St. Stephen Anglican Church

Eastertide, or the Easter Season, or Paschal Time, is the period of fifty days from Resurrection Sunday to Pentecost Sunday, from April 1 to May 27 in 2012. It is celebrated as a single joyful feast, indeed as the "great Lord's Day". 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. The first eight days constitute the Octave of Easter and are celebrated as solemnities of the Lord. Since 2000, the Second Sunday of Easter is also called Divine Mercy Sunday. The name "Low Sunday" for this Sunday, once common in English, is now rarely used. The solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord is celebrated on the seventh Sunday of Eastertide May 20 in 2012. The days from that feast until the Saturday before Pentecost are days of preparation for the Holy Spirit - the Paraclete. The Sunday preceding the feast of the Ascension of the Lord was sometimes, though not officially, called Rogation Sunday. In the Anglican Church, the Easter season begins with the Easter Vigil and ends after Evening Prayer on the Day of Pentecost.

Eastertide - The Great Fifty Days

He is Risen!