Feasts/solemnities etc
  • ViolaViola
    Posts: 411
    Sorry if this has already been covered, but please could someone explain the differences between solemnities/feasts/memorials and anything else of relevance, and the implications for music.
    I'm confused.

    Thanks in anticipation.
  • donr
    Posts: 971
    Solemnity (From Latin solet and annus — a yearly celebration).

    The word solemnity is here used to denote the amount of intrinsic or extrinsic pomp with which a feast is celebrated. Intrinsic solemnity arises from the fact that the feast is primarium for the entire Church or for a special place, because in it a saint was born, lived or died; or because his relics are honoured there. Extrinsic solemnity is added by feriatio, by the numbers of sacred ministers, decorations of the church or adjoining streets, the ringing of bells, the number of candles, costly vestments, etc. In the Roman Martyrology Easter Sunday is announced as the solemnity of solemnities; the first Sunday of October, as the solemnity of the Rosary of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. The term solemnity is also used in contracts, especially matrimony, in votive Masses, in vows, and in ecclesiastical trials.
    Thanked by 1Viola
  • donr
    Posts: 971
    Feast (Latin Festum; Greek heorte).

    Feast Days, or Holy Days, are days which are celebrated in commemoration of the sacred mysteries and events recorded in the history of our redemption, in memory of the Virgin Mother of Christ, or of His apostles, martyrs, and saints, by special services and rest from work. A feast not only commemorates an event or person, but also serves to excite the spiritual life by reminding us of the event it commemorates. At certain hours Jesus Christ invites us to His vineyard (Matthew 20:1-15); He is born in our hearts at Christmas; on Good Friday we nail ourselves to the cross with Him; at Easter we rise from the tomb of sin; and at Pentecost we receive the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Every religion has its feasts, but none has such a rich and judiciously constructed system of festive seasons as the Catholic Church. The succession of these seasons form the ecclesiastical year, in which the feasts of Our Lord form the ground and framework, the feasts of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints the ornamental tracery.
    Thanked by 1Viola
  • donr
    Posts: 971
    The above were definitions from the Catholic Encyclopedia at NewAdent.com http://newadvent.com/cathen/
    Thanked by 1Viola
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    This is the basic reading, The General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar (1969). It explains the relationship of the various kinds of liturgical days and seasons.

    http://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Resources/GIRM/Documents/GNLY.pdf

    Understand that every Sunday of the year ranks *at least* as a feast of the Lord - a weekly recycle of Easter, the ever-recurring Eighth Day. Sometimes, a greater observance takes precedence, but that's the most basic reason why Sundays are by their very nature more festal in character than other days of the week.
    Thanked by 1eft94530
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Are there others who have sat bemusedly astonished and scratching their heads when one lone priest dawdles up to the altar and announces that 'today is the solemnity of such and such..', and proceeds to say (not sing) the mass without incense, a slew of acolytes, deacons, and attendant solemnitas, etc., as if it were just another mass?

    One learnt long ago that every Sunday is a little Easter, and that a solemnity was all but on the level of Christmas and Easter in its liturgical splendour. One has observed that all but a very few priests know this - (or even care).
    Thanked by 6CHGiffen Andrew_Malton Gregory_the_Eremite ZacPB189 JulieColl eft94530
Add a Comment