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In the
liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...
of the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, a feria is a day of the week other than
Sunday Sunday is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. In most Western countries, Sunday is a day of rest and a part of the weekend. It is often considered the first day of the week. For most observant adherents of Christianity, Sunday ...
. In more recent official liturgical texts in English, the term ''weekday'' is used instead of ''feria''. If the
feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
of a saint falls on such a day, the liturgy celebrated may be that of the saint, not that of the ''feria'' (the weekday liturgy). Accordingly, in actual liturgical practice a feria or ferial day is "a weekday on which no special ecclesiastical feast is to be celebrated".Will apiel ''Harvard Dictionary of Music'' (Harvard University Press 1969), p. 310
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Etymology

The ''Harvard Dictionary of Music'' explains the etymology ''feria'' as "the reverse of the original meaning of L. ''feria'', i.e., festival day. The reversal came about by extending the use of the word from Sunday to the other days,
Sunday Sunday is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. In most Western countries, Sunday is a day of rest and a part of the weekend. It is often considered the first day of the week. For most observant adherents of Christianity, Sunday ...
being named ''feria prima'',
Monday Monday is the day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday. According to the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 8601 standard, it is the first day of the week and in countries that adopt the "Sunday-first" convention, it is ...
''feria secunda'',
Tuesday Tuesday is the day of the week between Monday and Wednesday. According to international standard ISO 8601, Monday is the first day of the week; thus, Tuesday is the second day of the week. According to some commonly used calendars, however, ...
''feria tertia'', etc." Since in
ecclesiastical Latin Latin, also called Church Latin or Liturgical Latin, is a form of Latin developed to discuss Christian thought in Late Antiquity and used in Christian liturgy, theology, and church administration down to the present day, especially in the Cathol ...
the names of Sunday and Saturday do not contain the word ''feria'' and are called respectively ''dominica'' and ''sabbatum'', some use the term ''feria'' "to denote the days of the week with the exception of Sunday and
Saturday Saturday is the day of the week between Friday and Sunday. No later than the 2nd century, the Romans named Saturday ("Saturn's Day") for the planet Saturn, which controlled the first hour of that day, according to Vettius Valens. The day's na ...
", in spite of the official definition given above and the actual usage in official liturgical books. The
Portuguese language Portuguese ( or, in full, ) is a western Romance language of the Indo-European language family, originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is an official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and ...
uses the same terminology as ecclesiastical Latin for the days of the week, calling the days from Monday to Friday ''segunda-feira'', ''terça-feira'' (literally, "second weekday", "third weekday"), etc., but calling Saturday ''sábado'' and Sunday ''domingo'' (see Numbered days of the week).


Classification

The
Roman Rite The Roman Rite ( la, Ritus Romanus) is the primary liturgical rite of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. It developed in the Latin language in the city of Rome and, while dist ...
no longer distinguishes different classes of ferias (weekdays) as in the 1960
Code of Rubrics The Code of Rubrics is a three-part liturgical document promulgated in 1960 under Pope John XXIII, which in the form of a legal code indicated the liturgical and sacramental law governing the celebration of the Roman Rite Mass and Divine Office. ...
of
Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII ( la, Ioannes XXIII; it, Giovanni XXIII; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, ; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death in June 19 ...
, but it attributes different positions to them in ranking liturgical days. In the ''Table of Liturgical Days according to their order of precedence'', attached to the ''Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar'',
Ash Wednesday Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer and fasting in many Western Christian denominations. It is preceded by Shrove Tuesday and falls on the first day of Lent (the six weeks of penitence before Easter). It is observed by Catholics in the Rom ...
and weekdays of
Holy Week Holy Week ( la, Hebdomada Sancta or , ; grc, Ἁγία καὶ Μεγάλη Ἑβδομάς, translit=Hagia kai Megale Hebdomas, lit=Holy and Great Week) is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. In Eastern Churches, w ...
from Monday up to and including Thursday are outranked only by the
Paschal Triduum The Paschal Triduum or Easter Triduum (Latin: ''Triduum Paschale''), Holy Triduum (Latin: ''Triduum Sacrum''), or the Three Days, is the period of three days that begins with the liturgy on the evening of Maundy Thursday, reaches its high poin ...
, the four
solemnities In the liturgical calendar of the Roman Rite, a solemnity is a feast day of the highest rank celebrating a mystery of faith such as the Trinity, an event in the life of Jesus, his mother Mary, his earthly father Joseph, or another important sain ...
of Christmas,
Epiphany Epiphany may refer to: * Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight Religion * Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ ** Epiphany season, or Epiph ...
, Ascension and
Pentecost Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 50th day (the seventh Sunday) after Easter Sunday. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles in the Ne ...
, and the Sundays of Advent, Lent, and Easter. Weekdays of Advent from 17 December up to and including 24 December and weekdays of Lent rank above
memorials A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, Tragedy (event), tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objec ...
. Other liturgical weekdays (ferias) come last in the ranking. The Code of Rubrics of 1960 introduced a newly invented division of ferias into four classes: * First-class ferias, outranking all feasts: Ash Wednesday and all the weekdays of Holy Week; * Second-class ferias, outranking local second-class feasts and, if impeded, requiring to be commemorated: ferias of Advent from 17 December to 23 December, and Ember Days of Advent, Lent and September; * Third-class ferias: ferias in Lent from Thursday after Ash Wednesday to Saturday before the Second Sunday of the Passion (Palm Sunday) except Ember Days (these outranked third-class feasts), and ferias in Advent up to 16 December except Ember Days (these were outranked by third-class feasts); * Fourth-class ferias: all other ferias (weekday liturgies). Before 1960, the Roman Rite knew a simpler distinction between major and minor ferias. The major ferias were those of Advent and Lent, the Ember days, and the Monday of Rogation week. These had to be commemorated even on the highest feasts. All the others were minor ferias (liturgical weekdays). In addition, the major ferias of Ash Wednesday and Holy Week were privileged: these liturgies were to be celebrated no matter what feast happened to occur on those days.Catholic Encyclopedia (1909): Feria
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See also

*
Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite The Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite is a regulation for the liturgy of the Roman Catholic church. It determines for each liturgical day which observance has priority when liturgical dates and times coincide (or "occur"), which texts a ...
*
Solemnity In the liturgical calendar of the Roman Rite, a solemnity is a feast day of the highest rank celebrating a mystery of faith such as the Trinity, an event in the life of Jesus, his mother Mary, his earthly father Joseph, or another important sain ...
*
Memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...
* Ember Days *
Octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
*
General Roman Calendar The General Roman Calendar is the liturgical calendar that indicates the dates of celebrations of saints and mysteries of the Lord (Jesus Christ) in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, wherever this liturgical rite is in use. These celebra ...
*
Liturgical year The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and whi ...
*
Calendar of saints The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
*
Commemoration in the Catholic liturgy In the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church, a commemoration is the recital, within the Liturgy of the Hours or the Mass (liturgy), Mass of one celebration, of part of another celebration that is generally of lower Ranking of liturgical da ...
*
Ordinary Time Ordinary Time ( la, Tempus per annum) is the part of the liturgical year in the liturgy of the Roman Rite, which falls outside the two great seasons of Christmastide and Eastertide, or their respective preparatory seasons of Advent and Lent. Or ...


References

{{Reflist Catholic liturgy History of the Catholic Church Days of the week