Pentecost

• 1. Introduction

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  Pentecost, also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun, falls on the 49th day after Easter. Counting inclusively, with Easter Sunday as day one, it is the 50th. Because Easter has no fixed date, neither does Pentecost. In the Gregorian calendar it can arrive as early as the 10th of May, as in 1818 and 2285. It can arrive as late as the 13th of June, as in 1943 and 2038. Christians know it as the Birthday of the Church. Yet its name is Greek, its roots are Jewish, and its founding story describes a rushing wind and tongues of fire in Jerusalem. How did an ancient harvest festival become a Christian feast? What do scholars make of the story told in the Acts of the Apostles? And why do churches celebrate with red vestments, wooden doves, trumpets and roses?

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• 2. Fifty in Greek

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  The Greek word πεντηκοστή, Pentēkostē, gave the feast its name. In the Septuagint, the Koine Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, one of its meanings is the festival of Shavuot. Deuteronomy 16:10 and Exodus 34:22 place Shavuot on the fiftieth day after Passover, and Exodus 34:22 calls it the "Festival of Weeks". The Septuagint uses the Greek term this way in the Book of Tobit and in 2 Maccabees. The same translators also used the word for the Jubilee year of Leviticus 25:10, which comes every 50th year. In some chronological passages they used it as a plain ordinal number. Philo of Alexandria and Josephus, writing in Hellenistic Judaism, applied the word to Shavuot as well.

  Shavuot began as a harvest festival. Deuteronomy 16:9 sets it seven weeks and one day after the first day of Passover. Leviticus 23:16 counts seven weeks and one day from the Sabbath, and that verse is the source of the fifty days. Scripture gives the festival other names. Exodus 23:16 calls it the Feast of Harvest, Numbers 28:26 calls it the Day of First Fruits, and Exodus 34:22 speaks of the "first fruits of the wheat harvest." The Mishnah and the Babylonian Talmud, in tractate Arakhin, both discuss it.

  Sometime in the Hellenistic period, the festival also became a day for renewing the Noahic covenant of Genesis 9:17. That covenant was made between God and "all flesh that is upon the earth". The Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 CE, and offerings could no longer be brought there. After that, the focus of the festival shifted from agriculture to the Israelites receiving the Torah. Jews were already living in the Diaspora by then. Acts describes Jews from "every nation under heaven" in Jerusalem, possibly there as pilgrims for this very festival.

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• 3. Wind, Fire, and Doubt

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  Acts 2 opens with the disciples of Jesus gathered "all together in one place" on the day of Pentecost. The verb that announces the day's arrival carries a sense of fulfillment. A "mighty rushing wind" comes, and "tongues as of fire" appear. Wind is a common symbol for the Holy Spirit. The disciples are "filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance". Scholars read the word for tongues, γλῶσσαι, in two ways. Some see a reference to the many languages the disciples spoke. Others take it to mean ecstatic speech.

  About one hundred and twenty followers were present, according to Acts 1:15. They included the Twelve Apostles, with Matthias standing in for Judas. Mary, the mother of Jesus, other female disciples and the brothers of Jesus were there too. While the Spirit-filled group spoke in many languages, Peter stood up with the eleven. He told the crowd that the event fulfilled prophecy. His sermon stressed the resurrection and exaltation of Christ, and he quoted Joel 2:28-32 and Psalm 16. In his reading, the first Pentecost marked the start of the Messianic Age. Acts 2:17 gives the prophecy that "your sons and your daughters will prophesy and your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams." Peter also noted that it was the third hour of the day, about 9:00 am. Acts 2:41 reports that about three thousand souls were baptized and added to the group that same day. Peter declared that this was the start of a continual outpouring, open to all believers, Jews and Gentiles alike.

  Theologian Stephen Wilson has called the narrative "exceptionally obscure". It echoes earlier biblical stories, including the Tower of Babel and the flood and creation accounts in Genesis. It also recalls God's appearance on Mount Sinai, when Moses received the Ten Commandments. No literary evidence confirms where the "house" of Acts 2:2 stood. Some details suggest it was the "upper room" mentioned elsewhere, but commentators still debate the point. Christian tradition sees the day as the fulfillment of the promise that Christ would baptize his followers with the Holy Spirit. Of the four gospels, only Matthew and Luke contrast baptism by water with baptism by "Holy Spirit and fire". Acts links John the Baptist's prophecy to the disciples' baptism, which calls to mind the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. Because the day fell on the law-giving festival, it suggests both continuity with the law and the Spirit's central role in the early church.

