December 8
The Immaculate Conception: what we celebrate on December 8
What is the Immaculate Conception?
On December 8 the Church celebrates the Immaculate Conception: from the very first moment of her life, in her mother’s womb, the Virgin Mary was kept free from original sin, by a gift of God and thanks to Jesus, who would be her Savior. It is about the beginning of Mary’s life, not the birth of Jesus. It is a solemnity, and in Spain December 8 is a public holiday.
When is it?
- 2026
- Tuesday, December 8, 2026Holy day of obligation in the United States and Spain.
- 2027
- Wednesday, December 8, 2027Holy day of obligation in the United States and Spain.
What the Church teaches
All of us are born with original sin, the wound left by the first sin of Adam and Eve, and God takes it away in Baptism. The Church teaches that God did something unique for Mary: to prepare the mother of his Son, he filled her with grace from the moment she was conceived, so that original sin never touched her. That is why the angel Gabriel greeted her as full of grace (Luke 1:28). And with the help of that grace, she never committed a single sin in her whole life.
A common mix-up
Many people think the Immaculate Conception is about Jesus being conceived without a human father. That is a different truth of the faith, the virginal conception of Jesus, which we celebrate at the Annunciation in March. The Immaculate Conception is about Mary: she was conceived by her parents in the ordinary way, but without sin. Nor does it mean that Mary didn’t need Jesus. The Church teaches that Jesus saved her too, only ahead of time, so everything good in Mary is her Son’s gift.
1854: a truth of the faith
Christians believed this for centuries, and Spain and the Americas had a great love for la Purísima, as she is called with affection. On December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX solemnly declared it a dogma, a truth revealed by God that all Catholics believe. Four years later, in Lourdes, Saint Bernadette said that the Lady who appeared to her gave her name as the Immaculate Conception.
Why it matters
The Immaculate Conception shows us what God wants to do with all of us. What happened in Mary from the very beginning begins in us at Baptism, and God keeps working on it little by little: washing away sin and filling us with his grace. That is why it is a feast of hope in the middle of Advent. And it reminds us that Mary belongs completely to God, which is why she always leads us to her Son.
How it is kept in Mexico, Spain and beyond
In Mexico, thousands of pilgrims visit Our Lady of Juquila, in Oaxaca, where she is sung las mañanitas on December 8, and Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos, in Jalisco: both are much-loved images of the Immaculate Conception. The day also opens the week of the great December feasts: Saint Juan Diego on the 9th and Our Lady of Guadalupe on the 12th. In Spain it is a public holiday, and in Seville cathedral the seises, a group of boys, dance before the Blessed Sacrament during the days of the feast. In Nicaragua, on the night of the 7th, people keep la Gritería, going from house to house to altars of la Purísima and asking who causes so much joy, to hear the answer: the conception of Mary.
As a family
On the eve or on December 8 itself, set a picture of Our Lady at home with a white flower beside it and pray a Hail Mary together, slowly. When you reach “full of grace,” stop and ask the children what they think it means to be full of God.
To read more, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 411, 490, 491, 492, 493.
Rosal has no lesson for this feast. The nearest is “Chosen and full of grace” in Unit 6 (with Patron), on what the Church believes about the Immaculate Conception, taught by Saint Bernadette of Lourdes.
