Vigil (liturgy)In Christian liturgy, a vigil is, in origin, a religious service held during the night leading to a Sunday or other feastday. The Latin term vigilia, from which the word is derived meant a watch night, not necessarily in a military context, and generally reckoned as a fourth part of the night from sunset to sunrise. The four watches or vigils were of varying length in line with the seasonal variation of the length of the night.
EveningEvening is the period of a day that begins at the end of afternoon and overlaps with the beginning of night. It starts when the sun is close to the horizon and, according to most definitions, spans the period of night before bedtime or midnight. The exact times when evening begins and ends are subjective and depend on location and time of year. In some cases, evening is considered to begin during daylight; before sunset.
PrayerInvocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with a deityCollage of various religionists praying.Top: Shinto festivalgoer praying in front of the Tagata fertility shrine, Balinese Hindu bride praying during a traditional wedding ceremony, Muslim pilgrim praying at the Masjid al-HaramMiddle: Catholic Trappist monk praying before a crucifix, Ethiopian priest praying in Lalibela, Buddhists praying in LehBottom: Sikh praying in Front of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Traditional Chinese prayer service, Jewish people praying at the Western WallShare of people who pray frequently, 2022Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication.
Religious festivalA religious festival is a time of special importance marked by adherents to that religion. Religious festivals are commonly celebrated on recurring cycles in a calendar year or lunar calendar. The science of religious rites and festivals is known as heortology. Within the Evangelical Lutheran branch of Christianity, "festival" is part of the ranking of feast days in the liturgical kalendar.
Holy day of obligationIn the Catholic Church, holy days of obligation or days of precept are days on which Catholic Christians are expected to attend Mass, and engage in rest from work and recreation (i.e., they are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God), according to the third commandment. The expectation is attached to the holy day, even if transferred to another date, as sometimes happens in the Roman Rite.
LiturgyLiturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembrance, supplication, or repentance. It forms a basis for establishing a relationship with God or the divine. Technically speaking, liturgy forms a subset of ritual.
RitualActivities performed according to a set sequenceA Javanese ritual dance dedicated to the goddess of rice and fertility, Dewi SriA ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning.
PsalmsBook of sacred songs in the Hebrew BibleScroll of the Psalms
LatinLatin (lingua Latina or Latinum) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area around Rome, Italy. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire.
Ancient GreekAncient Greek (Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ [hellɛːnikɛ̌ː]) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (c. 1400 – c. 1200 BC), Dark Ages (c. 1200 – c. 800 BC), the Archaic or Homeric period (c. 800 – c. 500 BC), and the Classical period (c. 500 – c. 300 BC).
Calendar of saintsThe 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. A feast is "an annual religious celebration, a day dedicated to a particular saint".
MethodismDenomination of Protestant Christianity*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.