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Where did Whitsun go?
Once Whitsun was one of the three public holidays of the year, a time when the mediæval villein was freed from his work in the fields and later, when the mills would shut down and allow its workforce a break. In villages and towns there would be celebrations, parades led by brass bands, fairs, Morris dancing and much ale would be drunk.
In many places there was a tradition of the young women parading to church or chapel in new white dresses on that day and within the church there might be baptisms or confirmations. Many villages still have pictures of such parades dating from times when the churches and chapels would be the centre of such celebrations and one such picture taken in Luddenden was on display at our recent Heritage Day.
But where has Whitsun gone? In 1871, it was made an official national holiday but a hundred years later, the holiday was moved to become the Spring Bank Holiday, fixed as the last weekend in May. Severed from the church’s festival, by then generally known as Pentecost, it became a secular holiday associated solely with a natural season.
The name Pentecost comes from the Greek and simply means 50 days, the time that has elapsed since Easter. It coincides with the Jewish festival of Shavuot, or the Feast of Weeks, which celebrated the giving of the Law to Moses, as recounted in the book of Exodus and which was 50 days after the celebration of the Passover.
Deprived of its holiday status, Pentecost, has withered and although churches like our own seek to maintain worship on that day as something special, it lacks the backing of the community holiday still enjoyed by Christmas and Easter. It has become a forgotten festival.
Pentecost deserves something special, for it commemorates the day on which the Holy Spirit came upon the first disciples. Luke’s account of what happened that day makes it sound really dramatic, the blowing of a violent wind which filled the whole house where the believers were staying and tongues of fire that rested on each of them as they were filled with the Spirit.
But it is the effect that the Spirit had upon them which is so important. They were literally transformed into new people. They became bold and determined. They didn’t stay any longer in the house where they felt safe from the threats of the Jewish religious authorities, nor did they waste time discussing the extraordinary thing that had happened to them.
They plucked up their courage and went out into the city which was full of Jewish pilgrims come to celebrate Shavuot, stood up and started to tell people about Jesus, how he had been taken and killed but had risen again. Peter’s sermon is recorded in detail in Acts of the Apostles, it is dramatic and holds nothing back.
Filled with the Holy Spirit, this fisherman found that he had the ability to talk about his faith and his words were so convincing that we are told that 3,000 people came to believe in Jesus that day.
It is for this reason that the church often regards Pentecost as the day the Christian Church was born. Certainly, it is the first occasion after Jesus’ death, that people came to believe in him through the teaching of his disciples. And of course, it carried on. The story of the growth in the number of believers and the formation of Christian communities as related by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, is an exciting read and it only happened because of these early Christians who were empowered by the Holy Spirit within them. It gave them confidence to defy the authorities who wanted to get rid of them, it gave them the words to speak when they stood up in front of the curious crowds and enabled them to take on dangerous journeys to spread the word beyond the confines of the Holy Land.
We too, can be filled with the Spirit. It is the force that drives us to undertake Christ’s work in today’s world, something as challenging as the task that faced the first apostles. It enables us to stand up for what we believe even when everything seems weighted against us. And it enables the church today to grow, through us.
