Keeping Track of the Liturgical Year with an Icon Wall Calendar

When I saw this, I knew it was something we should do.  As my six year old is getting more interested in calenders and the passage of time, I knew this was something we had to do.  This poster style Liturgical calender done visually in icons was just the right thing to add to or wall.  A person could make it fancier and include more feasts if they wanted, but we just stuck to the Twelve Great Feast plus Pascha.  We mostly followed the instructions on the link, with some modifications that fit the way I do things.

Instead of measuring even spaces out for each icon, I used a jig each time to make it go more quickly.  In this case, a box of chicken broth and a gluten-free mac'n'cheese box did the trick.  I chose this style of cross for my clothes-pin moving marker because it fit the particular clothes pin I had the best. 

Here is our finished wall calendar in action, currently set at Pentecost:














On our version, the backing was made from five pieces of construction paper taped edge to edge.  I really like this size because it is large enough to easily see what each icon is, and it takes up a pleasant length of the wall implying to the kiddos by its size that this is an important thing to pay attention to.

Below you will see image files (which are rather imperfect, btw, but are at least close in size to one another) I made you can use to print out & make your own, and for easy reference, here are the Twelve Great Feasts and Pascha listed in order of the Liturgical Year which starts in September along with their dates: 

September 8, the Nativity of the Theotokos
September 14, the Exaltation of the Cross
November 21, the Presentation of the Theotokos
December 25, the Nativity of Christ/Christmas
January 6, the Baptism of Christ - Theophany, also called Epiphany
February 2, the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple
March 25, the Annunciation
The Sunday before Pascha - Entry into Jerusalem, Flowery/Willow/Palm Sunday
Forty Days after Pascha - the Ascension of Christ
Fifty Days after Pascha - Pentecost
August 6, the Transfiguration
August 15, the Dormition (Falling Asleep) of the Theotokos

If you click on these images, you will see they are really quite a bit larger than what they are being displayed at.  Simply right click and save.  When you print them, make sure the printer setting are such that the image fills the page and does not print it at the original or cropped size.


I have also included three style of cross to choose from to place on the moveable clothes-pin marker.  If I did this again, I would reinforce the tri-bar cross marker with card stock of somesuch because as it gets handled the edges kinda' want to curl. 

Enjoy! and I hope this will bring blessings to your home. :)