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A moveable feast is an observance in a 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 whic ...
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 regular time. In a religious context a movable feast is a feast day (especially Easter Day and the other Christian holy days whose dates are related to it) which does not occur on the same calendar date each year."


Spring paschal feasts

Often considered the most important Christian observance, Spring paschal feasts are a fixed number of days before or after
Easter Sunday 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 ...
, which varies by 35 days since it depends partly on the phase of the moon and must be computed each year. In the
Hebrew calendar The Hebrew calendar ( he, הַלּוּחַ הָעִבְרִי, translit=HaLuah HaIvri), also called the Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today for Jewish religious observance, and as an official calendar of the state of Israel. I ...
, the new moon of
Aviv Aviv ( he, אביב) means "barley ripening", and by extension "spring season" in Hebrew. It is also used as a given name, surname, and place name, as in Tel Aviv. The first month of the year is called the month of Aviv in the Pentateuch. The mo ...
, spring, is fixed as the
Lunar New Year Lunar New Year is the beginning of a calendar year whose months are moon cycles, based on the lunar calendar or lunisolar calendar. The Lunar New Year as a celebration is observed by numerous cultures. It is also named "Chinese New Year" becaus ...
, and the month is called
Nisan Nisan (or Nissan; he, נִיסָן, Standard ''Nīsan'', Tiberian ''Nīsān''; from akk, 𒊬𒊒𒄀 ''Nisanu'') in the Babylonian and Hebrew calendars is the month of the barley ripening and first month of spring. The name of the month i ...
. The 14 of Nisan is the
paschal full moon An ecclesiastical full moon is formally the 14th day of the ecclesiastical lunar month (an ecclesiastical moon) in an ecclesiastical lunar calendar. The ecclesiastical lunar calendar spans the year with lunar months of 30 and 29 days which are int ...
, the day of the
Pesach seder The Passover Seder (; he, סדר פסח , 'Passover order/arrangement'; yi, סדר ) is a ritual feast at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of telling_the_story_of_
telling_the_story_of_the_Exodus">Haggadah.html"_;"title="san_in_the_Hebrew_c_...
,_a_ritual_meal_Haggadah">telling_the_story_of_the_Exodus_from_Egypt.__It_is_one_of_the_Three_Pilgrimage_Festivals.html" "title="the_Exodus.html" ;"title="Haggadah.html" ;"title="san in the Hebrew c ...
, a ritual meal Haggadah">telling the story of the Exodus">Haggadah.html" ;"title="san in the Hebrew c ...
, a ritual meal Haggadah">telling the story of the Exodus from Egypt. It is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals">three pilgrimage festivals The Three Pilgrimage Festivals, in Hebrew ''Shalosh Regalim'' (שלוש רגלים), are three major festivals in Judaism—Pesach (''Passover''), Shavuot (''Weeks'' or ''Pentecost''), and Sukkot (''Tabernacles'', ''Tents'' or ''Booths'')—when a ...
incumbent on all Jewish males living in the land of Israel. For this observance of this mitzvah, commandment, Jesus and the disciples went to Jerusalem, and held a festive meal on Passover night, which would be Last Supper. Quartodeciman Christians continued to end the
Lenten fast Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Jesus, temptation by Satan, according ...
in time to observe the Passover (Christian), which occurs before the
Lord's day The Lord's Day in Christianity is generally Sunday, the principal day of communal worship. It is observed by most Christians as the weekly memorial of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is said in the canonical Gospels to have been witnessed al ...
, as the two are not mutually exclusive. However, due to intense persecution from
Nicene Christianity The original Nicene Creed (; grc-gre, Σύμβολον τῆς Νικαίας; la, Symbolum Nicaenum) was first adopted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. In 381, it was amended at the First Council of Constantinople. The amended form is a ...
after the
Easter controversy The controversy over the correct date for Easter began in Early Christianity as early as the 2nd century AD. Discussion and disagreement over the best method of computing the date of Easter Sunday has been ongoing ever since and remain unresolved ...
, the practice had mostly died out by the 5th or 6th century, and only re-emerged in the 20th century. In
Eastern Christianity Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Northeast Africa, the Fertile Crescent and ...
(including the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Eastern Catholic Churches), these moveable feasts form what is called the
Paschal cycle The Paschal cycle, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is the cycle of the moveable feasts built around Pascha (Easter). The cycle consists of approximately ten weeks before and seven weeks after Pascha. The ten weeks before Pascha are known as ...
, which stands in contrast to the approach taken by Catholic and Protestant Christianity.


Pentecost


Moveable solemnities

Not all observances are feasts, and among those that are moveable is the
Lenten fast Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Jesus, temptation by Satan, according ...
, which is held for the 40 days prior to Easter.


