Editing Liturgical year (section)

====Calendar of saints====
{{Main|Calendar of saints}}
* In some Protestant traditions, especially those with closer ties to the Lutheran tradition, [[Reformation Day|Reformation Sunday]] is celebrated on the Sunday preceding October 31, commemorating the purported day [[Martin Luther]] posted the [[95 Theses]] on the door of the Castle Church in [[Wittenberg]]. The liturgical colour is red, celebrating the [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]]'s continuing work in renewing the Church.
* Most Western traditions celebrate [[All Saints' Day]] (All Hallow's Day) on November 1 or the Sunday following, with the eve of this feast, [[All Hallow's Eve]] being October 31. The liturgical colour is white. The following day, November 2, is [[All Souls' Day]]. The period including these days is often referred to as [[Allhallowtide]] or Allsaintstide.<ref>{{cite web|title=All Saints' Tide|url=http://www.oremus.org/liturgy/pohg/s2a.html|website=Services and Prayers for the Season from All Saints to Candlemas|publisher=[[General Synod of the Church of England]]|quote=For many twentieth-century Christians the All Saints-tide period is extended to include Remembrance Sunday. In the Calendar and Lectionary we have sought to make it easier to observe this without cutting across a developing lectionary pattern, and we have reprinted the form of service approved ecumenically for use on that day.}}</ref>
* [[Saint]]s Days are observed by [[Lutherans]] and include the apostles, Virgin Mary and noteworthy figures in the Christian faith. The Confession of St. Peter [[Week of Prayer for Christian Unity]] starting on January 18. Conversion of St. Paul ended week of prayer on January 25. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], renewer of society, martyr January 15 ([[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]] only), Presentation of Our Lord and Purification of the Mary [[Candlemas]] on February 2. Joseph, Guardian of Jesus [[St Joseph]] on March 19, [[Annunciation]] March 25, [[Visitation (Christianity)|Visitation]] of Mary on May 31.
* [[Lutherans]] also celebrate [[St John the Baptist]] or the Beheading of St John the Baptist on June 24, [[St Mary Magdalene]] July 22, [[St. Mary]], Mother of Our Lord or the [[Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary]] on August 15, Holy Cross Day September 14, Francis of Assisi, renewal of the Church [[St. Francis of Assisi]] on October 4, and the Holy Innocents, Martyrs December 28.
* Lesser Feasts and Commemorations on the [[Lutheran]] liturgical calendar include [[Anthony of Egypt]] on January 17, Henry, Bishop of Uppsala, martyr [[Henry (bishop of Finland)|Henry of Uppsala]] on January 19, Timothy, Titus and Silas, missionaries [[St Timothy]], [[St Titus]] and [[St Silas]] Day on January 26, Ansgar, Bishop of Hamburg, missionary to Denmark and Sweden [[St Ansgar]] on February 3, Cyril, monk and Methodius, bishop, missionaries to the Slavs [[St Cyril and St Methodius]] on February 14, [[Gregory the Great]] on March 12, [[St Patrick]] on March 17, [[Olavus Petri]], priest and Laurentius Petri, Bishop of Uppsala, on April 19, [[St Anselm]] on April 21, [[Catherine of Siena]] on April 29, [[St Athanasius]] on May 2, [[St Monica]] on May 4, [[Eric IX of Sweden]] on May 18, [[St Boniface]] on June 5, [[Basil the Great]], [[Gregory of Nyssa]] and [[Gregory of Nazianzus]] on June 14, [[Benedict of Nursia]] on July 11, [[Birgitta of Sweden]] on July 23, [[St Anne]], Mother of Mary on July 26, [[St Dominic]] on August 8, [[Augustine of Hippo]] on August 28, [[Cyprian|St Cyprian]] on September 16, [[Teresa of Avila]] on October 15, [[Martin de Porres]] on November 3, [[Martin of Tours]] on November 11, [[Elizabeth of Hungary]] on November 17, [[St Lucy]] on December 13. There are many other holy days in the Lutheran calendar.
* Some traditions celebrate [[Michaelmas|St. Michael's Day]] (Michaelmas) on September 29.
* Some traditions celebrate [[Martinmas|St. Martin's Day]] (Martinmas) on November 11.

