“The revolutions of the calendar, turned by a human crank, may indeed bring a panorama of feasts and fasts before the eyes. But this pageantry (pagantry) of Saints and Angels on a level with Jesus Christ, has most too much of the formal and Popish about it. The year ecclesiastic is a very imaginative and poetical idea; but I have not yet seen its superior practical effects. Christians, who pray, read their Bibles and go to Church on God’s holy Sabbath day, have the faith brought before them oftener than once a year; and moreover, the faith, the whole faith, and nothing but the faith.” — Cortlandt Van Rensselaer, Man’s Feasts and Fasts in God’s Church: A New-Year’s Gift Being a Review of ‘The Rector’s Christmas Offering’ (1842), pp. 28-29