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| Paul, apostle of the gentiles |
HAPPY WHITSUNDAY
This Sunday and Monday we celebrate Whit Sunday and Whit Monday( or Whitsuntide)
It's the birth of the Christian Church for anybody who believes in Jesus Christ.
THE ORIGINS OF THE FESTIVAL
Pentecost or Whitsun is observed on the seventh Sunday after Easter. The word Pentecost has its roots in the Greek "pentekoste" meaning the fiftieth day after Easter. Whit Sunday commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit in the form of flames to the Apostles, as recorded in the New Testament. The recent adoption of a Late Spring Bank Holiday on the last Monday in May is an attempt to deal with the fact that Whitsuntide is a moveable feast dependent on the date of Easter. Although it is no longer necessarily at the church's Whitsuntide, the general public still refers to this holiday as "Whit Monday."
9 comments:
Sadly Whitsuntide seems to be no longer celebrated here in the UK Wil - it has been taken over by something called 'Spring Bank Holiday'. I remember Whit sunday when I was a child - always had a new frock as it was a special day.
Happy Whitsunday, Wil.
All the stores in the Christian Quarter of the Old City were closed today for the holiday. I met my nun friends for lunch at Abu Shukri's, where you and I had humus.
Oh yes, Wil, - Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. When I was a child we celebrated Whitsuntide and dressed in white, - in latter years it has been Pentecost and the church has been decorated with balloons and red streamers and the seven candles. This year Pentecost falls on Victoria Day weekend, and we have a large annual Rodeo to celebrate that!
I grew up in the Methodist Church where this Sunday is referred to as Pentecost Sunday. Back then it was very common for people to wear red, although I think that custom has been largely dropped now. It's nice that the bank holiday is referred to as "Whit Monday".
Well, here in the states, we celebrate Pentecost, which means wearing all white, reading that part of Acts about the flaming tongues and the Frigians and Cretans and Sanctimoniums and Rastafarians speaking in tongues. I have an interpretation for that, but another time, or via email!
We all wear red, confirmands receive their charges that day. We get no holiday out of it, but the place is packed.
US Pentecost in churches should not be confused with the Pentecostal megachurches,which tend to cherry-pick scripture and have undereducated pastors.
Thanks for this! Amy
well, we US Presbyterians still wear red on Pentecost. At the end of the service, one of our pastors started crying. Later, we asked her - she was so HAPPY!
Thank you for sharing this Wil, I did not know that.
RING
My apologies for the late visit.
Rose, ABC Wednesday Team
Wil! I feel like a perfect heathen! I went through grade 8 in a parochial school and yet I had never heard about WhitSunday. (Maybe I slept through that lesson.) Thank you for the information.
Oh wait, reading the comments (should have done first) I see that it is Pentecost. That I remember, but it was not celebrated the way Easter was.
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