Feast of the Annunciation
- Feast date: March 25
- Also called: Annunciation of the Theotokos; The Annunciation of our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary; Solemnity of the Annunciation; Annunciation of the Lord; Lady Day
- Observed by: Western and Eastern churches
- Celebrates: The announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit, to be called Jesus (Luke 1:26–38)
- Related holidays: The Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (May 31)
What is the Annunciation?
When is the Feast of the Annunciation?
Why is the Annunciation on March 25?
What is another name for the Feast of the Annunciation?
What is the origin of the Annunciation?
Feast of the Annunciation, Christian feast day honoring the announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit, to be named Jesus. A major Marian feast, it is celebrated annually on March 25, nine months before Christmas. The celebration is especially significant in the Greek Orthodox Church, as March 25 also marks Greek Independence Day, the beginning of Greece’s struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire. The feast is not a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics.
The birth of Jesus foretold
The story of the Annunciation is told in the first chapter of the Gospel According to Luke, in which the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and announces that she will give birth to a son. Mary, a virgin, is initially perplexed by Gabriel’s pronouncement but ultimately accepts her heavenly responsibility, saying: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” The event sets in motion the birth of Jesus as the Incarnation of God and the redemption of the world through his death and resurrection.
Luke 1:26–38 reads as follows:
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In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
The Grotto of the Annunciation, the traditional location of Gabriel’s appearance to Mary, is housed within the Roman Catholic Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel. One of the largest Christian houses of worship in the Middle East, the church was completed in 1969 on the site of a previous church dating to 1730, atop a Crusader foundation. The grotto has part of a mosaic floor dating back to the 5th–6th century.
History and date of observance
No biblical or early historical sources specify the exact dates of Jesus’ birth, death, or Gabriel’s visit to Mary. By 354, however, Christmas was being celebrated on December 25 in Rome, placing Jesus’ conception nine months earlier on March 25. Early Christians also associated this date with Jesus’ death, a tradition recorded by St. Augustine. Formal observance of the Annunciation is attested by the 10th Council of Toledo (656) and the Quinisext Council, held in Constantinople in 692.
Although many early churches avoided feast days during Lent, exceptions were often made for the Annunciation, and some variation in observance still exists today. Under the traditional Ambrosian Rite in Milan, for example, the feast is celebrated on the last Sunday of Advent in December. The Armenian Apostolic Church observes it on April 7. In the Roman Catholic Church the feast is sometimes transferred to another date if March 25 coincides with a Sunday of Lent, Holy Week, or the Easter Octave (the eight days including and following Easter). The Feast of the Annunciation was a Roman Catholic holy day of obligation until 1918, when canon law reduced the number of obligatory feast days.
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The Annunciation in art
The Annunciation is a favorite subject of Christian art, with renditions in Roman catacombs dating to as early as the 4th century. Notable portrayals include versions by Leonardo da Vinci, who depicts Gabriel kneeling before Mary, proffering a lily; Jan van Eyck, whose version of Gabriel includes rainbow-tinted wings; Fra Angelico, who painted a towering Gabriel bowing before a seated Mary; and Domenico Veneziano, whose altarpiece pairs the Annunciation with other biblical vignettes. Symbols representing Mary’s purity, including lilies, enclosed spaces, and locked doors, appear across these and other artistic renderings, and the Holy Spirit is often depicted as a dove or divine light.
