Sunday observed as Lord's Day; some churches follow Julian calendar feast days
Eastern Catholic churches observe Sunday (the first day of the week, the Day of Resurrection) as the Lord's Day—the primary day of worship and Eucharistic celebration. Saturday retains significance in the Eastern liturgical tradition as the 'day of the departed' (commemorating the dead) and as a day of liturgical prayer, but Sunday is the central Christian observance and is not the Jewish Sabbath.
A distinctive feature of many Byzantine Rite communities is adherence to the Julian calendar for the calculation of feasts, meaning that Christmas, Theophany, and other fixed feasts fall on dates different from those observed by Western Christians using the Gregorian calendar. Other Eastern Catholic churches have adopted the Revised Julian or Gregorian calendar. The liturgical calendar is extremely rich, with daily commemorations of saints and seasonal fasts.
Key Distinctions
- Day observed:
- Sunday (first day of the week / Lord's Day)
- Observance theology:
- worship-focused gathering; not a strict legal rest
- Binding on christians:
- moral principle of rest honored; specific day fulfilled in Christ
Scripture References
Sources
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§2174–2188
- Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO, 1990), Canons 880–895
- Vatican II, Orientalium Ecclesiarum (1964), §§20–21