Eastertide, or the Easter Season, or Paschal Time, is the period of fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. Easter ( Greek: Πάσχα Pascha or Pasxa) is the most important religious feast in the Christian Liturgical year. Pentecost (πεντηκοστή, pentekostē, "the fiftieth day" is one of the prominent feasts in the Christian Liturgical year, celebrated the [1]
It is celebrated as a single joyful feast, indeed as the "great Lord's Day". [2] Each Sunday of the season is treated as a Sunday of Easter, and, after the Sunday of the Resurrection, they are named Second Sunday of Easter, Third Sunday of Easter, etc. up to the Seventh Sunday of Easter, while the whole fifty-day period concludes with Pentecost Sunday. [3]
Easter Sunday and Pentecost correspond to pre-existing Jewish feasts. [4]
The first eight days constitute the Octave of Easter and are celebrated as solemnities of the Lord. " Octave " has two senses in Christian liturgical usage A Solemnity of the Roman Catholic Church is a principal Holy day in the Liturgical calendar, usually commemorating an event in the life of Jesus [5]
Since 2000 the Second Sunday of Easter is also called Divine Mercy Sunday. The Feast of the Divine Mercy or Divine Mercy Sunday falls on the Octave of Easter (the Sunday immediately following Easter The name "Low Sunday" for this Sunday, once common in English, is now rarely used.
The solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord is celebrated on the fortieth day of Eastertide (a Thursday), except in countries where it is not a Holy Day of Obligation. The general and most common understanding of the Christian Doctrine of Ascension holds that Jesus bodily ascended to Heaven in the presence In the Catholic Church, Holy Days of Obligation or Holidays of Obligation, less commonly called Feasts of Precept, are the days on which as canon 1247 In such countries it is celebrated on the following Sunday (the forty-third day of Eastertide). [6] The days from that feast until the Saturday before Pentecost (inclusive) are days of preparation for the Holy Spirit the Paraclete. In mainstream Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is one of the three entities of the Holy Trinity which make up the single substance [7]
Before the 1969 revision of the calendar, the Sundays were called First Sunday after Easter, Second Sunday after Easter, etc. The Sunday preceding the feast of the Ascension of the Lord was sometimes, though not officially, called Rogation Sunday, and, while the Ascension had an octave, the following Sunday was called Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension,[8] but when this octave was abolished in 1955, it was called Sunday after the Ascension. [9] Pentecost was followed by an octave, which some reckoned as part of Eastertide.
When the Anglican churches implemented their own calendar reform in 1976, they adopted the same shortened definition of the Easter season as the Roman Catholic Church had promulgated six years earlier. Anglicanism is a tradition of Christian faith Churches in this tradition either have historical connections to the Church of England or have similar beliefs In the Church of England, the Easter season begins with the Easter Vigil and ends after Evening Prayer (or Night Prayer) on the Day of Pentecost. The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican The Easter Vigil, also called the Paschal Vigil or the Great Vigil of Easter, is a service held in many Christian churches as the first official celebration Evening Prayer is a Liturgy in use in the Anglican Communion (and other churches in the Anglican tradition such as the Continuing Anglican Movement and Compline (ˈkɒmplɪn also Complin, Night Prayer, Prayers at the End of the Day) is the final church service (or Office) of the day in the Some Anglican provinces continue to label the Sundays between Easter and the Ascension "Sundays After Easter" rather than "Sundays of Easter"; others, such as the Church of England and ECUSA, use the term "Sundays of Easter". An ecclesiastical province is a large jurisdiction of religious government so named by analogy with a secular Province, existing in certain hierarchical Christian The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican The Episcopal Church is the official name of the Province of the Anglican Communion in the United States.
References
- ^ Normae Universales de Anno Liturgico et de Calendario (NUALC), 22
- ^ Saint Athanasius, Epist. fest. I: Patrologia Graeca 26, 1366
- ^ NUALC, 23
- ^ Deuteronomy 16:1-10
- ^ NUALC, 24
- ^ NUALC, 25
- ^ NUALC, 26
- ^ Missale Romanum, 1920 typical edition
- ^ 1962 Roman Missal
See also
External links
- Easter Season Resource Library - Crossroads Initiative
- Normae Universales de Anno Liturgico et de Calendario
- French translation
- Writings on Easter, Eastertide and Lent liturgical days
- Liturgy of Hours of Eastertide