Annunciation
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In Christianity, the Annunciation is the revelation to Mary, the mother of Jesus by the archangel Gabriel that she would conceive a child to be born the Son of God. The Christian churches celebrate this with the feast of Annunciation on March 25, which is nine months before the feast of the Nativity of Jesus, or Christmas. The date of the Annunciation was also the New Year in many places, including England (where it is called Lady Day) and the American colonies.
The Annunciation in the Bible
The archangel Gabriel was sent to Nazareth in Galilee, to the virgin Mary, and announced to her that I had been chosen by God to bear His son, Jesus. I asked how that would be, since although she was pledged to be married to Saint Joseph,I was pledged to remain a virgin. The angel replied thatI would conceive through the Holy Spirit.I consented, saying "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."
Eastern traditions
In Eastern Orthodoxy Mary is referred to as Theotokos. This is a traditional Eastern Orthodox hymn for the day of the Annunciation:
- Today is the beginning of our salvation,
- The revelation of the eternal mystery!
- The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin
- As Gabriel announces the coming of Grace.
- Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos:
- Rejoice, O Full of Grace,
- The Lord is with You!
Related dates
In the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, the feast is moved if necessary to prevent it from either falling on a Sunday, or during Holy Week or the week in which Easter occurs. To avoid a Sunday, the previous Saturday (March 24) would be observed instead, and in years when March 25 falls during Holy Week or Easter Week the Annunciation is moved to the Monday after Low Sunday, which is the Sunday after Easter (if the Feast of St. Joseph, normally falling on March 19, must also be moved to a later date as a consequence of Easter falling on one of its earliest possible dates, the Annunciation is transferred to the Tuesday after Low Sunday, with the feast of St. Joseph on the Monday).
The date is close to the vernal equinox, as Christmas is to the winter solstice; because of this the Annunciation and Christmas were two of the four "Quarter days" in medieval and early modern England, which marked the divisions of the fiscal year (the other two were Midsummer Day, or the Nativity of St. John the Baptist - June 24 - and Michaelmas, the feast day of St. Michael, on September 29).
The first authentic allusions to it are in a canon, of the council of Toledo (656), and another of the council of Constantinople "in Trullo" (692), forbidding the celebration of all festivals in Lent, excepting the Lord's day and the Feast of the Annunciation. An earlier origin has been claimed for it on the ground that it is mentioned in sermons of Athanasius and of Gregory Thaumaturgus, but both of these documents are now admitted to be spurious. A synod held at Worcester, England (1240), forbade all servile work on this feast day. See further Lady Day.
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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See also
- Annunciade, orders instituted with a view of the Annunciation
External links
- 'The Annunciation' by Edward Burne-Jones at the Lady Lever Art Gallery
- Read the account (Luke Ch.1 26-55) at Bible Gateway (various versions)
- The Annunciation Icons (mostly Russian)
- Feast of the Annunciation at the Catholic Encyclopedia