Pentecost
Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christian holiday which takes place on the 49th day (50th day when inclusive counting is used) after Easter Day.[1] It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles of Jesus while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1–31).[2] The Catholic Church believes the Holy Spirit descended upon Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the same time, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:14).[3]
This article is about the Christian holiday. For other uses, see Pentecost (disambiguation).Pentecost
- Whitsunday (Ireland, United Kingdom)
- Trinity Sunday (Eastern Orthodoxy)
Christian
Celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus; birth of the Church
Church services, festive meals, processions, baptism, confirmation, ordination, folk customs, dancing, spring and woodland rites.
50 days after Easter
- May 28 (Western)
- June 4 (Eastern)
- May 19 (Western)
- June 23 (Eastern)
- June 8 (Western)
- June 8 (Eastern)
- May 24 (Western)
- May 31 (Eastern)
Pentecost is one of the Great feasts in the Eastern Orthodox Church, a Solemnity in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, a Festival in the Lutheran Churches, and a Principal Feast in the Anglican Communion. Many Christian denominations provide a special liturgy for this holy celebration. Since its date depends on the date of Easter, Pentecost is a "moveable feast". The Monday after Pentecost is a legal holiday in many European, African and Caribbean countries.
Etymology[edit]
The term Pentecost comes from Koinē Greek: πεντηκοστή, romanized: pentēkostē, lit. 'fiftieth'. One of the meanings of "Pentecost" in the Septuagint, the Koine translation of the Hebrew Bible, refers to the festival of Shavuot, one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, which is celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover according to Deuteronomy 16:10,[i] and Exodus 34:22,[4] where it is referred to as the "Festival of Weeks" (Koinē Greek: ἑορτὴν ἑβδομάδων, romanized: heortēn hebdomádōn).[5][6][7] The Septuagint uses the term Pentēkostē in this context in the Book of Tobit and 2 Maccabees.[8][9][10]
The translators of the Septuagint also used the word in two other senses: to signify the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:10)[11][8] an event which occurs every 50th year, and in several passages of chronology as an ordinal number.[ii] The term has also been used in the literature of Hellenistic Judaism by Philo of Alexandria and Josephus to refer to Shavuot.[7]