Liturgical App is a set of components that can be used to find information about the liturgical calendar of the Church of England, including liturgical colours, and saints' days.
Most people will probably want to go straight to the Liturgical App.
If you're interested in the Liturgical project, read on! So far, we have completed the following components:
- liturgical-calendar, a Python library to calculate the dates and colours
- liturgical-api, a small API server to return data from the library
- liturgical-app, a simple web app to display liturgical colours from the API
- charts, Helm charts to install these components on Kubernetes
In the future we hope to work on:
- a Wordpress plugin to display liturgical colours on Wordpress-based sites, which many churches use
- an Alexa skill so people can ask their Amazon Echo for liturgical information
- a Home Assistant integration to display liturgical colours on smart lighting
Most churches use a special church calendar. Days and seasons within the year may be either "fasts" (solemn times) or "feasts" (joyful times). The year is structured around the greatest feast in the calendar, the festival of the Resurrection of Jesus, known as Easter, and the second greatest feast, the festival of the Nativity of Jesus, known as Christmas. Before Christmas and Easter there are solemn fast seasons known as Advent and Lent respectively. After Christmas comes the feast of Epiphany, and after Easter comes the feast of Pentecost. These days have the adjacent seasons named after them.
The church's new year falls on Advent Sunday, which occurs around the start of December. Then follows the four-week fast season of Advent, then comes the Christmas season, which lasts twelve days; then comes Epiphany, then the forty days of Lent. Then comes Easter, then the long season of Pentecost (which some churches call Trinity, after the feast which falls soon after Pentecost). Then the next year begins and we return to Advent again.
Along with all these, the church remembers the women and men who have made a positive difference in church history by designating feast days for them, usually on the anniversary of their death. For example, we remember St. Andrew on the 30th day of November in the Western churches. Every Sunday is the feast day of Jesus, and if it has no other name is numbered according to the season in which it falls. So, for example, the third Sunday in Pentecost season would be called Pentecost 3.
Seasons are traditionally assigned colours, which are used for clothing and other materials. The major feasts are coloured white or gold. Fasts are purple. Feasts for martyrs (people who died for their faith) are red. Other days are green.
We are two volunteers in the UK, working on this project for fun and in the hope it will be interesting or useful to someone. We will gladly accept offers of help, and new ideas. Please drop us an issue in one of the repositories.