Laetare Sunday ( Church Latin: ;

Classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later pe ...

: ; English: , , , , ) is the fourth Sunday in the season of Lent, in the Western Christian

liturgical calendar 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 wh ...

. Traditionally, this Sunday has been a day of celebration, within the austere period of Lent. This Sunday gets its name from the first few words () of the traditional Latin entrance ( Introit) for the

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different element ...

of the day. ("Rejoice, O Jerusalem") is Latin from Isaiah 66:10.

History

The term "Laetare Sunday" is used by most

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

and Anglican churches. The word comes from the Latin , the singular imperative of : "to rejoice". The full Introit reads:

Psalm:

Rejoice ye with Jerusalem; and be ye glad for her, all ye that delight in her: exult and sing for joy with her, all ye that in sadness mourn for her; that ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations. ''Psalm'': I was glad when they said unto me, We will go into the house of the Lord.

Alternative names

This Sunday is currently also known as Mothering Sunday, Refreshment Sunday, mid- Lent Sunday (in French ) and Rose Sunday (either because the golden rose sent by Popes to Catholic sovereigns used to be blessed at this time, or because the use of rose-colored rather than violet vestments was permitted on this day). Historically, the day was also known as "the Sunday of the Five Loaves," from the story of the

miracle of the loaves and fishes In Christianity, the feeding the multitude is two separate miracles of Jesus reported in the Gospels. The first miracle, the "Feeding of the 5,000", is the only miracle—aside from the resurrection—recorded in all four gospels ( Matthew 14: ...

. Before the adoption of the modern " common lectionaries", this narrative was the traditional

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

reading for this Sunday in Roman Catholic,

, Anglican, and

Old Catholic The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics, Old-Catholic churches or Old Catholic movement designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the undivid ...

churches. The station church at Rome for this day was Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, one of the seven chief

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

s; the Golden Rose, sent by Popes to Catholic sovereigns, used to be blessed at this time and for this reason the day was sometimes called ''Dominica de Rosa''.

Customs

On Mothering Sunday, Christians have historically visited their mother church—the church in which they received the sacrament of

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

. In Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Old Catholic churches flowers may appear on the

high altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in pagani ...

and the organ may be played as a solo instrument. Priests are given the option to wear

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can b ...

-colored vestments at

held on this day in place of the violet vestments normally worn during Lent. The term "rose" is used to describe this lighter shade of the color violet in 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 d ...

. The Sunday is considered a day of relaxation from normal Lenten rigours; a day of hope with

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

at last within sight. Traditionally, weddings (otherwise banned during Lent) could be performed on this day, and servants were released from service for the day to visit their

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral or a metr ...

, the place in which they received the sacrament of baptism (hence 'Mothering Sunday'). Laetare Sunday is the date on which the recipient of

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

's Laetare Medal is announced.

Date

Laetare Sunday is exactly 21 days before Easter Sunday, a

moveable feast A moveable feast is an observance in a Christian liturgical calendar which occurs on different dates in different years.John Ayto ''Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms'' 2010 p123 019954378X "a movable feast an event which takes place at no re ...

based on the cycles of the moon. The date can be any between 1 March and 4 April inclusive; occurrence in April is considered to be uncommon; the last occurrence was on 3 April 2011 and the next will be on 4 April 2038, after which it will not occur again until 1 April 2057 – occurrences in April are printed in the below list in . The earliest occurrence of Laetare Sunday in the twenty-first century was on 2 March 2008, and the latest will be on 4 April 2038. Laetare Sunday occurs on these dates: *2019 – 31 March *2020 – 22 March *2021 – 14 March *2022 – 27 March *2023 – 19 March *2024 – 10 March *2025 – 30 March *2026 – 15 March *2027 – 7 March *2028 – 26 March *2029 – 11 March *2030 – 31 March *2031 – 23 March *2032 – 7 March *2033 – 27 March *2034 – 19 March *2035 – 4 March *2036 – 23 March *2037 – 15 March *2038 – *2039 – 20 March *2040 – 11 March *2041 – 31 March *2042 – 16 March *2043 – 8 March *2044 – 27 March *2045 – 19 March *2046 – 4 March *2047 – 24 March *2048 – 15 March *2049 – 28 March *2050 – 20 March *2051 – 12 March *2052 – 31 March *2053 – 16 March *2054 – 8 March *2055 – 28 March *2056 – 12 March *2057 – *2058 – 24 March *2059 – 9 March *2060 – 28 March *2061 – 20 March *2062 – 5 March *2063 – 25 March *2064 – 16 March *2065 – 8 March *2066 – 21 March *2067 – 13 March *2068 – *2069 – 24 March *2070 – 9 March *2071 – 29 March *2072 – 20 March *2073 – 5 March *2074 – 25 March *2075 – 17 March *2076 – 29 March *2077 – 21 March *2078 – 13 March *2079 – *2080 – 17 March *2081 – 9 March *2082 – 29 March *2083 – 14 March *2084 – 5 March *2085 – 25 March *2086 – 10 March *2087 – 30 March *2088 – 21 March *2089 – 13 March *2090 – 26 March *2091 – 18 March *2092 – 9 March *2093 – 22 March *2094 – 14 March *2095 – *2096 – 25 March *2097 – 10 March *2098 – 30 March *2099 – 22 March *2100 – 7 March

References

''Catholic Encyclopedia'':
"Laetare Sunday" {{Liturgical year of the Catholic Church Lent Christian Sunday observances March observances

History

Alternative names

Customs

Date

See also

References