Feasts & Holy Days
Upcoming Feast & Holy Day
The Catholic Church organizes its life around a cycle of feasts and remembrances that aims to sanctify certain times of the year and to regularly call to mind the life of Jesus and the witness of Mary and the saints. The liturgical calendar intensifies Catholic practice at certain times of the year, notably at the Nativity and during lent, Holy Week and Easter.
During the rest of the liturgical year, in "ordinary time," the impact of the liturgical calendar on ordinary lay Catholics varies significantly. Most saints' feasts typically go unnoticed by lay Catholics. But many dates in ordinary time take on special meaning in particular cultures, particularly on the feast days of patron saints, or on the dates that confraternities have long celebrated with special rituals and meals that make the days stand out.
This page does not seek to replicate the Church's liturgical calendars in various countries, but rather to organize a calendar of annual feasts and holy days as they are discussed thus far on the Catholics & Cultures site, with links to the pages that indicate how these days have particular meaning in certain places. Not all of the feasts below fall on the Church's formal liturgical calendar, but all are ones that are important as religious feasts to Catholics in countries around the world.
- ‘Jordan’ in Ukraine caps Christmas season with water, ice and festive family meals
- Carnival Burial
- Christmas, Advent & Epiphany
- Corpus Christi
- Dancing for the Virgin at La Tirana in Chile
- Devotion at Dhori Mata reflects North Indian cultural sensibilities
- Dhori Mata: India's Miraculous Mother of the Coalmines
- Easter
- Feast brings Saintes Maries and Sainte Sara to the sea in France
- Feast of Cristo Negro takes over church, neighborhood
- Feast of Gauchito Gil
- Feast of La Virgen de Itatí
- Feast of Niño Pepe part of Advent celebrations in El Salvador
- Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Feast of San Expedito
- Feast of San Sebastian y San Fabian features procession, prayer and fireworks
- Feast of Sankt Hans
- Feast of Santa Marian Kamalen honors Guam's patroness
- Feast of Señor y Virgen del Milagro unites Salteños in Argentina
- Feast of St. Sebastian
- Feast of the Assumption
- Feast of the Black Nazarene draws millions to Manila's streets
- Feast of the Holy Innocents
- Feast of the Immaculate Conception
- Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
- Feast of the Virgin of the 40 Hours
- Good Friday
- Holy Saturday
- Holy Thursday
- Holy Week & Easter
- Luciadag
- Meskel: Hugely popular Ethiopian feast of finding of the True Cross
- Obando Feast of the Three Saints and Fertility Dance
- Paixão de Cristo: Brazil stages star-studded passion play
- Palm Sunday
- Peñafrancia Festival & Divino Rostro feature novenas and fluvial procession
- Pentecost
- Reek Sunday: Hazardous pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick a means of prayer for Irish Catholics
- Santa Rosa de Lima
- Santo Niño and Sinulog show devotion to child Jesus
- Trinity Sunday
- Ugandan Martyrs' Feast