Feasts of Jesus Christ

Feasts of Jesus Christ are specific days of the year distinguished in the liturgical calendar as being significant days for the celebration of events in the life of Jesus Christ and his veneration, for the commemoration of his relics, signs and miracles.

In the current General Calendar from the Third Edition of the Roman Missal,[2] these are: In the pre-Vatican II usage, the term feast denoted any celebration, not just a specific rank.

As such, liturgically, it does not have the same place of honor as the other seven purely Great Feasts of the Lord, which includes, among other things, the complete suppression of all Resurrectional elements from the Octoechos/Parakalitiki in all services related to a typical Sunday when one of the pure Great Feasts of the Lord happens to fall on a Sunday (e.g. Feast of the Cross, Christmas, Baptism of Jesus, and Transfiguration of Jesus) and those that already only occur on Sunday (e.g. Palm Sunday and Pentecost).

On the contrary, when the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple falls on a Sunday, the typical Resurrectional Sunday elements from the Octoechos/Paraklitiki are not suppressed; instead, they are combined with the Menaion elements of the feast, as clearly discussed in the Typikon (the rubric rule book).

Of course, further evidence of its combined status as a Feast of the Lord and Feast of the Mother of God can be found in the antiphonal verses chosen for the Divine Liturgy and the fact that its communion hymn for the Divine Liturgy is the most common one used for Feasts of the Mother of God.