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The Annunciation (; ; also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord; ) is, according to the Gospel of Luke, the announcement made by the archangel Gabriel to Mary that she would conceive and bear a son through a virgin birth and become the mother of Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Son of God, marking the Incarnation.
According to the Annunciation occurred in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy with John the Baptist. Many Christians observe this event with the Feast of the Annunciation on 25March, an approximation of the northern March equinox nine full months before Christmas, the traditional birthday of Jesus.
The Annunciation is a key topic in Christian art in general, as well as in Marian art in the Catholic Church, having been especially prominent during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. A work of art depicting the Annunciation is sometimes itself called an Annunciation.
[[Image:Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo 023.jpg|thumb|''The Annunciation'' by [[Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo|Murillo]], 1655–1660, [[Hermitage Museum]], [[Saint Petersburg]]]]
Various Bible translations also give Gabriel's salutation as a variation on: "Hail, full of grace" (, DRV). In this variation, commonly used by Roman Catholics, the archangel Gabriel's greeting to Mary forms the first part of the prayer Hail Mary. Mary's response to the archangel also forms the second versicle and response of the Angelus prayer. The English word fiat, or permission, comes from the Latin let it be done of Mary's acceptance to the angel.
It has been suggested that the similarity in content is such that Luke's version may in some way be dependent on the Qumran text. (2025). 056708468X, Continuum. 056708468X
When the calendar system of Anno Domini was first introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in AD 525, he assigned the beginning of the new year to 25 March since, according to Christian theology, the era of Divine grace began with the Incarnation of Christ. The first certain mentions of the feast are in a canon law of the 656 Council of Toledo, where it is described as celebrated throughout the church. The 692 Council of Constantinople "in Trullo" forbade observance of any festivals during Lent, excepting Sunday and the Annunciation. An earlier origin had been claimed for it on the grounds that it appeared in manuscripts of the sermons of Athanasius and Gregory Thaumaturgus but they were subsequently discovered to be spurious.
Along with Easter, 25 March was historically used as the New Year's Day in many Christian countries. The holiday was moved to January 1 in France by Charles IX's 1564 Edict of Roussillon. In England, the feast of the Annunciation came to be known as Lady Day, and Lady Day marked the beginning of the English new year until 1752.
The traditional hymn (troparion) for the feast of the Annunciation goes back to Athanasius of Alexandria. It runs: Speaking the Truth in Love: Theological and Spiritual Exhortations by John Chryssavgis, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomu 2010 page 85
As the action initiating the Incarnation of Christ, the Annunciation has such an important place in Orthodox Christian theology that the festal Divine Liturgy of John Chrysostom is always celebrated on the feast, even if it falls on Great and Holy Friday, the day when the crucifixion of Jesus is remembered. The Divine Liturgy is celebrated on Great and Holy Friday only when the latter coincides with the feast of the Annunciation. If the Annunciation falls on Easter (Easter Sunday) itself, a coincidence which is called , then it is celebrated jointly with the Resurrection, which is the focus of Easter. Due to these and similar rules, the rubrics surrounding the celebration of the feast are the most complex of all in Orthodox Christian liturgics.
Ephraim the Syrian taught that the date of the conception of Jesus Christ fell on 10 Nisan on the Hebrew calendar, the day in which the Passover lamb was selected according to Exodus 12 (Hymn 4 on the Nativity). In some years, 10 Nisan falls on 25 March, which is the traditional date for the Feast of the Annunciation and is an official holiday in Lebanon.
Works on the subject have been created by artists such as Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Duccio, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Jan van Eyck, and Murillo among others. The mosaics of Pietro Cavallini in Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome (1291), the of Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua (1303), Domenico Ghirlandaio's fresco at the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence (1486), and Donatello's gilded sculpture at the church of Santa Croce, Florence (1435) are famous examples.
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