Sexagesima

Bach composed this cantata for the second Sunday before Ash Wednesday, called Sexagesima.

He composed it in Leipzig for the Sunday Sexagesima and first performed it on 13 February 1724.

Sexagesima Sunday (8th Sunday before Easter)

Commemoration of the Passion of Christ (Tuesday after Sexagesima)

Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima Sunday are the last three Sundays before Lent.

The earliest Sexagesima can occur is January 25 and the latest is February 28 (or February 29 in a leap year).

There is no Septuagesima; two Sundays (Sexagesima and Quinquagesima) prepare for Lent.

The other two Sundays in this period of the liturgical year are called Sexagesima and Quinquagesima, the latter sometimes also called Shrove Sunday.

Sexagesima - 56 days (eighth Sunday) before Easter (Pre-Vatican II Calendar)

The earlier form of the Roman Rite, with its references to Quinquagesima, Sexagesima and Septuagesima, continues to be observed in some communities.

Septuagesima comes from the Latin word for "seventieth" with Sexagesima and Quinquagesima equalling "sixtieth" and "fiftieth" respectively.

Following the Second Vatican Council, Sexagesima and the other pre-Lent Sundays were eliminated in the new Roman Catholic liturgical calendar.

The new liturgical books created after the Second Vatican Council omit Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima Sundays.

However, like Quinquagesima, Sexagesima and Septuagesima, the numeral is more likely an approximation of how many days there are until Easter Sunday, in this case 42.

In the Armenian Orthodox Church, their office is celebrated on the Tuesday after the western Sexagesima, and they are regarded as the patron saints of the Armenian clergy.

In the year 1645, early in the morning of Sexagesima Sunday, it raged with such noise and impetuosity that the very stones of the houses on the coast fell to the ground."

Then follow Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays, on which, though Gloria in Excelsis and Hallelujah are used, the vestments are violet.

Most provinces of the Anglican Communion later followed in abolishing Sexagesima and the other pre-Lent Sundays, though they are retained wherever the Prayer Book Calendar is followed.

Februar neuen Stils am Sonntage Sexagesima um 11 Uhr bis nach 12 am Himmel bei uns sind gesehen worden'.

Quinquagesima ("fiftieth"), is the fiftieth day before Easter, reckoning inclusively; but Sexagesima is not the sixtieth day and Septuagesima is not the seventieth but is the sixty-fourth day prior.

The Commemoration of the Passion of Christ was a feast of the Roman Catholic Church, listed in the Roman Missal up to 1962 as observed in some places, and kept on the Tuesday after Sexagesima.

The reforms of the Second Vatican Council included the elimination of this term for this Sunday (and the two immediately before it - Sexagesima and Septuagesima Sundays), and these Sundays are part of Ordinary Time.

Anglicans in provinces which continue to use the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as the primary authority also retain Sexagesima Sunday along with the two other pre-Lenten Sundays, as do those who use the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer.

Because a week is only seven days long, not ten, and since even then only six of those days might be counted if the pattern of 'Quadragesima' is followed, 'Septuagesima,' 'Sexagesima,' and 'Quinquagesima,' obviously don't literally correspond to the periods of time they imply.

It added to the calendar the Sundays of Advent, Transfiguration (last Sunday after Epiphany), Septuagesima, Sexagesima, Quinquagesima, Ash Wednesday, Sundays in Lent, all days in Holy Week, Ascension and the following Sunday, and Holy Trinity.