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Ordinary Time
Transfiguration of the Lord
Also called: Feast of the Transfiguration, Vardavar (Armenian), Преображение (Preobrazhenie, Russian)
August 6 (fixed)
CatholicEastern OrthodoxAnglicanLutheran
The Transfiguration remembers the day Jesus glowed with divine light on a mountain before three disciples — Moses and Elijah appeared beside him. Orthodox and Catholic churches celebrate it on 6 August with outdoor liturgies and blessings of grapes and honey.
Mount Tabor in Israel is the traditional site. Armenian Christians celebrate a separate water festival called Vardavar on a different date.
Eden lists Holy Land pilgrimages that include Mount Tabor.
At a glance
- Type
- feast
- Date type
- Fixed (same date every year)
- Regions
- Global
- Themes
- Life of Christ, Trinity
- Liturgical colour
- White, Gold
Common questions
Transfiguration of the Lord is observed on August 6 (fixed). Moveable feasts shift each year; fixed feasts stay on the same calendar date.
The feast commemorating the moment when Jesus appeared in radiant glory on Mount Tabor before Peter, James, and John, alongside Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:1–9). In Eastern Orthodoxy, this is one of the Twelve Great Feasts and is a major summer celebration. The Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates it as Vardavar ("feast of roses"), 14 weeks after Easter, with popular traditions of water-throwing
It is associated with Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran. It falls in the Ordinary Time season of the liturgical year.
Related holidays
- Nativity of St. John the BaptistJune 24 (exactly six months before Christmas; Luke 1:26 sets Gabriel's visit to Mary six months after Elizabeth's conception)Read guide
- Christ the King22 November 2026 (semi-fixed)Read guide
- Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle (India)July 3 (fixed)Read guide
- All Saints' DayNovember 1Read guide
