunday. They may, however, be observed on a Saturday or any other open day as a Local Feast of the first class/Class 3. Alternatively, they may be transferred outside of Lent.

Potential Issues

• When does liturgical Lent start? At Morning Prayer of Ash Wednesday or at the First Vespers of Lent 1? I would suggest that since Ash Wednesday and the other initial days of Lent no longer fall under Pre-Lenten rules, Lent should begin liturgically on Ash Wednesday.
• Should Days of Optional Observance be kept during Lent? I would say that the Ember Days have precedence, but that the ferias should be commemorated. In other cases, if they are not patrons or titular saints, the day is of the feria and the saint is commemorated. In the case patrons, the feast is celebrated and the feria commemorated (Gregory the Great is one of the patrons of the St Bede’s Breviary). If commemorations are not utilized, the saint is omitted.
• How long is Passiontide? According to both Episcopal and Roman rubrics and practice, Passiontide and Holy Week are identical.