Annunciation 2028: Date, History & Significance

The day is marked with a Mass and the Angelus, the prayer that recalls the exchange between Gabriel and Mary and is said at morning, noon and evening. Mary's 'yes' (fiat) is held up as the model of faith — a free human consent that made the Incarnation possible. Where 25 March falls in Holy Week or Easter Week, the feast is transferred.

Luke's Gospel: Gabriel came to Mary at Nazareth and said, 'Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you… you will conceive and bear a son, and call his name Jesus.' Mary asked how, since she was a virgin; the angel said the Holy Spirit would come upon her. She answered, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word,' and the angel left her.

Source: The Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles; the liturgical calendar of the Church

The feast is attested from the fifth–sixth century; 25 March was long kept as New Year's Day ('Lady Day') in parts of Europe. It is not a public holiday in India.

• Indian Christian community practice (Latin, Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara, CSI, CNI, Orthodox)
• The Roman Missal / liturgical calendars

1. Nine months before Christmas, churches celebrate the angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary that she would bear the Son of God, and her reply, 'Let it be done to me according to your word'.
2. Mass is celebrated with white vestments even though the feast falls in Lent; the Angelus prayer recalls the event every day.
3. Marian sodalities and convents hold special prayers, and in Kerala the day is Vachanippu perunnal.

• India-wide Christian communities. A Marian feast-day Mass and the Angelus; observed especially in Catholic and Orthodox parishes.

• A festive meal amid Lent — As a solemnity, the day lifts the Lenten abstinence for many families.

Annunciation falls on Saturday, 25 March 2028. The angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary; nine months before Christmas.

at sunrise

Annunciation is dated by 25 March (fixed) — nine months before Christmas. The movable feasts of the Christian year (Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost) are all reckoned from Easter, which is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox; the fixed feasts (Christmas, Epiphany, the Annunciation, All Saints and All Souls) keep the same civil date each year.

The date is set by the Hindu lunisolar calendar and shifts against the Gregorian year.