Easter Time

Easter Time is fifty days long, from the Easter Vigil through Pentecost Sunday. The Church does not celebrate the Resurrection on one morning and then return to business. St. Athanasius called these fifty days the great Sunday. Vestments are white. The Alleluia returns and is not spared. The Paschal candle stands near the ambo and is lit at Mass.

The first eight days are the octave of Easter. Each day is celebrated with the rank of a solemnity. The Gospel through the week tells the appearances of the risen Lord. The Second Sunday of Easter closes the octave and is Divine Mercy Sunday. The Acts of the Apostles is read as the first reading throughout the season, in place of the Old Testament, because the Church is listening to the first preaching of the Resurrection.

Forty days along the way, the Ascension is kept, on Thursday or on the following Sunday according to the local calendar. The novena of the Holy Spirit fills the days until Pentecost. Pentecost itself, in red, is the last day of the season. After Evening Prayer that Sunday, the candle is moved to the baptistery and Ordinary Time resumes.

The Friday abstinence from meat, required on other Fridays of the year in many places, is not required during Easter Time in the general calendar of the Latin Church. Joy is the penance of these weeks: praise, mercy, and a life that matches the baptism just renewed.