Choosing your local calendar

Across the world, the liturgical calendar has variations. Take St Patrick as an example. In much of the world it is optional to commemorate him if his feast day, 17 March, falls on a weekday, and he is omitted altogether if it is a Sunday. In England, Wales and Scotland he is always celebrated as a full-blown Feast on a weekday, but not celebrated if 17 March is a Sunday. If 17 March is a Sunday, New York and Australia celebrate St Patrick on Monday 18 March, but Ireland celebrates him on the Sunday. (There is some doubt as to what Ireland will do if 17 March is Palm Sunday, but fortunately this will not happen until the year 2391).

Most regions also have their own particular saints who are not celebrated at all in the General Calendar of the Church. And different places have different policies about the day on which the Epiphany and the Ascension should be celebrated.

Universalis is able to handle most of the world’s calendars. Here are instructions.

On the web

Each daily page – for instance, Readings at Mass – has a message at the top saying which calendar is being used, and a link which lets you change to a different calendar.

Mobile devices

On iPhone/iPad and Android:

Tap the leftmost button in the toolbar. This will bring up the list of dates.
In the list of dates, you will see the name of your currently selected calendar at the top. If you want to change it, tap the name.
You will see a list of available local calendars, and you can navigate through it to find the calendar you want.

Computers

On Mac and Windows:

Bring up the list of dates. You can do this by clicking on the day number in the toolbar. Alternatively, use the menu command Window > Calendar on the Mac, or Date > Show Calendar on Windows.
The heading in the list of dates will tell you which local calendar you are using. If you want to change it, press the button marked “Change Local Calendar”.

Religious orders

For some religious orders, helpful people have given us a list of the specific calendar for the order.

On iPhone/iPad, proceed as if you were changing the local calendar, but when you see the list of calendars, drag it down a little and you will see a button which lets you choose the religious order.
On Android, the religious order is selected in the Settings screen, which you open by tapping the cog-wheel on the right-hand side of the toolbar.
On Mac and Windows, the Change Local Calendar screen has a button which lets you select the religious order.

Some religious orders, such as the Benedictines, are more of a federation than a top-down organisation, and each community decides the calendar for itself. For this reason they are omitted from the list in Universalis, because there is no centrally defined calendar we can use.