Relationship to solar fixed feasts

Most other
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 does ...
s, such as those of particular
saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ort ...
s, are ''fixed feasts'', held on the same date every year. However, some observances are always held on the same
day of the week In many languages, the names given to the seven days of the week are derived from the names of the classical planets in Hellenistic astronomy, which were in turn named after contemporary deities, a system introduced by the Sumerians and la ...
, and thus occur on a range of days without depending on the date of Easter. For example, the start of
Advent Advent is a Christian season of preparation for the Nativity of Christ at Christmas. It is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity. The name was adopted from Latin "coming; arrival", translating Greek '' parousia''. ...
is the Sunday nearest November 30. In addition, the observance of some fixed feasts may move a few days in a particular year to not clash with that year's date for a more important moveable feast. There are rare examples of saints with genuinely moveable feast days, such as
Saint Sarkis the Warrior Saint Sargis the General or Sergius Stratelates ( hy, Սուրբ Սարգիս Զորավար, Sourb Sargis Zoravar; died 362/3) is revered as a martyr and military saint in the Armenian Apostolic Church. The name Sargis (Sarkis) is the Armenian fo ...
in the calendar of the Armenian Church.


See also

*
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 which ...
*
Movable Eastern Christian observances This is a chronological list of moveable Eastern Christian observances. Most of these are calculated by the date of Pascha. It includes secular observances which are calculated by religious observances. ''This list does not necessarily imply eith ...
*
Movable Western Christian observances {{Use mdy dates, date=July 2017 This is a list of movable observances within Western Christianity. It includes secular observances which are calculated by religious observances. ''This list does not necessarily imply either official status nor gen ...


In other religions

The
Chinese calendar The traditional Chinese calendar (also known as the Agricultural Calendar ��曆; 农历; ''Nónglì''; 'farming calendar' Former Calendar ��曆; 旧历; ''Jiùlì'' Traditional Calendar ��曆; 老历; ''Lǎolì'', is a lunisolar calendar ...
, like the
Hebrew calendar The Hebrew calendar ( he, הַלּוּחַ הָעִבְרִי, translit=HaLuah HaIvri), also called the Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today for Jewish religious observance, and as an official calendar of the state of Israel. I ...
, is
lunisolar A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, combining lunar calendars and solar calendars. The date of Lunisolar calendars therefore indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar year, that is the position of the Sun in the Ea ...
. Therefore
Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly referred to as the Spring Festival () as t ...
and
Mid-Autumn Festival The Mid-Autumn Festival (Chinese: / ), also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, is a traditional festival celebrated in Chinese culture. Similar holidays are celebrated in Japan (), Korea (), Vietnam (), and other countries in Eas ...
are moveable. Since Islamic feasts (
Eid al-Adha Eid al-Adha () is the second and the larger of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam (the other being Eid al-Fitr). It honours the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Ismail (Ishmael) as an act of obedience to Allah's c ...
and
Eid al-Fitr , nickname = Festival of Breaking the Fast, Lesser Eid, Sweet Eid, Sugar Feast , observedby = Muslims , type = Islamic , longtype = Islamic , significance = Commemoration to mark the end of fasting in Ramadan , date ...
) are
lunar month In lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two successive syzygies of the same type: new moons or full moons. The precise definition varies, especially for the beginning of the month. Variations In Shona, Middle Eastern, and Eur ...
based, they take place in different solar calendar dates and can occur at any time of the year, relative to the Roman civil calendar which is solar.  Unlike the lunisolar Hebrew, Chinese, and Babylonian calendars, which intercalate a leap month every 2 or 3 years to fix the month of spring, Islamic months can occur at any time of the year, and thus are referred to as "strictly lunar". In the Jewish religion there are two ritual observances that are seasonal and which therefore have no fixed dates in the Jewish calendar, whose months are lunar. Their occurrences are regulated by the Shmuelian tekufot of the Jewish calendar, which are calendric approximations of the equinoxes and solstices, designed by
Samuel of Nehardea Samuel of Nehardea or Samuel bar Abba, often simply called Samuel (Hebrew: שמואל) and occasionally Mar Samuel, was a Jewish Amora of the first generation; son of Abba bar Abba and head of the Yeshiva at Nehardea, Babylonia. He was a teacher ...
, to make those two observances fall on consistent dates of the
Julian calendar The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...
. They are: (a) the annual commencement, for diaspora Jewry, of the ''sh'elah'' period, during which a petition for rain is added to the daily prayers, and (b) the recital of the
Birkat Hachama ''Birkat Hachama'' (ברכת החמה, "Blessing of the Sun") refers to a rare Jewish blessing that is recited to the Creator, thanking Him for creating the sun. The blessing is recited when the sun completes its cycle every 28 years on a Tuesday ...
(blessing of the Sun), a ceremony performed once every 28 years. The former always begins on 23 November, Julian, or 24 November when the following year is a Julian leap year. The latter always occurs on 26 March, Julian, in a Julian year of the form 28n+21, which is always a Wednesday.


References


External links

*A table o
moveable feasts
with dates, published by the Church of England.

a ''
Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliation (geology), foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcano, volcanic ash (volcanic), ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is t ...
'' article
"How the dates of moveable feasts are calculated, then and now"
translated from the Latin by Michael Deckers. {{DEFAULTSORT:Moveable Feast * Religious holidays Catholic liturgy Islamic holy days