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Epiphany
Annunciation of the Lord
Also called: Lady Day, Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Feast of the Annunciation, Baggaladà (Coptic), Annunciazione (Italian)
March 25 (fixed)
CatholicEastern OrthodoxAnglicanLutheranMethodist
Nine months before Christmas, Christians remember the day the angel Gabriel told Mary she would become the mother of Jesus — celebrated on 25 March. It is a major feast in Catholic and Orthodox calendars and a public holiday in some countries.
Artists from Leonardo da Vinci to countless school nativity plays have depicted the scene. Pilgrims visit Nazareth, where tradition says the announcement took place.
Eden lists Holy Land tours that include Nazareth.
At a glance
- Type
- solemnity
- Date type
- Fixed (same date every year)
- Regions
- Global
- Themes
- Mary, Birth of Christ, Life of Christ
- Liturgical colour
- White
Common questions
Annunciation of the Lord is observed on March 25 (fixed). Moveable feasts shift each year; fixed feasts stay on the same calendar date.
The feast commemorating the archangel Gabriel's announcement to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and bear the Son of God (Luke 1:26–38), and her "fiat" ("Be it done to me according to your word"). March 25 is exactly nine months before December 25 (Christmas), symbolizing that Christ was conceived on this date. In England, "Lady Day" was historically a quarter-day and the date on which the
It is associated with Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist. It falls in the Lent, Epiphany season of the liturgical year.