Seasonal events
Eastertide
The Great Fifty Days of Eastertide form a single festival period in which the tone of joy created at Easter Day is sustained through the following seven weeks, and the Church celebrates the gloriously risen Christ:
Triumphant in his glory now,
his sceptre ruleth all,
earth, heaven and hell before him bow,
and at his footstool fall. (Fulbert of Chartres)
The penitential season of Lent has forty days but Easter, the season of joy and spectacular triumph has fifty: joy always ultimately overcomes sadness in Christianity. Early Christians gave the name 'Pentecost' (meaning 'fiftieth day') to this whole period of rejoicing, which Tertullian (an early theologian) calls ‘this most joyful period’ (laetissimum spatium). It is sometimes also called ‘Great Sunday’. In those places where the custom of lighting the Easter Candle at the beginning of Easter is followed, the lit Candle stands prominently in church for all the Eastertide services. The 'Alleluia' - supressed over the forty days of Lent - appears frequently in worship; flowers, white or gold vestments and decorations, the 'Gloria' (also omitted during Lent) all emphasize the joy and brightness of the season. On Sundays we begin the Eucharist by being sprinkled with water, a reminder of our baptism into the Body of Christ so that we share in the events of Easter - Christ's death and resurrection - too.
On the fortieth day there has from the late fourth century been a particular celebration of Christ’s Ascension. He commissions his disciples to continue his work, he promises the gift of the Holy Spirit, and then he is no longer among them in the flesh. The Ascension is therefore closely connected with the theme of mission. For the nine days after Ascension Day the church keeps a vigil of prayer, longing for the divine life within us to be renewed and strengthened with the gift of the Holy Spirit, which comes at Pentecost, the fiftieth and final day of Easter.