Whit Tuesday
Christian holiday
Whit Tuesday (syn. Whittuesday, Whitsun Tuesday) is the Christian holiday celebrated the day after Pentecost Monday, the third day of the week beginning on Pentecost. Pentecost is a movable feast in the Christian calendar dependent upon the date of Easter. "Whit" relates either to the white robes worn by those baptized on Pentecost, or to the French word "huit," since Pentecost is the eighth Sunday after Easter.
01Observance
It was a holiday in the Lutheran Church in Germany at Bach's time, where all major holidays were celebrated for three days. Bach and others composed cantata music for the occasion.
It used to be a public holiday in Denmark and Sweden. In Denmark it was abolished on 26 October 1770, and in Sweden on 4 November 1772, both places as part of larger reductions of the number of holidays.
The Dancing procession of Echternach takes place on Pentecost Tuesday. In the 19th century, it was also the occasion of the feast of Saint Tetha in Cornwall.
Observance in Eastern Orthodoxy
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Whit Tuesday is known as the "Third Day of the Trinity" and is part of the Feast of Pentecost. Monasteries, cathedrals, and parish churches often celebrate the Divine Liturgy on this day.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Whit Tuesday”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- EchternachDancingProcession.jpg by David Edgar, CC BY-SA 3.0
Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.
