The Church Calendar Trivia Quiz

Answer: Advent

Advent is the season preceding Christmas and is four Sundays long. Therefore, to calculate the date of church year's beginning, count four Sundays prior to Christmas. This can include Christmas Eve when it falls on a Sunday. Advent can begin in either November or December.

Many churches mark the passing of Advent with a wreath of four candles, lighting a new candle with each Sunday. The fourth Sunday of Advent should have all four candles lit. Traditionally there are three purple candles and one pink candle.

The pink candle is lit for the third Sunday. Some churches now use all blue candles.

Answer: Epiphany

There are four special seasons in the church year: Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter. Easter and Christmas begin their respective seasons, while Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent. Sundays following Epiphany and Pentecost are generally called "common time" or "ordinary time" except when a special one-Sunday holiday or festival appears, such as Trinity Sunday. Different colors are associated with each season or holiday Sunday. Green is the default color for "ordinary time".

Answer: Purple

Purple is the symbolic color of penitence and preparation. The Scriptures and theme of the time of Lent emphasize it as a time of introspection of one's sinfulness and of preparation for the joy of Easter, which follows Lent. Red is used for the Sunday of Pentecost and for Lutherans on Reformation Sunday. Black is solely used on Good Friday. Yellow is never used. Advent, another time of preparation, has traditionally also used purple.

The move to blue has been recently used to differentiate the two seasons.

Answer: Ash Wednesday

Holy Week is the entire week preceding Easter, beginning with Palm Sunday and ending on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. It observes the final days preceding the Resurrection. Palm Sunday looks at the triumphant arrival of Jesus into Jerusalem. Maundy Thursday focuses on the Last Supper that Jesus had with the disciples and the prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. Good Friday marks the day of the crucifixion. Ash Wednesday occurs 40 days prior to Easter.

Answer: Nativity of St. John the Baptist

According to John 3:30 (NASB), John the Baptist spoke of Jesus: "He must increase, but I must decrease." About the time of June 24th, the time of sunshine begins to decrease. On December 25th (aka Christmas), the time of daylight is just beginning to increase. The word 'nativity' means birth or the events surrounding a birth.

Answer: Candlemas

The date of the Western observance of Easter is always the Sunday after the full moon that appears on or after the Spring Equinox. The Spring Equinox is March 21st. The full moon can appear on any date between March 21st to April 18th. If the full moon is on Sunday, then Easter is the following Sunday.

Therefore, Easter can be any time between March 22nd and April 25th. Candlemas is a minor holiday that is observed on February 2nd and has no relation to the timing of Easter.

Answer: The outpouring of the Holy Spirit

Pentecost was originally a Jewish holiday, also called the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of the Harvest. According to Acts 2, it was the day of Pentecost when disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and appeared as tongues of fire that rested on them.

The day of Pentecost is observed as fifty days following Easter, as the Jewish calendar would place it fifty days after the Sabbath of the Passover week. Passover was being observed during Maundy Thursday. Following Pentecost, the church enters "common time" and its length is dependent on how early or late Easter occurred that year.

Answer: All Saints' Day

Halloween is an evolved version of the name "All Hallows' Eve" with All Hallows' Day being the older name of All Saints' Day. Superstitious Christians reasoned that, on the day before all the holy people were commemorated, all the evil beings would reign.

The musical composition "Night on Bald Mountain" by Modest Mussorgsky illustrates this idea with an evil theme until all is dispersed by the sounds of church bells. All Saints' Day is naturally on November 1st and usually observed in the church on the following Sunday.

Answer: Ash Wednesday

The Transfiguration was recorded in the Bible as a remarkably positive spiritual experience. It is followed with Jesus announcing his upcoming death. As Ash Wednesday begins the time of Lent, the church year ends the "common time" on a more positive note before entering the more somber Lenten season.

The color white, which is used to symbolize the most holy experiences, is used on this Sunday as well as during the Christmas season, the day of Epiphany, the day of the Baptism of Our Lord, the Easter season, Holy Trinity Sunday, and All Saints' Day. In many other traditions, this is celebrated on August 6.

Answer: The coming of the Magi

The Christmas season, beginning on Christmas, officially ends with Epiphany, January 6th. Most Biblical scholars conclude that it took the Magi more than twelve days. Jesus was more like a small toddler by the time they arrived, but the one-year church cycle forces some condensing. Epiphany means a sudden revelation.

Here Jesus is being revealed to the Magi, non-Jews. The Christmas season lasts twelve days by the church calendar, which helps makes the traditional Christmas song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" seem a bit more clear in meaning.