Liturgical Calendar: How is the Church-Year Divided?

This post is about the Christian liturgical calendar.

The church calendar divides the 12-month calendar into two large parts. Each part has smaller divisions.

What are the two parts of the liturgical calendar?

Each tradition may have slight variations on how they divide the church-year calendar. Below is a general overview from Lutheran and Catholic sources. 

The Festive Half of the church year includes Christmas and Easter. This is the first half of the liturgical calendar. 

The Non-Festive half of the church year starts after Easter and runs through the end of November. Much of these months is Ordinary Time, or a time without a special church holiday.

What are the smaller divisions of the liturgical year?

These are the Catholic liturgical seasons. Other Christian traditions follow a similar calendar. Search for “liturgical calendar” or “liturgical year” and you can easily find charts online that will have more precise divisions. 

December: Advent and Christmas
January: Christmas, Epiphany, Ordinary Time
February: Ordinary Time
March: Lent
April-May: Easter, Pentecost
June-November: Ordinary Time