The angel Gabriel's foretelling to Mary of the birth of Jesus and of the promise of his greatness (Luke 1.2638). Many of the features of this account are parallel to the annunciation of the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1.525). The feast day (25 Mar) is also known as Lady Day.
In Christianity, the Annunciation is the revelation to Mary, the mother of Jesus by the archangel Gabriel that she would conceive a child to be born the Son of God.
The Annunciation in the Bible
In the Bible, the Announciation is narrated in the book of Luke, Chapter 1, verses 26-38:
26 In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.Eastern traditions
In Eastern Orthodoxy Mary is referred to as Theotokos.
It is also an interesting fact that the feast of the Annunciation, as the action initiating the Incarnation of Christ has such an important place in Eastern Orthodox theology, that the Festival Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is always celebrated on this day, regardless of what day it falls on. In fact, the only time a divine liturgy is ever celebrated on Great and Holy Friday is if it is on March 25, although this only occurs in the Julian Calendar (this calendar is used to calculate the date of Pascha so that all Orthodox celebrate Pascha at the same time, though most dioceses use the Gregorian Calendar for celebration of fixed feast days, e.g.
Related dates
In the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, the feast is moved if necessary to prevent it from either falling on a Sunday, or during Holy Week or the week in which Easter occurs. In years when March 25 falls during Holy Week or Easter Week the Annunciation is moved to the Monday after Octave of Easter, which is the Sunday after Easter. (If the Feast of St. Joseph, normally falling on March 19, must also be moved to a later date as a consequence of Easter falling on one of its earliest possible dates, the Annunciation remains on Low Monday, with the feast of St. Joseph on the following Tuesday, as the higher-ranking person is transferred first.)
The date is close to the vernal equinox, as Christmas is to the winter solstice; because of this the Annunciation and Christmas were two of the four "Quarter days" in medieval and early modern England, which marked the divisions of the fiscal year (the other two were Midsummer Day, or the Nativity of St. John the Baptist—June 24—and Michaelmas, the feast day of St. Michael, on September 29).
The first authentic allusions to it are in a canon, of the council of Toledo (656), and another of the council of Constantinople "in Trullo" (692), forbidding the celebration of all festivals in Lent, excepting the Lord's day and the Feast of the Annunciation.
Annunciation in the Quran
Annunciation is also cited in the Quran, in chapters 3 (Aal 'Imran - The family of Imran) verses 45-51 and 19 (Maryam - Mary) verses 16-26, although never with the mention or insinuation that Jesus is the son of God.
From chapter 3
[45] (Remember) when the angels said: "O Maryam (Mary)! 'Isâ (Jesus) the son of Maryam (Mary)) from Him, his name will be the Messiah 'Isâ (Jesus), the son of Maryam (Mary), held in honor in this world and in the Hereafter, and will be one of those who are near to Allâh."
[46] "He will speak to the people in the cradle and in manhood, and he will be one of the righteous."
[47] She said: "O my Lord!
[48] And He (Allâh) will teach him ('Isâ (Jesus)) the Book and Al-Hikmah (i.e.
[49] And will make him ('Isâ (Jesus)) a Messenger to the Children of Israel (saying): "I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, that I design for you out of clay, a figure like that of a bird, and breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by Allâh's Leave;
[50] And I have come confirming that which was before me of the Taurât (Torah), and to make lawful to you part of what was forbidden to you, and I have come to you with a proof from your Lord.
[51] Truly!
From chapter 19
[16] And mention in the Book (the Qur'ân, O Muhammad (peace be upon him) the story of) Maryam (Mary), when she withdrew in seclusion from her family to a place facing east.
[17] She placed a screen (to screen herself) from them;
[18] She said: "Verily!
[19] (The angel) said: "I am only a Messenger from your Lord, (to announce) to you the gift of a righteous son."
[20] She said: "How can I have a son, when no man has touched me, nor am I unchaste?"
[21] He said: "So (it will be), your Lord said: 'That is easy for Me (Allâh): And (We wish) to appoint him as a sign to mankind and a mercy from Us (Allâh), and it is a matter (already) decreed, (by Allâh).' "
[22] So she conceived him, and she withdrew with him to a far place (i.e.
[23] And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a date-palm.
[24] Then (the babe 'Iesa (Jesus) or Jibrîl (Gabriel)) cried unto her from below her, saying: "Grieve not: your Lord has provided a water stream under you.
[25] "And shake the trunk of date-palm towards you, it will let fall fresh ripe-dates upon you."
[26] "So eat and drink and be glad.
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