Did you know that the celebration of Easter does not end on Easter Sunday, and that it actually extends for 50 days (7 weeks) up through Pentecost Sunday? This period of time is known as Eastertide. I published a blog post on April 5, 2021, titled, “This Season of New Beginnings,” that describes this season of joy and celebration. As of today, May 8, 2023, we are 30 days into the 50 days of Easter–the number of days from April 9, 2023 (Easter) through May 28, 2023 (Pentecost).
The following information is take from an online PDF titled “The 50 Days of Easter“:
Easter for Christians is not just one day, but rather a 50-day period. The season of Easter, or Eastertide, begins at sunset on the eve of Easter and ends on Pentecost, the day we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church (see Acts 2).
Easter is also more than just an extended celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. By the mid 4th century in the early church, Lent was a season for new converts to learn about the faith and prepare for baptism on Easter Sunday. The initial purpose of the 50-day Easter season was to continue the faith formation of new Christians.
Today, this extended season gives us time to rejoice and experience what it means when we say Christ is risen. It is the season when we remember our baptism and how through this sacrament we are, according to the liturgy, “incorporated into Christ’s mighty acts of salvation.” As “Easter people,” we also celebrate and ponder the birth of the Church and gifts of the Spirit (Pentecost), and how we are to live as faithful disciples of Christ.
One way the church pursues this goal of seeing God present in the world is through the reading of the Acts of the Apostles [Book of Acts]. At worship services through the Easter season, our usual practice of reading from the Old Testament can be replaced with readings from the Acts of the Apostles. These readings tell the story of the church’s earliest days, and the beginnings of our faith’s spreading throughout the ancient world. These stories of heroism, controversies, persecutions and miracles all testify to the continued presence of the Risen Christ in the world, through the lives of his disciples, and the actions of the Holy Spirit.
All of this is a sign of hope for us today. In spite of imperfection and struggles, God has not abandoned us, nor left us to our own devices. The risen Savior is still with us. These 50 days of Easter ask us to reflect on his presence, and—even in the face of danger or fear—to live with joy. (Quote source here.)
What is stated above beautifully sums up the meaning of these 50 days between Easter and Pentecost. In an article titled, “The Season of Easter,” published on TheSacredGrace.com (author’s name not mentioned), there is a quote by N.T. Wright, PhD, Research Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Early Christianity at St Mary’s College in the University of St Andrews and Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford. Here is his quote:
If Lent is a time to give things up, Eastertide ought to be a time to take things up. Champagne for breakfast again–well, of course.
Christian holiness was never meant to be merely negative. Of course, you have to weed the garden from time to time; sometimes the ground ivy may need serious digging before you can get it out. That’s Lent for you. But you don’t want simply to turn the garden back into a neat bed of blank earth.
Easter is the time to sow new seeds and to plant about a few cuttings. If Calvary means putting to death things in your life that need killing off if you are to flourish as a Christian and a truly human being, then Easter should mean planting, watering and training up things in your life (personal and corporate) that ought to be blossoming, filling the garden with color and perfume, and in due course bearing fruit.
The forty days of the Easter season, until the ascension, ought to be a time of balance out Lent by taking something up, some new task or venture, something wholesome and fruitful and outgoing and self-giving.
You may be able to do it only for six weeks, just as you may be able to go without beer or tobacco only for the six weeks of Lent. But if you really make a start on it, it might give you a sniff of new possibilities, new hopes, new ventures you never dreamed of. It might bring something of Easter into your innermost life. It might help you wake up in a whole new way. And that’s what Easter is all about. –N.T. Wright (Quote source here.)
These thoughts by N.T. Wright are very inspiring! I’ve never thought much about the period of time between Easter and Pentecost as I didn’t grow up in a tradition that celebrated that period of time (we did celebrate both Easter and Pentecost, but not the time in between). I love the idea, as N.T. Wright stated, that “Easter is the time to sow new seeds and to plant about a few cuttings. If Calvary means putting to death things in your life that need killing off if you are to flourish as a Christian and a truly human being, then Easter should mean planting, watering and training up things in your life (personal and corporate) that ought to be blossoming, filling the garden with color and perfume, and in due course bearing fruit.”
I do believe I am quite inspired after reading that quote!!!
Ever since the middle of the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday 30+ days ago, I’ve felt as if some kind of “renewal” was starting to happen but it was without explanation, other then up to that point I felt like I was sort of stagnating even though I am an active type person who finds plenty to keep myself occupied.
Perhaps what N.T. Wright stated above is just the “shot in the arm” some of my readers might be needing at this time in their lives and/or in their circumstances. Jesus Christ did, indeed, rise from the dead on Easter morning and brought us who believe in him new life, and it is the Holy Spirit that breathes that new life into our very bones, sinews and being. Now is the time, as N.T. Wright stated, for us to “put to death things in our life that need killing off so we can flourish as a Christian and as a truly human being… blossoming, filling the garden with color and perfume, and in due course bearing fruit.”
That same article, “The Season of Easter,” published on TheSacredGrace.com, where I found the quote from N.T. Wright, includes the following Eastertide prayer:
You bring light and life to Your people.
Your mercies are our delight.
You are preparing joy for us and us for joy;
We pray for joy, wait for joy, long for joy.
Your death is our life, Your resurrection our joy,
Your ascension our hope, Your presence our peace.
We cling to the promise of the resurrection:
Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again.
We celebrate with courage all You have done today
And hold on to hope for all You will do tomorrow.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and forever shall be:
World without end!
Amen!
(Quote source here.)
Indeed, Amen!!! I’ll end this post with the words from Jesus to his disciples after he had risen from the dead that are found in Matthew 28:16-20: Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said—All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely…
I am with you always . . .
To the very end . . .
Of the age . . . .
YouTube Video: “Holy Spirit Come” by Patrick Mayberry:
Sara's Reflections 