Patronal Festival

This is the feast of the patron saint or title of a church, school, religious order, or other organisation. The custom of having a patron saint can be traced to the practice of building churches over the tombs of martyrs. Patron saints may be chosen for a variety of reasons. For example, a church that was founded on a saint's day might have that saint as patron. 

Some patron saints are associated with particular countries, regional or ethnic backgrounds, or forms of ministry. St. David is the patron saint of Wales, and St. Luke is the patron saint of physicians. The patronal festival is usually the feast of the church or organisation's title, but in some cases the patron is not mentioned in the title of the church or organisation. 

Sometimes, as for churches called Christ Church, Holy Saviour, Holy Redeemer etc the patron is not a saint at all, but Jesus Christ himself. Usually these churches celebrate their patronal festival around Ascension Day. At Holy Saviour Hitchin  the church was built so that the sun would hit the east window squarely at sunrise on Ascension Day that year. Given that Ascension Day moves around with Easter, there can't have been that many times since the church was opened in the nineteenth century that the sun has been in exactly the right place. And what if the day is cloudy?

The feast of a church's patron or title may be observed on or transferred to a Sunday, taking precedence over the usual Sunday observance in the calendar of the church year. We choose to begin our celebrations on Ascension Day and carry them onto the Sunday after Ascension, the Seventh Sunday of Easter.