  Gerd Lüdemann considers the Pentecost gathering very possible and the apostolic instruction historically credible. Wedderburn acknowledges that a "mass ecstatic experience" could have happened. He finds it hard to explain why early Christians later adopted a Jewish festival if there had been no original Pentecost event. He sees some features of an idealized description, yet cautions against calling the record unhistorical. Hengel likewise insists that Luke described genuine events, even if he idealized them. Other critical scholars think some features are theological constructions. Even so, they see a real turning point that enabled the rapid spread of Christianity. Within a few decades, important congregations stood in all major cities of the Roman Empire.

  Biblical commentator Richard C. H. Lenski adds a detail about the word itself. In Acts, "Pentecost" names the Jewish festival. A distinct Christian celebration came later, when Christians kept the name but began to calculate the date from Easter rather than Passover.

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• 4. The Eastern Vigil

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  In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Pentecost is the highest ranking Great Feast of the Lord, second only to Pascha, which is Easter. An All-night Vigil marks the eve, and the Divine Liturgy marks the day itself. Churches are often decorated with greenery and flowers. The celebration deliberately resembles Shavuot, the Jewish feast of the giving of the Mosaic Law. In the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, Pentecost is one of seven Major Lord's Feasts.

  The feast lasts three days. The first is Trinity Sunday, the second is Spirit Monday, also called the Monday of the Holy Spirit, and the third is Tuesday, the Third Day of the Trinity. An Afterfeast follows for one week, and fasting is not permitted during it, even on Wednesday and Friday. Green is the liturgical color, and clergy and faithful carry flowers and green branches in their hands. All 33 following Sundays are named Sundays after Pentecost. Every remaining day until preparation for the next Great Lent takes its name from the day after Pentecost. The count is inclusive, so the 15th day of Pentecost falls 14 days after Trinity Sunday. The Melkite Greek Catholic Church is the exception, marking Sundays "after Holy Cross".

  The Orthodox icon of the feast shows the Twelve Apostles seated in a semicircle. Sometimes the Theotokos, the Virgin Mary, sits in the center among them. At the top, the Holy Spirit descends as tongues of fire. At the bottom is an allegorical figure called Kosmos, who symbolizes the world. He wears a crown of earthly glory but sits in darkness caused by ignorance of God. In his hands he holds a towel carrying 12 scrolls, which stand for the teaching of the Twelve Apostles.

  On the night of Pentecost, the Orthodox keep an extraordinary service called the Kneeling Prayer. It is a Vespers service with three sets of long poetical prayers added, composed by Basil the Great. During them everyone makes a full prostration, touching the forehead to the floor. Prostrations in church have been forbidden since the day of Pascha. Uniquely, these prayers include a petition for all those in hell, asking that they be granted relief and even ultimate release, if God deems it possible. In the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the service takes place at the ninth hour, 3:00 pm, on Pentecost Sunday.

  The second Monday after Pentecost begins the Apostles' Fast, which runs until the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul on the 29th of June. The Coptic fast has a fixed end on the fifth of the Coptic month of Epip, the commemoration of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul. That date now falls on the 12th of July, which matches the 29th of June because of the current 13-day gap between the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Orthodox theology also holds a surprise. Orthodox Christians do not regard Pentecost as the church's birthday at all. They see the church as existing before the creation of the world, and they cite The Shepherd of Hermas.

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• 5. Western Rites

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  St. Paul already notes the importance of this festival to early Christian communities in the 1st century. Annual celebrations of the descent of the Holy Spirit date from the lifetime of people who may have been eyewitnesses. In the Roman Catholic liturgy, Pentecost marks the end and completion of the Easter season. It is also the birth, or "great beginning", of the church. The Mass ends with a dismissal sung with a double alleluia, and the Paschal Candle is removed from the sanctuary at day's end.

