Liturgical Calendar (Lutheran) - Structure

Structure

The Lutheran calendar operates on two different cycles: the Temporal Cycle and the Sanctoral Cycle. The Temporal Cycle pivots on the festivals of Christmas and Easter. All Sundays, Seasons, and Festivals are related to these festivals. Because Easter varies in date each year based on the vernal equinox and the phases of the moon, it is called a moveable feast (see: Computus). Dates affected by placement of Easter include Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent, the start of Easter itself, Pentecost, and Holy Trinity. Advent, the other pivotal season on the calendar, comes exactly four Sundays before the start of Christmas (if Christmas falls on a Sunday, that day does not count), or the Sunday closest to St. Andrew's Day (November 30). Like the other Western Church calendars, the first Sunday of Advent is also the first day of the liturgical year. The Sanctoral Cycle is the fixed daily commemorations of individuals and events not related to the Temporal Cycle of Sundays, Festivals, and Seasons. It is the Sanctoral Cycle which is sometimes thought of as being the “Calendar of Saints” of a Church.

Beyond their place in the Temporal or Sanctoral Cycles, the events commemorated on the Lutheran liturgical calendar fall into one of three different categories depending upon their liturgical priority: Festivals, Lesser Festivals, and Commemorations.

Read more about this topic:  Liturgical Calendar (Lutheran)

Famous quotes containing the word structure:

    “... the structure of our public morality crashed to earth. Above its grave a tombstone read, “Be tolerant—even of evil.” Logically the next step would be to say to our commonwealth’s criminals, “I disagree that it’s all right to rob and murder, but naturally I respect your opinion.” Tolerance is only complacence when it makes no distinction between right and wrong.”
    —Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 2, ch. 2 (1962)

    “I really do inhabit a system in which words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where words can prove mightier than ten military divisions.”
    —Václav Havel (b. 1936)

    “The question is still asked of women: “How do you propose to answer the need for child care?” That is an obvious attempt to structure conflict in the old terms. The questions are rather: “If we as a human community want children, how does the total society propose to provide for them?””
    —Jean Baker Miller (20th century)