If you look at a Catholic calendar, you have probably noticed how many days are marked as “feast days.” A special part of living the Catholic faith is how we mark time—since we see the Church as being the family of God, we do what families naturally do—we celebrate “milestones” of family members. That’s what a feast day is—a celebration of a milestone of a saint or of an important day in the life of our family as a whole.
In our earthly families, we celebrate birthdays, weddings, and special events like a graduation. We usually gather for a meal and often include traditions like retelling stories, looking at old photos or videos, or favorite family activities like singing or games.
In the family of God, we celebrate our family’s special events a little bit differently—most of our feast days are “death days”—the day a saint died! For example, we celebrate the feast of St. Augustine on August 28, because that’s the day he died in the year 430. We celebrate the feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton on January 4 because that’s the day she died in 1821.
It might seem morbid at first glance, but it is not with regard to a saint—someone we know is in heaven. A saint’s death day is their birthday in heaven!
There are over 5,000 canonized saints in the Catholic Church—we don’t have that many days in a year to celebrate each one! So not all saints have a unique day, or feast, in their honor. We honor all the saints in heaven—canonized or not—on, naturally enough, the Solemnity of All Saints on November 1.
Perhaps you caught that word “solemnity” that I just used in reference to All Saints. This brings up my second point—the different types of feast days that you will experience in the Catholic calendar. We’ll go over them according to their level of importance—
First, we have holy days of obligation. These celebrations are so important that we expect all the family to show up at the family get-together—the Mass! Missing a holy day for our church family is like missing a big event in your family—you better have a really good reason to miss Christmas day with the family, for example!
Every Sunday is a holy day of obligation—because every Sunday is a little Easter: a day we commemorate Jesus’ victory over sin and death by his Resurrection. Every Sunday we are obliged to attend Mass unless we are sick, caring for someone, or some other serious reason (like a pandemic…).
We also have other holy days of obligation throughout the year—these are the days that celebrate the truly central milestones of our family life. They are connected to the life of Jesus, his mother Mary and our entire family, the Church. We are obliged to go to Mass on a holy day of obligation even when it doesn’t fall on a Sunday. These holy days include:
- Christmas (December 25),
- the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (January 1)
- the Ascension of Our Lord (40 days after Easter Sunday)
- the Assumption of Mary (August 15)
- the Solemnity of All Saints (November 1)
- the Immaculate Conception of the BVM (December 8)
So Holy Days of Obligation are the primary feasts of the Church’s calendar year—they are the days set aside to gather as a family to celebrate, to remember, to re-commit and to re-charge.
The next level of holy days include other Solemnities. The Holy Days of Obligation are Solemnities, but not all Solemnities are Holy Days of Obligation. Any Solemnity is an important feast day that is celebrated with a special Mass just for that day. Many of these Solemnities have to do with the life of Jesus. For example, we have a Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe at the end of November. Other Solemnities are dedicated to the saints closest to the Lord during his earthly life—Mary his Mother, Joseph his foster Father, John the Baptist, his cousin. When a Solemnity falls on a Sunday, that Sunday is dedicated to its celebration. When a Solemnity falls on a Friday, the faithful are encouraged to celebrate the Solemnity and not abstain from meat or do other penitential practices. Solemnities are days to celebrate!
The next level of feast days are called “Feasts”—these celebrate canonized saints whose contributions have had a universal impact, such as the 12 Apostles or other great teachers and leaders throughout our history. Some Feast days celebrate a feature in the life of Jesus Christ—for example we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14 to honor Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. A priest must use the Mass for Solemnities and Feast days when he celebrates a daily Mass—except Feast Days are not usually celebrated when they fall on a Sunday.
“Feast” days are called feast days because they do often involve special meals and activities for that particular day. For example, the Feast of the Archangels on September 29 is associated with special “harvest” foods and often a roasted goose in some European countries. The Feast of St. Nicholas on December 6 has often included parades, appearances of the fiery bishop and gifts left in stockings. (Well, St. Nicholas used to be named a feast day—now it is an optional memorial for the universal church-more about that in a minute). You can find out more about these traditional celebrations on the website Catholic Culture. There are also great books you can use to reacquaint your family with these feast day celebrations: I recommend “Cooking with the Saints”.
Finally, our calendar is filled with “Memorials” and “Optional Memorials” to honor saints throughout each month. A memorial is a day dedicated to a saint. The Mass for a Memorial includes special mention of the saint (usually a quality of the saint that we ask God to help us emulate). A priest must celebrate a Memorial as the primary daily Mass—unless it’s a Sunday (then the Sunday Mass supersedes it) or for a serious pastoral reason such as a funeral.
An “Optional Memorial” is just that—celebrating that saint or event in the church is an option for a priest at Mass, but not required. Optional Memorials are often connected to saints whose impact is more regional—so, for example, the feast day of St. Juan Diego is an optional memorial on December 9. St. Juan Diego’s vision of Our Blessed Mother as Our Lady of Guadalupe is of great importance to the Church in the Americas (she is named as Patroness of the Americas), but maybe not so much to the world-wide church. Any priest in any country can celebrate an optional memorial—it’s just not required. Many priests choose not to celebrate every optional memorial so that the Daily Masses at their parishes can proceed with the regular schedule of Bible readings and keep some continuity in our progress through the Bible.
Okay, I’ve explained the purpose of feast days in the family of the Catholic Church, and I have given you a brief overview of the different types of feast days: Holy Days of Obligation, Solemnities, Feast Days, Memorials and Optional Memorials. Now it’s time to ask: What’s the point for your spiritual growth?
I encourage you to use the feast days of the Church to mark the passage of time for your family—and to deepen your connection to the Communion of Saints of which you belong! Pick just a few days in the year to start with so that you’re not overwhelmed. Celebrate our heroes, take time to learn about them, find ways to incorporate special foods and activities for the saints most connected to your family—begin with the saints that you are named after, those who most inspire you, those connected to your occupation, ancestry, ethnicity or in some other way.
Embrace the history, heritage and heroism of our saints.
Allow your journey around the sun each year to be impacted by the journey of the Son of God in salvation history! Doing so can enrich and strengthen your spiritual life!
Flourish Catholic 