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Missale quotidianum

The Daily Missal

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Dies festi de praecepto

Holy days of obligation 2020 United States

Besides every Sunday, the Church in the United States keeps five holy days of obligation. In 2020, three of them bind on a weekday: Catholics go to Mass that day, or at a vigil Mass the evening before.

  • Wednesday 1 January

    Mary, the Holy Mother of God

  • Saturday 15 August

    The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

    Falls on a Saturday this year, so it is kept but Mass is not of obligation.

  • Sunday 1 November

    All Saints

    Falls on a Sunday this year.

  • Tuesday 8 December

    The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, patronal feast of the United States

    A day of obligation on any weekday, Saturday and Monday included.

  • Friday 25 December

    The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

Not holy days of obligation in the United States

  • The Ascension: on the Seventh Sunday of Easter, except in the ecclesiastical provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Omaha and Philadelphia, which keep it, and its obligation, on the Thursday forty days after Easter.
  • The Epiphany: on the Sunday between 2 and 8 January.
  • The Body and Blood of Christ: on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday.
  • Saint Joseph (19 March) and Saints Peter and Paul (29 June): not days of obligation.
  • In the State of Hawaii only the Immaculate Conception and Christmas are holy days of obligation.

How the rules work

Canon law names ten holy days for the whole Church and lets each bishops’ conference move some of them to a Sunday or lift the obligation, so the list differs from country to country. Some conferences also move a holy day that falls on a Saturday or a Monday to the Sunday beside it, or keep the feast but lift the obligation that year.

When the calendar itself moves a holy day — the Immaculate Conception off a Sunday of Advent, Saint Joseph off a Sunday of Lent or out of Holy Week — the Dicastery for Divine Worship ruled in January 2025 that the obligation does not move with it.

Dioceses can grant their own dispensations in a particular year; your parish will say. See also the liturgical year 2020 and the ranks of celebrations.

Sources