Why is the Feast of the Annunciation celebrated on March 25?

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Antonello da Messina: Madonna and Child — Mary *Madonna and Child*, oil and tempera on panel by Antonello da Messina, 1475; in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

The Feast of the Annunciation is celebrated on March 25 because it marks the traditional date of the Virgin Mary’s consent to the Incarnation of Jesus.12

This date was established by calculating nine months—the approximate period of human gestation—prior to Christmas on December 25. Early Christian historians, such as Sextus Julius Africanus, used this logic to link the date of the Annunciation to the birth of Christ. Additionally, some early traditions associated March 25 with the date of Jesus' death, further cementing its significance in the liturgical calendar.1342