Liturgical Calendar
The liturgical year is the calendar of feast days and holidays observed by followers of the Catholic faith, corresponding to events in the Bible and the lives of saints. On these holy days, followers attend Mass and participate in rituals and ceremonies, during which specific hymns and psalms are often sung.
Holy Week
Holy week is the most significant period in the Christian calendar, as it commemorates Christ’s Passion. The most elaborate rituals are on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Palm Sunday celebrates Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. Riding on the back of an ass, Christ was welcomed into the city by devotees laying palm leaves in his path. During the Renaissance in many towns, the scene was reenacted with a sculpture of Christ on a donkey. The procession would begin on the outskirts of town and end in a church.
Maundy Thursday honours the Last Supper: the final time Christ dined with his disciples, when Christ instituted the Eucharist through the breaking of the bread and drinking of wine. On this day, special rituals are performed inside Catholic churches: the priest consecrates two Hosts, one which was reserved for communion during Mass that day, and another to be buried on Good Friday. Some confraternities in southern Italy perform self-flagellation on this day.
Good Friday is a particularly sorrowful day for Christians, as it commemorates Christ’s death on the Cross. No mass is celebrated, and rituals are performed to reenact the deposition of Christ from the cross. In Sardinia, confraternity members depose a statue of Christ from the crucifix, present the body to the Virgin Mary, and lay the body of Christ in a bier to enact the entombment. The bier is taken on procession at night.
Also on Good Friday elaborate displays, which include life-sized sculptures, are taken on procession during a festival known as the Procession of the Mysteries. The Procession of the Mysteries celebrates Christ’s Passion through a series of decorated floats. This festival is celebrated throughout the South of Italy and Spain.
The Tenebrae is also observed from Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday. This observance involves the singings of Matins and Lauds on Maundy Thursday while the church is fully lit with candles, and again on Good Friday, while candles are snuffed out one by one. On Holy Saturday, observances take place in total darkness, mourning the death of Christ.
Holy Saturday is reserved to mourn Jesus Christ. No Mass takes place on this day either.
Easter Sunday was and is the height of the celebration; Christ is resurrected, and festivities abound. An image of Christ is removed from the Sepulchre and is put out on display. This marks the end of the Holy Week.
Christmas
Christmas takes place on December 25th. It is one of the major holidays of the liturgical year, celebrating the birth of Jesus. Catholics attend Mass on Christmas Eve, December 24th, and on the 25th. Ceremonies are also performed on these days.
The Virgin Mary and Patron Saint Days
Several holy days honour the Virgin Mary. On August 15th, Catholics around the world observe the day of the Assumption, which recognizes the Virgin’s bodily assumption into heaven. In Italy, statues of the Virgin Mary are taken out on procession on this day. Followers engage in close contact with sculptures by touching them, donating offerings, and praying in front of them.
Towns also have special feast days dedicated to their patron saints. The Madonna di Bonaria, a sacred sculpture from Cagliari, Sardinia, is celebrated on April 24th and the first Sunday of July. The Madonna delle Grazie of Sassari is celebrated on May 1st and the last Sunday of May. Sant’ Efisio is also celebrated in Cagliari from May 1st to 4th each year.
Ariel Lacombe and Ilinca Stingaciu
Selected bibliography: Elizabeth Parker, “The Descent from the Cross: Its Relation to the Extra-Liturgical Depositio Drama,” PhD diss., (New York: New York University, 1975); R. W. Scribner, “Ritual and Popular Religion in Catholic Germany at the Time of the Reformation,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 35:1 (Jan. 1984) 47-77; John Harper, “Holy Week and Easter,” in The Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991): 139-152; Mario Atzori, Settimana Santa in Sardegna e Corsica (Sassari: Editrice Democratica Sarda, 2003).
Performing Devotion: The Ritual Uses of Sculpture from the Italian Renaissance to Today 
