Octave (liturgy)

Octave (from Latin octavus 'the eighth' ) in the Catholic liturgy refers to the eighth day ( octave day ) after a solemn festival in the church year , which is celebrated as its aftermath and conclusion, as well as the eight days ( octave ) from the festival to its octave day. It is counted according to the historical inclusive count, which includes the octave day as the eighth day; the day of the octave falls on the same day of the week as the solemn festival.

Roman Catholic Church

Since the 13th century, all major festivals have had an octave. From 1955, the number was greatly reduced, and the basic order of the church year that came into force in 1969 , through which the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council was implemented, only provides for two octaves: the Easter and Christmas octaves .

Easter octave

Each of the first eight days of Easter - the Easter octave between Easter Sunday and White Sunday - is celebrated like a solemn festival and has its own liturgical texts. In the Masses of the week, the chapter on working days in the first reading 2 to 4 of the Acts as a train reading read as gospel the appearance of reports of the risen Christ: Mt from 28.8 to 19  EU , Jn 20.11 to 18  EU , Lk 24.13–35  EU , Lk 24.35–48  EU , Joh 21.1–14  EU , Mk 16.9–15  EU .

Christmas octave

Christmas has an octave in which the following feasts with liturgical texts from the feast of saints fall:

• On December 25th, the feast of the birth of the Lord
• On December 26th the feast of St. Martyr Stephen .
• On December 27th the feast of St. Evangelists and Apostle John .
• On December 28th the festival of the Innocent Children .
• The 29th, 30th and 31st of December are days in the octave, the liturgical texts of the daily mass are taken from the masses at Christmas.
• On Sunday in the octave is the feast of the Holy Family . If December 25th falls on a Sunday, the Feast of the Holy Family is celebrated on December 30th.
• On January 1st, the day of the octave (formerly also the day of consecration ), the solemnity of the Mother of God Mary ( New Year ) and the naming of Jesus, in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, the feast of the circumcision of the Lord .

Orthodox churches

In the church year of the Orthodox Church , only Easter has an octave; Christmas there lasts two weeks until the theophany on January 6th. In the Easter octave and the two weeks after Christmas there are no fasting days due to the festive character . Other festivals do not have an octave among the Orthodox.

Derived usage

The octaves after numerous saints' feasts, customary since the High Middle Ages, ceased to exist from around 1955 as a result of the liturgical reorganization . In popular piety , local festival weeks for saints and patronage festivals are sometimes still referred to as octaves , for example the "Anna octave" with Annakirmes in Düren , the pilgrimage octave for St. Judas Thaddäus in Heisterbacherrott , the Gezelin octave in Leverkusen- Schlebusch or the octave of the Mother of God in Luxembourg .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jürgen Bärsch : Octave . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 7 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1998, Sp. 1016 .
2. ↑ Hansjörg Auf der Maur: Celebrating in the rhythm of time I. Gentlemen's festivals in the week and year. Regensburg 1983, ISBN 3-7917-0788-4 ( Church service. Handbook of liturgical science. Part 5), pp. 85.118.138f.
3. ↑ City of Düren ( Memento of the original from April 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; St. Lukas Düren ( Memento of the original from November 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Places of pilgrimage in the Archdiocese of Cologne ( Memento of the original from April 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.