  Before the Second Vatican Council, Pentecost Monday was a Holy Day of Obligation, when the Catholic Church addressed the newly baptized and confirmed. Since the council it is no longer solemnized. It remains an official festival in many Protestant churches, such as the Church of Sweden and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. In the Byzantine Catholic Rite it is now a simple holiday. In the Extraordinary Form of the Roman liturgy, Monday and Tuesday of Pentecost week rank as a Double of the First Class. Many Western denominations keep an octave that ends on Trinity Sunday. In the modern Roman Rite, Pentecost ends after Evening Prayer on the feast day itself, and Ordinary Time resumes the next day.

  Lutheran, Episcopal and United Methodist churches number every Sunday from Pentecost until Advent as the 2nd, 3rd and so on Sunday after Pentecost. The Roman Catholic Church formerly did the same. In Roman Catholic piety, Pentecost is the third of the Glorious Mysteries of the Holy Rosary and one of the Stations of the Resurrection, or Via Lucis. Some Evangelical and Pentecostal churches treat it as one of their greatest celebrations, as in Germany or Romania. Others ignore it. In many evangelical churches in the United States, Mother's Day may be celebrated more than the biblical feast. Some evangelicals and Pentecostals now follow the liturgical calendar and use the day to teach the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

  From the early days of Western Christianity, Pentecost was a day set aside for baptism. In Northern Europe it was preferred even over Easter, because late spring was supposed to be warmer for the outdoor immersion then in practice. One proposal traces the name Whit Sunday to the white clothing of the newly baptized and the white vestments of English clergy. Pentecost was also one of three days each year, with Christmas and Easter, when Roman Catholics had to confess and receive Holy Communion to stay in good standing. Some Reformed denominations offer the communion meal on only a few Sundays, and Pentecost is one of them. Moravians appoint it for their Love Feasts. Ordinations are held on or near Pentecost across many Western denominations. In the Lutheran Church the color is red and the theme is the Holy Spirit, even when no ordination takes place. Above all, the day is for Confirmation celebrations for youth, with white robes or dresses, the laying on of hands and vibrant singing. Spring blossoming serves as an analogy for the blossoming of youth.

  For some Protestants, the nine days between Ascension Day and Pentecost are a time of fasting and universal prayer. They honor the disciples who prayed in unity while awaiting the Spirit. Roman Catholics pray special Pentecost novenas, and the Pentecost Novena is considered the first novena. Every later novena in preparation for a feast takes its practice from those original nine days. The Eve of Pentecost was traditionally a fast day for Catholics, though canon law no longer requires it. Vigils may last all night, and Pentecost is one of the occasions appointed for the Lutheran Litany.

  On the morning of Pentecost, a popular custom is to climb hilltops and mountains at early dawn to pray. People call this "catching the Holy Ghost". Some families hang artfully carved and painted wooden doves over the dining table, often encased in a globe of glass. They are cleaned before the feast and left hanging all year. On the vigil of Pentecost, a traditional custom blesses flowers, fields and fruit trees.

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• 6. Mother of the Church

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  Acts 1:14 places Mary, the mother of Jesus, among the Twelve in daily prayer. It is the only reference to her after Jesus entrusted her to John the Apostle during the Crucifixion. Icons in both Western and Eastern churches reflect the belief that she was present at Pentecost and had a central role in the gift of the Spirit. The Catholic and Orthodox churches give her a special form of veneration called hyperdulia. It corresponds to the special power they attribute to her intercessory prayers over those of all the saints.

  The Latin encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi follows this tradition. It says her powerful prayers obtained that the spirit of the Redeemer, already given on the Cross, should be bestowed with miraculous gifts on the newly founded Church at Pentecost. Popes have stated that Mary prayed to God, and that her intercession could persuade God to send the Holy Spirit as a permanent gift. The recipients were the Twelve and their successors, and so the Apostolic Church was formed.

  On the 28th of May 1997, Pope John Paul II returned to the theme at a general audience in the Vatican. He recalled the Second Vatican Council's words in Lumen gentium about the Apostles before Pentecost, "persevering with one mind in prayer with the women and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and with his brethren". He called the first community the prelude to the birth of the Church. He said Mary's presence helps sketch the Church's definitive features. He added that Christians of every age have turned to her intercession on the long journey to salvation, hoping to receive the gifts of the Paraclete in greater abundance.

