Certain times of the year have their own individual character. Our two main feasts are Christmas and Easter. Each has a period of time leading up to it, so Advent is the leadup to Christmas. The Christmas season lasts until the Baptism of our Lord, this weekend. Lent is the leadup to Easter.

This year Lent will begin with Ash Wednesday on 6th March. After Easter Sunday – this year on 21st April – we have the Easter Season of 50 days, until Pentecost Sunday, this year on 9th June. This is one feast day – the great Sunday, lasting 50 days.

Besides those two seasons there remain in the yearly cycle thirty-three or thirty-four weeks in which no particular aspect of the mystery of Christ is celebrated. This period is known as Ordinary Time.
Ordinary Time begins on the Monday which follows the Sunday occurring after 6th January and extends up to and including the Tuesday before the beginning of Lent; it begins again on the Monday after Pentecost Sunday and ends before the First Sunday of Advent, which occurs this calendar year on 1st December.

The Liturgical colour during Ordinary Time is green, so vestments until Lent will be predominantly green, allowing for white on saint’s days, and red on the feast days of martyrs.