Find out more about the new holy day observance for the United Methodist Church, Creation in Christ Sunday / Feast of Creation! Celebration of the brand new world-wide Christian feast day begins on September 1st, 2026.
What is a feast day?
Church world is abuzz with stories about a new Feast Day for Creation. So, what is a feast day?
A “feast day” is a special day on the yearly church worship calendar. For Christians, feast days are holy days. These are days to praise God with special emphasis on events of the scriptures and the life of the church. There are special hymns, songs, stories, and prayers that accompany these celebrations. Across traditions there are holy days to celebrate the Saints (such as Saint Francis), or an event in the life of the church (such as Pentecost), or an event that marks the life of Jesus (such as Christmas Day).
While all Christians raise up joy for Christmas and Easter, there is some variation among Christian traditions as to which holy days / feast days are included in official denominational calendars, and what these holy days are called. For United Methodists, this new “Feast of Creation” will be called Creation in Christ Sunday.
The idea of a feast day is ancient. Many religious people of all faiths celebrate special occasions that can be one day or a series of days, such as the Festival of Lights, or Kwanzaa, or Ramadan, or Passover. The word “feast” comes from the word festival. A feast day doesn’t need to include food, though many feast days do include fasts and/or festive foods as part of the traditional observance. For Christians, feast days can also include a celebration of Holy Communion.
Most Christians share a core set of holy days or feast days. But there are differences. When the Methodists and other Protestant groups split from the Anglican and Catholic churches a few hundred years ago, they selected only a few days to continue to include in their observance practices. In choosing which to keep and celebrate, Methodists prioritized holy days that rose from Scripture, recognizing the Bible as a central authority for understanding God, Jesus, the Trinity, and Christian life together.
Feast Days and holy days, then, have their origins in ancient festivals where religious people celebrate and commemorate holy occasions, events, people and remembrances.
Though United Methodists don’t use the word “feast,” The United Methodist Church does celebrate holy days. United Methodists participate with Consultation on Common Texts which produces the Revised Common Lectionary. The Revised Common Lectionary is a shared calendar that marks the church seasons, celebrations, and holy days, noting Scripture readings each Sunday.
Creation in Christ Sunday/Feast of Creation
In short, Creation in Christ Sunday and Feast of Creation are the same thing. The difference is that even as the process of discernment brought together delegates from across the world-wide church, each denomination has a rich tradition, and this feast day will look and sound a little different when it is celebrated in different contexts. For United Methodist church calendars and the Revised Common Lectionary, the celebration will be known as Creation in Christ Sunday.
This can be a little confusing, as there are a lot of special Sundays in the life of the Methodist church! These many Sundays are special days on the United Methodist calendar that rise up from and within the life of the community, church missions, and social events. These special Sundays include, for example, Mothering Sunday as a day of celebration! While important to the church, these special Sundays are not observances recognized across the wider church as holy days.
These are the Christian feast days and holy days recognized by, and celebrated in, The United Methodist Church:
Christmas
Epiphany
Baptism of the Lord
Transfiguration
Ash Wednesday
Palm/Passion Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter
Ascension
Trinity Sunday
Pentecost
New! Creation of Christ Sunday
All Saints Day
Christ the King Sunday
Why is the new Feast Day on September 1st?
The date of September 1st, and the first Sunday following, were chosen as the day of this new observance / feast day as part of the worldwide discernment process. The first of September, especially in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition, is recognized as the date of the “beginning,” when creation and time began.
Many churches, including The United Methodist Church, will have two opportunities for observance, the day of September 1, and also the first Sunday following. This is a familiar pattern, for example Epiphany and Epiphany Sunday and All Saints Day and All Saints Sunday. For some dates on the calendar, the “day of” does not always fall on a Sunday.
How Creation in Christ / Feast of Creation came about
This new holy day is not only new for United Methodists, but it is a new holy observance for the worldwide church–the first in over a hundred years! The last new holy day was Christ the King Sunday, established in 1925.
Praise of the Creator is right for its own sake! But for current and future generations, when the harms to the planet from human activities are threatening so many and so much, it is urgent and imperative to return to the core teachings of faith and remember that in the beginning was the Word, and all things are created through God.
Is the Feast of Creation the same as the Season of Creation?
Short answer, no. The Feast of Creation/Creation in Christ is a Christian holy day, on par with Christmas, Pentecost, Epiphany and more. Yet there is a long answer, too. And the long answer is that both the Feast of Creation and the Season of Creation are opportunities to celebrate the Creation and the work of Creation, through the wind-swept Trinity, Christ as the Word, and God the Creator. The Season of Creation is an opportunity to focus a whole season of worship on creation—and let worship flow! The holy day itself can be celebrated in its season, or in tandem with the season, as we, as Christian disciples, are invited to stand in awe and remember when the wind sweeping over the salty water of the first seas.
We raise a special thank you to the Eastern Orthodox patriarchs who sent up a call in 1989 for Creation Day to be observed and shared on the Christian calendar. The first Day of Prayer for Creation and Season of Creation was also led by Eastern Orthodox Christians who invited shared discernment and recognition for new faithful observances. The first Season of Creation was celebrated in multiple Christian traditions in 2016.