What is a Jubilee Year?
- A Holy Year of the forgiveness of sin, conversion and joyful celebration.
- The word “jubilee” comes from the Hebrew word yobel, which refers to the ram’s horn used to announce a jubilee in the Old Testament.
Old Testament origins
God told Moses that every fiftieth year was to be set aside for the return of absent members to their households, the restoration of land to its owners, the release of Hebrew slaves and the forgiveness of debts.
This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when every one of you shall return to his own property, every one to his own family estate. (Lev. 25:10)
Like the sabbath, which took place on the seventh day of each week, the jubilee was a time for the Israelites to re-establish a proper relationship with God and with one another.
Tradition continues in Christianity
- Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed the first Christian jubilee in A.D. 1300, granting the full remission of sin for those who confessed their sins and made a pilgrimage to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
- The Church first celebrated jubilee years every 100 years. This was eventually shortened to every 50 years and then every 25 years.
Recent Jubilee years
- 1950: During this Holy Year of 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven.
- 1975: This Holy Year of reconciliation was proclaimed by Pope Paul XI.
- 1983: Pope John Paul II proclaimed a special jubilee year in 1983 to celebrate the 1,950th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
- 2000: Pope John Paul II proclaimed the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.
- 2015: Pope Francis declared an extraordinary jubilee for the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second Vatican Council.The jubilee was dedicated to mercy.
