Why Does the Church Transfer Feasts?

by Gunther Simmermacher · October 10, 2023

Question: Why does the Church transfer our great solemnities, such as the Ascension in May or the Assumption of Our Lady in August, to the following Sunday? Why can’t we just keep celebrating them on the actual date?

Answer: Southern Africa’s bishops decided to transfer feasts that are holy days of obligation — such as those of the Ascension, the Assumption or the Epiphany — from weekdays to Sundays to meet a pastoral need. Due to work and family commitments, or because of long distances to the nearest church, many people are unable to attend Mass on holy days of obligation when those fall on weekdays.

Since Catholics are obliged to attend Mass on Sundays, a day when most Catholics have more time than they have during the week, the risk of missing the obligation to attend Mass is diminished when feasts are transferred from weekdays to Sundays.

In many traditionally Catholic countries, feasts such as the Ascension or the Assumption are still public holidays (a term derived from exactly such holy days of obligation), making it possible for the faithful to celebrate them on the given day, often with processions and other public shows of devotion. However, in countries where such days are not public holidays, like South Africa or the United States, these feasts often are transferred.

What really counts is not when these feasts are observed but the spirit in which they are celebrated. In a Southern Cross article published in 2016, Bishop Edward Risi of Keimoes-Upington, then in charge of the bishops’ liturgy department, suggested that transferred feasts might be seen as an opportunity to have two bites of the holy cherry: on the actual feast day, and then again on the Sunday to which the feast is moved.

The bishops “encourage priests and laity to use the traditional days of the solemnities for celebrations in Catholic schools, institutions like hospitals and old age homes”, Bishop Risi said at the time. It is up to the parishes to offer Masses for the feast days on their actual day, using the particular liturgy — and if this is not offered, for parishioners to ask their priest to do so.

However, this has to be made more explicit. The bishops ought to explain the reasons for transferring the solemnities more widely and repeatedly, even to priests, also giving guidance as to the correct use of liturgy on the actual feast day. That would go a long way to avoiding confusion and misgivings about the transferring of feast days.

Asked and answered in the August 2023 issue of The Southern Cross magazine