  The dating of her intercessory prayer to the day before Pentecost rests partly on the Archangel Gabriel calling her "full of grace" at the Annunciation. Her bond with the Spirit and her place at Pentecost gave rise to one of her devotional titles, Mother of the Church. In 2018 Pope Francis designated the Monday after Pentecost each year as the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church.

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• 7. Symbols and Sounds

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  In the West, the main sign of Pentecost is the color red. It symbolizes joy and the fire of the Holy Spirit. Priests, ministers and choirs wear red vestments, and in modern times lay people often wear red too. Red banners hang from walls or ceilings to suggest the blowing of the "mighty wind". Some congregations wave red fans or handkerchiefs during the procession. Others use red balloons for the "Birthday of the Church", carried by the congregation, used as decoration, or released all at once. Red flowers stand at the altar, and red flowering plants such as geraniums fill the church. They symbolize renewed life, the coming warmth of summer, and the growth of the church. In southern Australia, Pentecost comes in autumn, and the red leaves of the poinsettia have been used for decoration. In many Protestant and Catholic churches, each plant may be sponsored by someone, in memory of a loved one or in honor of a living person on an occasion such as Confirmation day.

  At Canterbury Cathedral, a small circular opening in the roof still survives from the Middle Ages. Cathedrals and great churches across Western Europe had such an opening, called a Holy Ghost hole, which symbolized the entrance of the Holy Spirit among the congregation. At Pentecost it was decorated with flowers, and sometimes a dove figure was lowered through it as the Pentecost story was read. A large flat dove cut from wood, painted and decorated with flowers could also be lowered over the congregation, particularly during the sequence hymn Veni Creator Spiritus. In Sicily and the Italian peninsula, rose petals were thrown from the galleries to recall the tongues of fire. In modern times the practice has been revived, and origami doves are now strewn from above or hung from the ceiling, sometimes by the hundreds.

  The rose custom gave the feast a second name, Festa Rosalia, or "Rose Feast". In Greek this became ρουσάλια, rousália, and in Romanian Rusalii. Neapolitans called the day Pasca rusata, "rosey Easter". In modern Greek the term refers to the eve of Pentecost, or in Megara in Attica to the Monday and Tuesday after Pascha. John Chrysostom warned his flock not to let this custom replace the spiritual adornment of virtue and the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. Other symbols include the dove, flames, Noah's Ark and the pomegranate. Reformed and Evangelical Protestants often use words instead of images, naming the gifts and Fruits of the Spirit. Western art is less static than the Eastern icon. It usually shows Mary seated among the disciples, with flames on their heads, sometimes with parting clouds, rays of light and a dove. Pentecosts by Titian, Giotto and el Greco achieved great fame.

  Veni Creator Spiritus, attributed to Rabanus Maurus in the 9th century, is the earliest Pentecost hymn still in use. It has been translated through the centuries and also suits ordinations, coronations and the start of the school year. In the Roman Catholic Church, Veni Sancte Spiritus is the sequence hymn for the day. Martin Luther's "Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott", Charles Wesley's "Spirit of Faith Come Down" and Hildegard von Bingen's "O Holy Spirit Root of Life" are also popular. Some hymns mention folk customs. Johann Mentzer's "O daß ich tausend Zungen hätte" pictures "Ye forest leaves so green and tender, that dance for joy in summer air...". N. F. S. Grundtvig's "Den signede Dag" imagines "Yea were every tree endowed with speech and every leaflet singing...". Trumpeters or brass ensembles are often hired to recall the sound of the mighty wind, a practice especially distinctive to the Moravian Church. Eastern churches use no instruments in worship. Some Western services read the lessons in several languages to recall the speaking in tongues.

  The Lutheran church of the Baroque observed three days of Pentecost, and composers wrote sacred cantatas for them. Johann Sebastian Bach composed several, including Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172 in 1714 and Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt, BWV 68 in 1725. Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel wrote Werdet voll Geistes in 1737. Mozart composed an antiphon, Veni Sancte Spiritus, in 1768. Gustav Mahler set Maurus' hymn as the first part of his Symphony No. 8, premiered in 1910. Olivier Messiaen composed an organ mass, Messe de la Pentecôte, in 1949/50. In 1964 Fritz Werner wrote an oratorio on Veni Sancte Spiritus, and Jani Christou wrote the Pentecost oratorio Tongues of Fire. Richard Hillert's 1969 motet used choir, vibraphone and prepared electronic tape. Violeta Dinescu composed Pfingstoratorium in 1993, and Daniel Elder's a cappella Factus est Repente premiered in 2013.

