Catholic feast days are special days when Catholics celebrate important events o…
However, within Catholicism, feast days have a formal liturgical aspect, and they can be categorised into three levels of significance.
The highest level is 🆂🅾🅻🅴🅼🅽🅸🆃🅸🅴🆂, which commemorate the most significant events in the life of Jesus, his Mother, and other important figures in salvation history. Solemnities take precedence over other liturgical celebrations, except for certain Sundays. Some solemnities, like Christmas and Easter, are holy days of obligation. Mass on solemnities includes three readings, the recitation of the Creed, and the Gloria. Abstinence from meat on Fridays may be dispensed for the sake of the celebration of a solemnity.
🅼🅴🅼🅾🆁🅸🅰🅻🆂 are the lowest level of feast days when it is not celebrated as a solemnity or feast. They are the most common way of remembering saints and events in the Catholic Church. Memorials can be obligatory or optional. Obligatory memorials replace the regular readings and prayers at Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours, while optional memorials are left to the discretion of the celebrant.
These memorials are not the same as what we normally note as memorial masses for our dearly departed. An example of a memorial is the memorial of St. Anthony of Padua or St. Anne. Memorials are superseded by Sundays, solemnities, and feasts.
🅵🅴🅰🆂🆃🆂 fall in the middle of the hierarchy and commemorate events in the life of Jesus, some feasts of Mary, Apostles, Evangelists, and other important figures of the early Church. Feasts include two readings, special prayers, and the recitation of the Gloria. Only feasts of the Lord take precedence over the Sunday liturgy.