When does the liturgical year begin?

On the first Sunday of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas. It ends on the Saturday before the next Advent.

What does the class of a feast mean?

Its rank. A first-class feast outranks everything; a fourth-class day is an ordinary feria. The class settles what is said at Mass and in the office when two celebrations fall together.

Why do the colours change?

Each colour states what is being kept: white for joy and purity, red for blood and fire, green for the hope of the season after Pentecost, violet for penance, black for mourning.

Is this my parish's calendar?

Only if it keeps the traditional rite. The reformed calendar of 1969 moved dates, suppressed octaves and redistributed the classes into solemnities, feasts and memorials.

Roman calendar of 1962

Liturgical Calendar 2026

The next eight days: the feast, its class and its colour, as the Roman calendar of 1962 gives them.

Day	Feast	Class	Colour
Sat 12 today	Most Holy Name of Mary	class III	white
Sun 13	Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost	class II	green
Mon 14	The Exaltation of the Holy Cross	class II	red
Tue 15	Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary	class II	white
Wed 16	Saint Cornelius, Pope and Martyr, and Saint Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr	class III	red
Thu 17	Ferial Thursday of the season after Pentecost	class IV	green
Fri 18	Saint Joseph of Cupertino, Confessor	class III	white
Sat 19	Saint Januarius, Bishop, and Companions, Martyrs	class III	red

The liturgical calendar, in short

The liturgical year is not the civil one: it opens on the first Sunday of Advent and runs in two interwoven cycles. The temporal follows the life of Christ, from Advent to Pentecost and on through the Sundays after it; the sanctoral keeps the saints on fixed dates. Each day one of the two prevails, by rules of precedence.

A feast has a class, from the first to the fourth, which states its rank and what it displaces. It has a colour: white for Christ, our Lady and the confessors, red for the martyrs and the Spirit, green for the season after Pentecost, violet for Advent and Lent, black for the dead, rose on two Sundays of the year.

The calendar of 1962 is that of the traditional Roman rite. It differs from the 1969 one in its dates, its classes and its octaves — what this page gives is the first.

Common questions

When does the liturgical year begin?: On the first Sunday of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas. It ends on the Saturday before the next Advent.
What does the class of a feast mean?: Its rank. A first-class feast outranks everything; a fourth-class day is an ordinary feria. The class settles what is said at Mass and in the office when two celebrations fall together.
Why do the colours change?: Each colour states what is being kept: white for joy and purity, red for blood and fire, green for the hope of the season after Pentecost, violet for penance, black for mourning.
Is this my parish's calendar?: Only if it keeps the traditional rite. The reformed calendar of 1969 moved dates, suppressed octaves and redistributed the classes into solemnities, feasts and memorials.