Liturgical Year - Secular Observance

Secular Observance

Because of the dominance of Christianity in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, many features of the Christian year became incorporated into the secular calendar. Many of its feasts (e.g., Christmas, Mardi Gras, Saint Patrick's Day) remain holidays, and are now celebrated by people of all faiths and none — in some cases worldwide. The secular celebrations bear varying degrees of likeness to the religious feasts from which they derived, often also including elements of ritual from pagan festivals of similar date.

Read more about this topic:  Liturgical Year

Famous quotes containing the words secular and/or observance:

    Psychologists have set about describing the true nature of women with a certainty and a sense of their own infallibility rarely found in the secular world.
    Naomi Weisstein, U.S. psychologist, feminist, and author. Psychology Constructs the Female (1969)

    The possibility of divorce renders both marriage partners stricter in their observance of the duties they owe to each other. Divorces help to improve morals and to increase the population.
    Denis Diderot (1713–1784)