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• 8. Customs, Holidays, and Verse

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  In the northwest of England, church and chapel parades called Whit Walks take place at Whitsun, sometimes on Whit Friday. They feature brass bands and choirs, and girls dress in white. Whit Fairs, also called Whitsun Ales, were traditional, and morris dancing and cheese rolling are also associated with Whitsun. In France it was customary to blow trumpets during Mass to recall the sound of the mighty wind. In Italy, the name Pasqua rossa comes from the red vestments of Whitsunday, and Sicily and elsewhere used the name Pasqua rosatum.

  Hungarians call the day Pünkösd, and its rites probably have origins in ancient Hungarian customs. Girls in festive costumes choose a Little Queen, called Kiskirályné, who is raised high. Then a figure dressed as an animal appears and dies, and an attendant brings him back to life with a joke incantation. In Finland, a saying known to nearly everyone says that anyone without a sweetheart by Pentecost will have none all summer. In Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, people from Pentecost Island celebrate their island's name-day with a church service followed by dancing and other cultural events. In Catholic southern Germany, and to a lesser extent Lower Saxony, very young birch trees are cut and set around churches and other holy places. The practice, called Pfingstbaumpflanzen, evolved from planting birches to evade evil spirits.

  In Ukraine, the springtime feast of Zeleni Sviata became associated with Pentecost, though the exact origin of the link is not known. The customs followed an order. First the home and hearth were cleaned, then festival foods were prepared, and finally homes and churches were decorated with wildflowers and green herbs. A seven-course meal may have been served. It could include kolyvo, a cereal with honey, sauerkraut soup called kapusniak, cheese turnovers, roast pork, and buckwheat pancakes served with eggs and cheese.

  Pentecost Monday is a public holiday in many countries, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands, Ukraine and most parts of Switzerland. Andorra, Benin, Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Senegal and Togo also keep it, and Romania has done so since 2008. In Catalonia it is known as la Segona Pasqua, or Second Easter. In Hungary, strict trading laws make Pentecost different from other Sundays, forcing most businesses to close, and the same rules apply the next day. Sweden replaced the holiday with the Swedish National Day on the 6th of June, by a government decision on the 15th of December 2004. Ireland dropped it in 1973 in favor of an Early Summer Holiday on the first Monday in June. In Italy and Malta it is no longer a public holiday. In the United Kingdom, the last Monday in May has been a Bank Holiday by statute since 1971. France re-established the day as a holiday on the 3rd of May 2005, after reactions to its Journée de solidarité envers les personnes âgées. The Eastern churches treat Pentecost as the last day of Easter in their liturgies, and the fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday are also called Eastertide.

  According to legend, King Arthur gathered all his knights at the round table for a feast and a quest on Pentecost. The tale says: "So ever the king had a custom that at the feast of Pentecost in especial, afore other feasts in the year, he would not go that day to meat until he had heard or seen of a great marvel." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe called Pentecost "das liebliche Fest", the lovely feast, in his Reineke Fuchs. He pictured fields and woods greening, birds singing new songs and meadows sprouting fragrant flowers. Those lines are iconic in the German-speaking lands. In his "Sankt-Rochus-Fest zu Bingen", Goethe also records a peasant proverb that ripe strawberries at Pentecost mean a good wine crop.

  Alexandre Dumas, père, uses the feast in Twenty Years After, the sequel to The Three Musketeers. A Pentecost meal, to which La Ramée, second in command of the prison, is invited, lets the Duke escape. The Duke mocks the festival to his jailor: "Now, what has Pentecost to do with me? Do you fear, say, that the Holy Ghost may come down in the form of fiery tongues and open the gates of my prison?" In Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene V, Capulet recalls an old dance at a ball: "'Tis since the nuptial of Lucentio, Come Pentecost as quickly as it will, Some five-and-twenty years, and then we mask'd." The line alludes to mumming, morris dancing and wedding celebrations at Pentecost. Philip Larkin's "The Whitsun Weddings", one of his most famous poems, describes a train journey through England on a Whitsun weekend.

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