Septuagesima
Septuagesima | |
---|---|
Liturgical color | Violet |
Significance | Preparation for Lent |
Date | Third Sunday before Ash Wednesday (63 calendar days before Easter Sunday) |
2023 date | February 5 |
2024 date | January 28 |
2025 date | February 16 |
2026 date | February 1 |
Related to | Pre-Lent |
Septuagesima (/ˌsɛptjuəˈdʒɛsɪmə/) is the name for the ninth Sunday before Easter, the third before Ash Wednesday. The term is sometimes applied to the seventy days starting on Septuagesima Sunday and ending on the Saturday after Easter. Alternatively, the term is sometimes applied also to the period sometimes called pre-Lent that begins on this day and ends on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins.
The other two Sundays in this period of the
Liturgical seasons |
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Origins of the term
Septuagesima comes from the Latin word for "seventieth." Likewise, Sexagesima, Quinquagesima, and Quadragesima mean "sixtieth," "fiftieth," and "fortieth" respectively. The significance of this naming (according to Andrew Hughes, Medieval Manuscripts for Mass and Office [Toronto, 1982], 10) is as follows: "Septuagesima Sunday [is] so called because it falls within seventy days but more than sixty days before Easter. The next Sunday is within sixty, Sexagesima, and the next within fifty, Quinquagesima ... Falling within forty days of Easter (excluding Sundays) the next Sunday is Quadragesima." Because every Sunday recalls the resurrection of Christ, they are considered "little Easters" and not treated as days of penance. Quadragesima serves as the Latin word for the season of Lent, which (not counting Sundays) is forty days long.
According to the
Septuagesima was also the day on which one could begin a forty-day Lenten fast that excluded from its observance Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.[1]
Devotional and liturgical practices
Year | Date |
---|---|
2021 | January 31 |
2022 | February 13 |
2023 | February 5 |
2024 | January 28 |
2025 | February 16 |
2026 | February 1 |
2027 | January 24 |
The 17-day period beginning on Septuagesima Sunday was intended to be observed as a preparation for the season of Lent, which is itself a period of spiritual preparation (for Easter). In many countries, however, Septuagesima Sunday marked and still marks the traditional start of the carnival season, culminating on Shrove Tuesday, sometimes known as Mardi Gras.
In the pre-1970
The readings at Matins for this week are the first few chapters of Genesis, telling of the creation of the world, of Adam and Eve, the fall of man and resulting expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and the story of Cain and Abel. In the following weeks before and during Lent, the readings continue to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. The Gospel reading for Septuagesima week is the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16).
Catholic usage after 1969
The liturgical books for the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite revised after the Second Vatican Council omit Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima Sundays, which are found in the earlier versions, and treat this period as part of Ordinary Time, so that the use of violet vestments and the omission of "Alleluia" in the liturgy do not begin until Ash Wednesday.
The
Lutheran usage
While
Hymnum cantate nobis, Alleluia, de canticis Sion, Alleluia, Quomodo cantabimus canticum Domini in terra aliena? Alleluia, septuaginta annos super flumina Babylonis sedimus et flevimus, dum recordaremur Sion, Alleluia, ibi suspendimus organa nostra, Alleluia. Gloria Patri...
Sing us a hymn, Alleluia, one of the songs of Zion, Alleluia, How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? Alleluia, seventy years we sat by the rivers of Babylon and wept when we remembered Zion, Alleluia, there we hung our harps, Alleluia. Glory be to the Father...
Beginning at First
Anglican usage
Most provinces of the
Polish National Catholic Church usage
The Polish National Catholic Church has officially reinstated the Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays in 2014 throughout the entire Church. The celebration of this season as a preparation for Holy Lent is now highlighted as a part of the Liturgical Year.[7]
Eastern usage
A pre-Lent season also exists in the
In popular culture
In 1894, Oscar Wilde told the actor Charles Brookfield, who had complained about Wilde's conducting rehearsals for his play An Ideal Husband on Christmas Day, "the only festival of the Church I keep is Septuagesima".[9]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Francis Meersham, Septuagesima in Catholic Encyclopedia
- ^ a b Goffine, Leonard (1896). . Goffine's Devout instructions on the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays and holydays. Benzinger Brothers.
- ^ Table of Moveable Feasts
- ISBN 9781982037147
- ^ 2016 Ordo for use with the 1962 Missale Romanum Forma Extraordinara, Canons Regular of St John Cantius, Biretta Books, Chicago 2015
- ^ Septuagesima: What's the Point?
- ^ The Liturgical Reference Calendar of the Polish National Catholic Church 2014. The National Commission on Liturgy.
- ^ Hapgood, Isabel (1906). Service Book Of Holy Orthodox Church. Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 14.
- ^ Ellmann, Richard. Oscar Wilde. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 428.