Whit Sunday
Whit Sunday
The feast is also called Whitsun, Whitsunday, Whit Sunday, or Whitsuntide, especially in the United Kingdom. Pentecost is celebrated seven weeks (50 days) after Easter Sunday, hence its name. Pentecost falls on the tenth day after Ascension Thursday. (Veen 2005)
Pentecost is historically and symbolically related to the Jewish harvest festival of Shavuot, which commemorates God giving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai fifty days after the Exodus. Among Christians, Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus as described in the New Testament Acts of the Apostles 2:1-31. For this reason, Pentecost is sometimes described as the "Birthday of the Church".
Many Christians celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit in worship activities on Pentecost, or as it is sometimes called, Whitsunday. This name is said to arise from the traditional ancient practice of newly baptized individuals wearing white robes during this time. In the Christian liturgical year, Pentecost is the seventh Sunday after Easter and closes the Easter season.
Fifty days after Easter, Christians celebrate a day called by several different names. Pentecost is its true name, meaning the fifth day. But it in Anglicanism is has more generally been called Whitsunday. This originated from the white garments worn by the newly baptized on this day. Baptisms were popular and frequent on this day, more so than on Easter, because the climate in England and other northern countries made it a more suitable time for baptism than the earlier and colder Easter Day. (Veen 2005)
Pentecost has long been a Jewish festival, a time of thanksgiving for the wheat harvest. Appropriately enough, it has also commemorated the giving of the Law to Moses, and thus was in effect the birthday of the Jewish Church. This made it easy to transform it into a kind of birthday of the Christian Church.
What happened on Pentecost? The story is simple, powerful and inspiring. Jesus' followers had all gathered for worship. Suddenly they were aware of a sound described as “of a rushing mighty wind”. Startled, they all looked up and saw a ”cloven tongues” or flames as of fire resting upon each head. The narrator saw this as the very baptism which John the Baptizer had foretold. Filled with the Holy Ghost, those present began to tell the Gospel story in a great diversity of languages,
Thus, in a sense, the Church began. Thus were fulfilled in a dramatic and public way so many promises of Christ that the Holy Ghost would be sent to comfort, to teach, to inspire and to strengthen. Thus was the Church suddenly moved to realize its great objective of carrying the Gospel to all men, to Gentile as well as Jew. It was Milestone One on the long road of the Church's development and progress.
Whitsunday is one of the oldest and most continuous of Christian celebrations. In a sense, it caps the celebration of ...