Pentecost

When was the first Pentecost?

"Pentecost" is from the Greek word for "fiftieth [day]."

It was a festival in honor of God's giving of Torah (the Law) on Mt. Sinai, fifty days after Passover night in Egypt.

In Hebrew, the name of the feast is "Shavuoth," meaning "weeks." Fifty days is essentially a "week of weeks." Seven weeks times seven days per week is forty-nine; but they add one day to that total, arriving at fifty, because the count includes the starting day.

Notice that the same phenomenon of adding one for the starting day turns up in the French phrase for a week: "huit jours" (eight days!). That, in turn, led to a Beatle's song called "Eight days a week."

The gift of the Holy Spirit was given to the 120 disciples in the Upper Room (Acts 2) on the Jewish feast of Pentecost (Shavuoth).

In the Jewish calendar, the count of the week-of-weeks begins the day after Passover. If Passover falls on a Tuesday in a particular year, Pentecost will fall on a Wednesday.

Christian Liturgical Calendar

There are a few fixed points in the Scriptures:

• Death on Friday.
• Resurrection on Sunday (the first day of the week; the Old Testament's "Day of the Lord" is Saturday, the seventh day).
• Gift of the Holy Spirit on the Jewish feast of Pentecost (Shavuoth).

Christians changed the starting point for counting fifty days from Passover to Easter Sunday. Our feast of the Fiftieth Day (Pentecost) always falls on a Sunday. It is a week of weeks after Easter, not a week of weeks after Passover.

This change in the way we calculate the Fiftieth Day introduces a discrepancy between the original Scriptural account (50 days after Passover, with day 1 being the day after Passover) and the liturgical system (50 days after Easter, with day 1 being Easter itself).

Those who call the days after Jesus' Ascension the "Church's first novena" (nine days of prayer while waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit) counted the days from the Ascension to the Jewish festival of Pentecost (fifty days after Passover). Liturgically, there are now nine days "between" Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday.

Let's count to Fifty!

DOW	Jewish count	Christian liturgy	Luke	John
Wed	-1			Preparation Day?
Thu	0 -- Passover		Last Supper = Passover	Last Supper NOT Passover!
Fri	1		Good Friday = day after Passover	Preparation Day before sundown
Sat	2			Passoverday on Saturday
Sun	3	1	Resurrection on Sunday	Resurrection, Ascension, Gift of Spirit
Mon	4	2
Tue	5	3
Wed	6	4
Thu	7 -- End Passover week	5
Fri	8	6
Sat	9	7
Sun	10	8
Mon	11	9
Tue	12	10
Wed	13	11
Thu	14	12
Fri	15	13
Sat	16	14
Sun	17	15
Mon	18	16
Tue	19	17
Wed	20	18
Thu	21	19
Fri	22	20
Sat	23	21
Sun	24	22
Mon	25	23
Tue	26	24
Wed	27	25
Thu	28	26
Fri	29	27
Sat	30	28
Sun	31	29
Mon	32	30
Tue	33	31
Wed	34	32
Thu	35	33
Fri	36	34
Sat	37	35
Sun	38	36
Mon	39	37
Tue	40	38
Wed	41	39
Thu	42	40 -- Ascension Thursday	(1) Ascension (on a Thursday)
Fri	43	41 (1)	(2)
Sat	44	42 (2)	(3)
Sun	45	43 (3)	(4)
Mon	46	44 (4)	(5)
Tue	47	45 (5)	(6)
Wed	48	46 (6)	(7)
Thu	49	47 (7)	(8)
Fri	50 -- Pentecost	48 (8)	(9) Gift of the Spirit
Sat	+1	49 (9)
Sun	+2	50 -- Pentecost