Why don't we have a grander celebration for the feast of the Annunciation?

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Didn’t the first day of the year used to be March 25th, as a sort of combination Lady Day/First Day of Spring?

At one point, the Council of Tours (567) abolished January 1st as the New Year. Sometimes it was December 25th (Christmas), sometimes it was March 1st (a la the Roman style in some periods), sometimes it was March 25th (Lady Day/Annunciation), sometimes it was Easter (which wasn’t so great, since it moved all over the place).

Sometimes, Annunciation was used as the start of the legal year (kind of like how a lot of people use October 1st as the beginning of their fiscal year), and it was a day for contracts and hiring and rents. (The other Quarter-Days were Midsummer’s Day, Michaelmas, and Christmas.)

At one point, the Annunciation was celebrated on April 5th (before the calendar change).

But the Annunciation and Michaelmas used to be celebrated with the same dignity as Christmas and Easter, and both used to be Holy Days of Obligation.

I want to say that in the Byzantine Church-- if it happens to fall on Good Friday, the Feast of the Annunciation is celebrated, because they don’t transfer feasts from one day to another. (They split the day-- Annunciation in the morning, and Good Friday in the afternoon.)
 
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Attend a Byzantine or Ukrainian Greek Catholic church. We celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation even when it falls on Great & Holy Friday (Good Friday) like it did in 2016:

lit.royaldoors.net

March 25, 2016 Great and Holy Friday and Annunciation of the Mother of God

Great Vespers and the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom with the Procession and Laying Out of the Holy Shroud At Psalm 140 In Tone 1 Lead my soul forth from prison* that I may give thanks to Yo…
lit.royaldoors.net
 
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In the Archeparchy of Philadelphia, we did the opposite 2 years ago. See my reply to OP.
 
Annunciation used to be the start of the European financial year

The financial year started on the Annunciation?!?
 
It IS a Holy Day of Obligation and one of the Twelve Great Feasts in the Byzantine and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Churches. Please see my reply to OP too.
 
Why is it transferred during Passion Week, Week and the week after Pascha/Easter? That really irks me.
 
Margaret_Ann said:
It IS a Holy Day of Obligation and one of the Twelve Great Feasts in the Byzantine and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Churches. Please see my reply to OP too.
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I did not know that, and I thank you for pointing it out. Has it made a difference in people’s understanding of the significance of the the Annunciation?
Theo2 said:
I would like to see the pastor ask the parish to show up at morning mass and educate more people what the feast is all about.
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It’s an intriguing thought. Perhaps your pastor would be willing to extend this invitation? Our previous pastor would always expound on a feast’s significance during his homily on the day, and even if the feast fell on a weekday we’d get perhaps 5-20 more people attending than usual (depending upon the feast in question), but that doesn’t represent any notable increase over the number we would ordinarily welcome.

In my own parish, getting people to come to Mass in great numbers has largely failed unless it’s either Sunday or the feast is an HDO. We’ve even tried to schedule events before and after Mass on Sundays and HDOs but people would only come for the Mass.

I like the idea of splitting the day when the Annunciation falls on Good Friday, but most people in this parish skip the Good Friday liturgy as it is. Adding the non-obligatory celebration of the Annunciation would just give them a second thing to skip, which wouldn’t do anything to increase awareness of the Annunciation’s importance.
 
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lilypadrees said:
Would Our Lady have wanted a grander celebration?
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The answer is yes. Because it is not about Mary, it is about the son of God taking on human flesh and being present on this earth in human form, the Incarnation.
 
Yes, it is about the Son of God. But His Mother would not have wanted a celebration at all. She, being very humble of heart and obedient to God’s Will, would have done exactly what she did without fanfare. Only those God wanted to know knew the truth.

It is we who want the celebrations of these events. It is we who celebrate these events and all the feast days of the Saints.
 
Its proximity to St. Patrick’s Day, which has a great deal of significance here in America, makes it pretty hard to get people really excited just a week after.
 
UpUpAndAway said:
I like the idea of splitting the day when the Annunciation falls on Good Friday,
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Celebrations, liturgies, etc during the Triduum are very specific about what is permitted and what is not permitted. A Latin Rite parish is not allowed to simply decide to split Good Friday with even a celebration as important as the Annunciation.

Only one liturgy is permitted on Good Friday, Adoration (with exposition) is not permitted on Good Friday, it is the only day of the year when we do not have a Mass.

Not sure how one could “split the day”.
 
TheLittleLady said:
Celebrations, liturgies, etc during the Triduum are very specific about what is permitted and what is not permitted. A Latin Rite parish is not allowed to simply decide to split Good Friday with even a celebration as important as the Annunciation.

Only one liturgy is permitted on Good Friday, Adoration (with exposition) is not permitted on Good Friday, it is the only day of the year when we do not have a Mass.

Not sure how one could “split the day”.
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Agree. No mass on Good Friday.

Perhaps the “Angelus” at dawn followed by a light breakfast before going home to prepare for the Good Friday liturgy.
 
Angel_Gabriel said:
I know that in the Latin Church it is often overlooked b/c it falls during Lent. This was especially seen the past few years when it fell on Good Friday
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That happened, what, two years ago (and won’t again until the 22d century).

I don’t know about the West, but the East actually has very specific rules for this.

The feast (whose observance is older “trumps” Good Friday, and even fasting (😱).

We printed (and, bizarrely, saved for “next time” !) folder-bound liturgical texts that won’t be used in our children’s lifetimes . . .

Normally, are Holy Table and the side tables have two sets of furnishings on Good Friday–the black over the white. During the Saturday evening liturgy, the black is removed.

For this special occurrence, we had the blue coverings over the black over the white . . . we switched the blue out after the Marian observances and before going into the Good Friday portions which were incorporated into the Divine Liturgy (normally, we fast from the DL itself on lenten weekdays, having only the Wednesday and Friday presanctified liturgies (except, of course, for the Institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, of course [for which normal lenten fasting rules applies . . .]).

Also, after removing the blue fittings from the altar, the priest changed from blue to black vestment, and the altar servers from white to dark red sticharion.

hawk
 
I think we ended up observing it as a vigil during holy thursday. I can’t remember for certain though … I do know that this year with it being on palm sunday our priest wore blue vestments and used the Annunciation readings.
 
I’m well aware that this isn’t possible in the Latin Church, but apparently it is in the Eastern Catholic rites and that’s what I find intriguing. I was not campaigning for a similar practice to be adopted in the West. Sorry for being unclear.
 
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The Mass cannot be celebrated on Good Friday period in the Latin Church…so it definitely would not work to combine the two liturgical days for us.
 
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