Octave of Christmas - Solemnities?
  • Andrew Motyka
    Posts: 944
    While I am not very learned in the Extraordinary Form, I am a geek when it comes to the post-conciliar calendar. Is Fr. Z right about this:

    http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/12/quaeritur-friday-abstinence-in-the-octave-of-christmas-or-meats-back-on-the-menu-boys/#comments

    Is each day in the Octave of Christmas, like Easter, a Solemnity? I was always under the understanding that today, for example, was a Feast.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    The General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar says:
    35. Christmas has its own octave, arranged as follows:

    a. Sunday within the octave is the feast of the Holy Family;

    b. 26 December is the feast of Saint Stephen, First Martyr;

    c. 27 December is the feast of Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist;

    d. 28 December is the feast of the Holy Innocents;

    e. 29, 30, and 31 December are days within the octave;

    f. 1 January, the octave day of Christmas, is the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. It also recalls the conferral of the holy Name of Jesus.

    On the other hand, it says explicitly that the days of the Easter octave are celebrated as solemnities.
  • Andrew Motyka
    Posts: 944
    I'm having parallel discussions about this both here and on Facebook. I agree with your assessment, Richard. This article:

    http://catholicism.about.com/b/2011/12/30/when-is-a-friday-not-a-friday.htm

    also addresses the topic, claiming that "The Church treats every day during the octave of a feast as if it were the feast itself."

    While this is an interesting thought, and one that is likely true, I can't find any actual documents supporting it re: the post-conciliar calendar.
  • Andrew Motyka
    Posts: 944
    P.S. It is important that I get a definite verdict on this as lunch is in a half hour and I want -nay- need to eat meat.
  • JahazaJahaza
    Posts: 468
    USCCB Calendar: Today is a Novus Ordo feast.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    Yeah, today is easy: Dec. 28, Holy Innocents, is a feast. Tomorrow isn't as obvious.
  • JahazaJahaza
    Posts: 468
    Definitely. The optional memorials in the Octave have the interesting property of taking the collect (and only the collect?) from the optional memorial, but the rest of the texts from the Mass of the Day.
    355. On Optional Memorials,

    a) On the weekdays of Advent from December 17 to December 24, on days within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord, and on the weekdays of Lent, except Ash Wednesday and during Holy Week, the Mass texts for the current liturgical day are used; but the Collect may be taken from a Memorial which happens to be inscribed in the General Calendar for that day, except on Ash Wednesday and during Holy Week. On weekdays of Easter Time, Memorials of Saints may rightly be celebrated in full.
    But looking at the table of liturgical days, days within the Octave are just that and not solemnities.
  • Andrew Motyka
    Posts: 944
    Exactly, Richard. How we are to treat the 29-31 is a good indicator for how the entire octave is treated regarding solemnity.

    NOTE: according to the Missal, there is a Gloria tomorrow, but no Creed, which is similar to how a Feast, not a Solemnity, is celebrated.
  • igneusigneus
    Posts: 354
    The answer is in the Table of Liturgical Days (in General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar; see the bottom of the page).

    Days of the Octave of Nativity have lower rank than feasts, higher than memorials according to the current liturgical law.
    Thanked by 1Ioannes Andreades
  • Andrew Motyka
    Posts: 944
    There it is! Thanks, igneus. That's exactly what I was looking for.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,696
    Prior to the removal of the Christmas Sequence, was it sung on all of the days of the octave as the Easter Sequence (optionally) is?
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,945
    The Christmas Octave always ranked lower than the octaves of Easter, Pentecost and Epiphany precisely because it is studded with proper feasts of ancient standing. Also, the twelve days of Christmas functioned to displace the real sense of an octave for Christmas, other than the octave day itself.
  • Pedro d'Aquino
    Posts: 128
    You will note that the original post on Fr Z's blog has been removed. In this case the old and new calendars agree that the days within the Octave of Christmas (save the octave day itself) are of the 2nd class (i.e. feasts) and not solemnities (1st class), and therefore do not exempt from the general law of abstinence in Can. 1251 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
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