Tomorrow is Pentecost, the third great festival of the Christian year. Although transformed by the Church since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Acts 2, Pentecost was originally celebrated by Israel. Along with Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, Pentecost (also known as the “Feast of Weeks” or the “Feast of Harvest”) was one of the three annual festivals when all of the men of Israel were required to appear before Yahweh. The word “Pentecost” itself means “fifty days,” derived from the Greek used in Leviticus 23:15-16: You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the LORD (ESV, emphasis added). Fifty days prior to Pentecost was the beginning of Passover.
So Pentecost has been around for thousands of years, but what about its celebration in the Church since that momentous event recorded in Acts 2? Sources vary, but there appears to be ample evidence of a fifty-day festival season dating back to the end of the second century. Pentecost is considered “the oldest season of the Church’s year…. It is a fifty-day long Sunday – the Latin version of St. Athanasius’ letters actually calls it magna dominica, the great Sunday – and consequently neither fasting nor kneeling was allowed during it” (cited by Cobb in The Study of Liturgy, 463). By the fourth century the celebration of Pentecost began to take fuller shape. Pentecost and Ascension were initially celebrated on the same day, but then a separate Ascension feast emerged on the fortieth day. As a result, Pentecost focused upon the descent of the Holy Spirit for the constituting of the Church of God, and the fifty-day celebratory season was continued by some.
Based on the historical evidence, it is clear that Pentecost had a prominent place in the calendar of the Early Church, and that more than a single day. Pentecost needs to have greater significance to the Church today as well. Beginning at Pasch (Easter), this is to be a season of joy and triumph, a fifty-day Lord’s Day in which the resurrection and dominion of Christ are celebrated. We need to capture the spirit of the Early Church and so declare to the world, and the Church herself, that we have great cause for celebration. Jesus, the ascended King in Heaven, sent the Holy Spirit to make for Himself a new people and a new world. What better reason to have a party!