Festival hub
The Christian liturgical year is structured around two anchors – the fixed-date Christmas cycle that begins with Advent in late November and runs through Epiphany on January 6, and the moveable Easter cycle that pulls Lent, Holy Week, Easter, the Ascension, and Pentecost across roughly five months in a chain whose length is determined by the date of Easter itself. Most Western churches – Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed, Pentecostal, and most Evangelical traditions – follow the Gregorian calendar set by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. Most Eastern Orthodox churches still use the Julian calendar for their fixed feasts (Russian, Serbian, Georgian, Coptic, Ethiopian, and the Jerusalem Patriarchate), which since 1900 has been thirteen days behind the Gregorian.
Christmas on December 25 has been the universal Western date since the 4th century and roughly so for Eastern Christians too, though the calendar gap pushes Russian, Serbian, Georgian, and Ethiopian Christmas to January 7 by Gregorian reckoning. Easter is calculated independently in each tradition: Western churches use the Gregorian computus (the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after March 21); Eastern churches use the Julian computus (the first Sunday after the first full moon after Julian March 21, with the additional rule that Pascha must follow Jewish Passover). The two Easters coincide every few years – 2025, 2028, 2031, 2034 – but otherwise can be one to five weeks apart. Christianity is the most populous tradition globally, with about 2.4 billion adherents, and Christmas is a public holiday in 160-plus countries, including many with Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or non-religious majorities.
The liturgical year carries its own colour palette and mood. Advent is purple or blue, a time of expectant waiting; Christmas and Epiphany are gold and white, festal and bright; Lent is purple again, austere; Easter is white and gold, joyful for fifty days through Pentecost (red); Ordinary Time, marked in green, fills the long stretches in between. Within each season are particular days that millions navigate by – Ash Wednesday and the imposition of ashes; Palm Sunday with its palm fronds; Maundy Thursday and the washing of feet; Good Friday and the veneration of the cross; the Easter Vigil with its new fire; and Pentecost as the church's "birthday."
Beyond the universal calendar, every region adds local feasts: Three Kings' Day (Epiphany) is the dominant gift-giving day in Spain, Mexico, and much of Latin America; All Saints' Day (November 1) is a public holiday across Catholic Europe and Latin America; the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12 is the most widely observed Marian feast in the Americas; Saint Patrick's Day on March 17 is national in Ireland and broadly observed in the Irish diaspora.
Christmas, All Saints' Day, Epiphany, and the apostles' feast days are fixed-date observances tied to the Gregorian or Julian calendar. The moveable feasts – Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Holy Week, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi – all hinge on Easter. The Western computus uses the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after March 21; the date can fall as early as March 22 or as late as April 25. Eastern Orthodox churches apply the same logic to the Julian calendar and add the rule that Pascha must follow Jewish Passover, pushing it later. Some Protestant traditions in central and northern Europe historically used astronomical computations (the Heliand calendar) but converged on the Gregorian computus in the 18th century.
Christmas Eve is the bigger of the two days in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia, the Czech Republic, Poland, and much of Latin America – Heiligabend in German, Wigilia in Polish, Nochebuena in Spanish – with the main meal and gifts that night. In Britain and the Commonwealth, Boxing Day on December 26 extends the holiday. In Spain and Latin America, Three Kings' Day on January 6 is the day for children's gifts. Easter is more central than Christmas in Greece, Russia, Serbia, and much of the Orthodox world, with the midnight Resurrection liturgy and shared lamb feast as the year's emotional peak.
For festivals of light parallels at Christmastime, see Hanukkah in the Jewish festival hub and Diwali in the Hindu festival hub. For comparable fasting periods, see Ramadan in the Islamic festival hub.
Why is Easter on a different date each year? Because it is computed as the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after the spring equinox (March 21), which can land anywhere from March 22 to April 25.
Why do Orthodox Easter and Western Easter sometimes differ? Because Orthodox churches use the Julian calendar and the rule that Pascha must follow Jewish Passover; the two calendars currently diverge by 13 days.
Is Christmas a religious or secular holiday? Both. December 25 is the Christian feast of the Nativity, but Christmas is also a public holiday in 160-plus countries and observed widely as a cultural celebration regardless of religion.
What is the typical Christmas greeting? "Merry Christmas" in English; "Frohe Weihnachten" in German; "Joyeux Noël" in French; "Feliz Navidad" in Spanish; "Buon Natale" in Italian.
When is Lent and how long is it? Lent runs from Ash Wednesday for 40 days, ending at sundown on Holy Saturday – traditionally a season of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer in preparation for Easter.
Tracked events
Christmas 2026
Epiphany 2027
Orthodox Christmas 2027
Ash Wednesday 2027
Palm Sunday 2027
Good Friday 2027
Easter 2027
Orthodox Easter 2027
Pentecost 2027
