Feast of the Circumcision of Christ to be celebrated simply as the octave day of Christmas, the "eighth day" on which, according to , the child was circumcised and given the name Jesus. In the 13th or 14th century 1 January began to be celebrated in Rome, as already in Spain and Gaul, as the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord and the Octave of the Nativity, while still oriented towards Mary and Christmas. The emphasis that Saint Bernardine of Siena (1380–1444) laid on the name of Jesus in his preaching led in 1721 to the institution of a separate Feast of the Holy Name
Feast of Christ the King this day is referred to as the Sunday of Doom, previously highlighting the final judgement, though after the Lectionary of 1983 the theme of the day was amended to the "Return of Christ". In the Church in Wales, part of the Anglican Communion, the four Sundays before Advent are called the "Sundays of the Kingdom" and Christ the King is observed as a season and not a single festal day. While the encyclical that established this feast was addressed, according to the custom of the time, to the Catholic Bishops, Pope Pius XI wanted the Feast to impact the laity: