“The Christian year, sometimes called the church year or the liturgical year, is a centuries-old way that many Christians have ordered the 365-day year. It depends, not on the positions of the sun and moon, nor on the start and end of school, nor on the requirements of the IRS, but rather on key aspects of the life of Christ that are coordinated with the solar calendar. The major holidays (literally, holy days) in the church year are Christmas (December 25), Good Friday and Easter (in the spring, dated according to Jewish Passover), and Pentecost (seven weeks after Easter). Every other special day or season fits around these crucial days (Advent, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Palm Sunday, Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, etc.).”
Mark D. Roberts, www.patheos.com
My forays into the Christian year have been very gradual. Although it is widely observed in Catholicism, Orthodox churches, and many Protestant denominations, my own (Evangelical) church background only really celebrates Christmas and Easter. When we do observe Advent and Lent, we often see them merely as a way to prepare our hearts for the upcoming major celebration, as opposed to being valuable as distinct seasons. This was certainly the case for me! I was motivated to begin observing Advent by a growing hollowness that I felt after Christmas, each year. My heart wasn’t responding to Jesus’ birth with the enthusiasm that my mind knew it deserved. And so I began using a wonderful Jesuit Advent devotional / prayer guide to become more engaged in this “most wonderful time of the year.”
In seminary, then, I learned that this is only one of several sacred seasons in the Christian year, all of which help us tell and live into the great story of God’s redemption. Historically, the first (specifically) Christian holiday was Easter, and then around this day developed other sacred days and seasons that each emphasized a different aspect of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. It was here that I came to appreciate the potential in the rhythms of the Christian year to shape my own family’s faith formation.
I love the way it helps us both teach and practice several important aspects of redemption’s story. First we teach. As previously noted, the Christian year developed around Easter. Similarly, Jesus’ victory over sin and death in His resurrection is the central historical event as well as theological conviction upon which our faith rests. That said, it is not the only feature worth remembering. 
The Christian year equips me to nourish my family’s faith like my kids’ Planetboxes help me pack well balanced meals. Both encourage creativity within specific categories. When packing my kids’ lunches, I don’t accidentally put a starch in every compartment because I know the purpose of each space. This is where I put a veggie. This is where we put fruit. This is where I put their treat. Before I got their lunchboxes I had to think a lot harder about what should go in each container. Similarly, the structure of the Christian year makes it easier to give appropriate attention to the various aspects of our faith, thus protecting us from the spiritual malnutrition that I believe comes from turning each special day into a story about Jesus coming to die for our sin.
As important as all of this is, however, the liturgical calendar isn’t just a patterned way of teaching important truths; it moves us to actually practice them. For example, during Advent we don’t just talk about darkness and light. We literally sit in darkness while celebrating glimmers of twinkling lights. In our home we put up our tree and light it in preparation for Advent, but we then practice waiting by not fully decorating it until Christmas Eve. Similarly, during Lent we actually confess our sin.
This “practicing” of our faith shapes us in two ways. First, proficiency in any area of life is dependent on practice. Whether it is learning to play an instrument or a sport, one cannot master anything by simply reading and talking about it. Furthermore, playing excellently becomes easier when muscle memory can take over. Through the Christian year, we can regularly practice the Christian habits of grieving, confessing, abstaining, repenting, waiting, hoping, celebrating, sharing, and witnessing, just to name a few. This practice builds these particular muscles so that we are prepared to engage them when they are called for in our everyday lives.
Just as my kids’ lunches can be unbalanced, so young athletes risk injury if they develop only one muscle group to the detriment of the rest. Similarly, our faith suffers when we are well practiced at grieving without really knowing how to celebrate. Or we can be well practiced at celebrating God’s victory and salvation, but not as comfortable mourning, grieving, or expressing anger when confronted with the depth of this world’s brokenness. But our kids will face this brokenness; the Christian year can train them to recognize hope in its midst.
Secondly, I am convinced by the research of Dr. James Smith, who teaches that what we think isn’t as powerful as what we do in shaping our deepest desires (which then shape our identities). So if our goal is to be transformed more and more into the image of Christ, intentionally chosen practices can have a profound impact on how much of this transformation we actually experience.
This is why we celebrate. So, what do we teach and practice during each season?
The Church year begins 4 Sundays before Christmas. Advent means “coming.” This is the season that we have set aside to reflect on the darkness of our world as we wait for the light of Christ. We remember Jesus’ coming as a baby in Bethlehem. We reflect on God’s presence in our own lives and world, today. And we look forward to Christ’s second coming when he will wipe away every tear and the darkness will be defeated forever. Themes of Advent include longing, waiting, watchfulness, and hope.
Christmas, then, is when we spend two full weeks celebrating the mystery of the incarnation. We consider what it means that God became one of us, taking on our mortality, so that we could be not just restored to our original glory as creatures made in God’s image, but even more than this as the eternal bride of Christ!
Epiphany is the day when we focus on the visit of the magi and God’s desire that the gospel be proclaimed throughout the world.
The season of Lent began as a time of sober reflection in preparation for baptism (which happened on Easter), during the first several centuries of Christianity, when converts understood that decision could result in martyrdom. It has obviously come to mean different things, but its themes still include fasting, repentance, human limitations, and mortality.
During Holy week we emphasize Jesus’ kingship on Palm Sunday, followed by his servanthood and love on Maundy Thursday, and finally our atonement through his sacrificial death on Friday.
Easter is then a 50 day period when we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, along with the early Church’s hope that “God was going to do for the whole cosmos what he had done for Jesus at Easter” (NT Wright’s Surprised by Hope, 93).
The conclusion of this season is Pentecost. On this Sunday we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which both birth to and empowers the new Church to fulfill Jesus’ great commission in the world.
Finally we enter back into Ordinary time, which is named such from the Latin “ordinal time,” which simply means that they are the numbered weeks between Pentecost and Advent. They are generally given to themes of discipleship, following Jesus in the everyday, and growing in faith.
Of course there are other special days, but these are some primary ones. Like I said, we’ve entered into them gradually. My prayer is that you will feel free to do the same, while also catching a vision for how they might help your families better tell and live into God’s great story.