Sunday, 31 May 2009

The feast of Pentecost, otherwise known as ‘Whitsunday,’ is considered a sort of ‘birth’ and ‘baptism’ for the Church, which, filled with the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, now went out to spread the Gospel to the whole world.  The vestments on Whitsunday are red. The name ‘Whitsunday’ comes from ‘White Sunday’ because, at one time, those catechumens who could not be baptised at Easter would be baptised on the vigil and put on white robes. Pentecost is considered the second greatest Feast of the liturgical year and takes place 50 days after the first, Easter. Pentecost celebrates the coming of the Holy Ghost upon the disciples and Our Lady and, in a sense, the reversal of the story of the Tower of Babel in that the Apostles were given the gift of tongues by which they could preach and be understood by anyone in any language: a demonstration of the Church’s true catholicity. The Christian Pentecost corresponds to the Pentecost of our Israelite ancestors, a day which came 50 days after Passover for the celebration of Firstlings (Leviticus 23: 15-22).

The Dove: the form the Holy Ghost took at Christ’s Baptism: is the primary symbol of the day. In mediaeval times, there even used to be ‘Holy Ghost Holes’ in the roofs of some churches from which a dove—real or a model—would be lowered over the congregation as trumpets sounded or the choir mimicked the sounds of rustling winds. When the dove descended, red rose petals or, incredibly, pieces of burning straw symbolising the ‘tongues of flame’ in Acts would shower down.