''Liturgical colours'': white if the saint was not martyred; red if the saint was martyred

=====Hierarchy of feast days=====
{{Main|Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite|Principal Holy Day (Anglicanism)}}
There are degrees of solemnity of the office of the feast days of saints. In the 13th century, the Roman Rite distinguished three ranks: simple, semidouble and double, with consequent differences in the recitation of the [[Liturgy of the Hours|Divine Office or Breviary]]. The simple feast commenced with the chapter (''capitulum'') of First Vespers, and ended with None. It had three lessons and took the psalms of Matins from the ferial office; the rest of the office was like the semidouble. The semidouble feast had two Vespers, nine lessons in Matins, and ended with Compline. The antiphons before the psalms were only intoned.

In the Mass, the semidouble had always at least three "orationes" or [[collect]]s. On a double feast the antiphons were sung in their entirety, before and after the psalms, while in Lauds and Vespers there were no ''suffragia'' of the saints, and the Mass had only one "oratio" (if no commemoration was prescribed). If ordinary double feasts (referred to also as lesser doubles) occurred with feasts of a higher rank, they could be simplified, except the octave days of some feasts and the feasts of the Doctors of the Church, which were transferred.

To the existing distinction between major and ordinary or minor doubles, [[Pope Clement VIII]] added two more ranks, those of first-class or second-class doubles. Some of these two classes were kept with octaves. This was still the situation when the 1907 article [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06021b.htm Ecclesiastical Feasts] in the [[Catholic Encyclopedia]] was written. In accordance with the rules then in force, feast days of any form of double, if impeded by "occurrence" (falling on the same day)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://home.newadvent.org/cathen/11200a.htm|title=Catholic Encyclopedia : Occurrence|website=home.newadvent.org}}</ref> with a feast day of higher class, were transferred to another day.

[[Pope Pius X]] simplified matters considerably in his 1911 [[Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X|reform of the Roman Breviary]]. In the case of occurrence the lower-ranking feast day could become a [[Commemoration (liturgy)|commemoration]] within the celebration of the higher-ranking one. Until then, ordinary doubles took precedence over most of the semidouble Sundays, resulting in many of the Sunday Masses rarely being said. While retaining the semidouble rite for Sundays, Pius X's reform permitted only the most important feast days to be celebrated on Sunday, although commemorations were still made until [[Pope John XXIII]]'s reform of 1960.

The division into doubles (of various kinds) semidoubles and simples continued until 1955, when [[Pope Pius XII]] abolished the rank of semidouble, making all the previous semidoubles simples, and reducing the previous simples to a mere commemoration in the Mass of another feast day or of the feria on which they fell (see [[General Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XII]]).

Then, in 1960, Pope John XXIII issued the [[Code of Rubrics]], completely ending the ranking of feast days by doubles etc., and replacing it by a ranking, applied not only to feast days but to all liturgical days, as I, II, III, and IV class days.

The [[Mysterii Paschalis|1969 revision]] by [[Pope Paul VI]] divided feast days into "solemnities", "feasts" and "memorials", corresponding approximately to Pope John XXIII's I, II and III class feast days. Commemorations were abolished. While some of the memorials are considered obligatory, others are optional, permitting a choice on some days between two or three memorials, or between one or more memorials and the celebration of the feria. On a day to which no obligatory celebration is assigned, the Mass may be of any saint mentioned in the [[Roman Martyrology]] for that day.<ref>[http://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Resources/GIRM/Documents/GIRM.pdf General Instruction of the Roman Missal], 355 c</ref>

=====Assumption of Mary=====
{{Main|Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary}}
Observed by Catholics and some Anglicans on August 15, which is the same as the Eastern and Orthodox feast of the [[Dormition]], the end of the earthly life of the Virgin Mary and, for some, her bodily Assumption into heaven, is celebrated. The teaching on this [[Dogma in the Catholic Church|dogma]] was summmed by [[Pope Pius XII]] in his [[papal bull|bull]] ''[[Munificentissimus Deus]]'' of 1 November, 1950.

In other Anglican and Lutheran traditions, as well as a few others, August 15 is celebrated as St. Mary, Mother of the Lord.

''Liturgical colour'': white