|
WHITSUNDAY, or See also: principal feasts of the Christian See also: Church, celebrated on the fiftieth (7EVT17KOVTil)
See also: day after See also: Easter to commemorate the descent of the See also: Holy Spirit on the disciples
.
The day became one of the three baptismal seasons, and the name Whitsunday is now generally attributed to the See also: white garments formerly worn by the candidates for
See also: baptism on this feast, as in the See also: case of the See also: Dominica in albis
.
The festival is the third in importance of the See also: great feasts of the Church and the last of the See also: annual See also: cycle commemorating the See also: Lord
.
It is connected with the Jewish See also: Pentecost (q.v.), not only in the See also: historical date of its origin (see Acts vii.), but in idea; the Jewish festival is one of thanks for the first-fruits of the See also: earth, the Christian for the first-fruits of the Spirit
.
In the early Church the name of Pentecost was given to the whole fifty days between Easter and Whitsunday, which were celebrated as a See also: period of rejoicing (See also: Tertullian, De idolatr
.
C
.
12, De bapt
.
19, De See also: car. milit
.
3, Apost
.
Canons, c
.
37, Canons of See also: Antioch, 30)
.
In the narrower sense, as the designation of the fiftieth day of this period, the word Pentecost occurs for the first See also: time in a See also: canon of the council of See also: Elvira (305), which denounces as an heretical abuse the tendency to celebrate the 4oth day (See also: Ascension) instead of the 5oth, and adds: " juxta auctoritatem scripturarum cuncti diem Pentecostis celebremus." There is plentiful evidence that the festival was regarded very early as one of the great feasts; See also: Gregory Nazianzen (Oral. xliv
.
De Pentec.) calls it the " day of the Spirit " (i'ii*a Tou lIvei sc ror), and in 385 the Peregrinatio Silviae (see Duchesne, Origines, App.) describes its elaborate celebration at Jerusalem . TheSee also: code of See also: Theodosius (xv
.
5, De spectaculis) forbade theatrical performances and the See also: games of the circus during the feast
.
The See also: custom of hallowing the days immediately surrounding the festival is comparatively See also: late
.
Thus, among others, the See also: synod of See also: Mainz in 813 ordered the celebration of an octave similar to that at Easter
.
The custom of celebrating the See also: vigil by fasting had already been introduced
.
The duration of the festival was, however, ultimately fixed at three days
.
In the Church of See also: England this is still the See also: rule (there are See also: special collects, gospels and epistles for Monday and Tuesday in Whitsun week); in the Lutheran churches two days only are observed
.
In the See also: middle ages the Whitsun services were marked by many curious customs
.
Among. these described by Durandus (Rationale div. off. vi
.
107) are the letting down of a dove from the roof into the church, the dropping of balls of fire, See also: rose-leaves and the like
.
Whitsun is one of the Scottish quarter-days, and though the Church festival is movable, the legal date was fixed for the 15th of May by an See also: act of 1693
.
Whitmonday, which, with the See also: Sunday itself, was the occasion for the greatest of all the See also: medieval church ales, was made an See also: English See also: Bank See also: Holiday by an act passed on the 25th of May 1871
.
See Duchesne, Origines du culte Chretien (1889); W
.
See also: Smith and
Cheetham, Dic. of Christian Antiquities (1874–188o) ; Herzog-Hauck,
28
Reaiencyklopadie (1904), xv
.
254, S.V
.
" Pfingsten." For the many superstitions and observances of the day see P
.
H
.
Ditch-
See also: field, Old English Customs (1897); Brand, Antiquities of Great Britain (
See also: Hazlitt's edit., 1905) ; B
.
Picart, Ceremonies et coutumes religieuses de taus ies peuples (1723)
.
|
|
|
[back] WHITSTABLE |
[next] JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER (1807-1892) |
There are no comments yet for this article.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.