Eastertide, or the
Easter Season, or
Paschal Time, is the period of fifty days from
Easter Sunday to
Pentecost Sunday.
[1]It is celebrated as a single joyful feast, indeed as the "great Lord's Day".[2] Each Sunday of the season is treated as a Sunday of Easter, and, after the Sunday of the Resurrection, they are named Second Sunday of Easter, Third Sunday of Easter, etc. up to the Seventh Sunday of Easter, while the whole fifty-day period concludes with Pentecost Sunday.[3]
Easter Sunday and Pentecost correspond to pre-existing Jewish feasts.[4]
The first eight days constitute the Octave of Easter and are celebrated as solemnities of the Lord.[5]
