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Whitsun

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(Redirected fromWhit Sunday)
"Whitsunday" and "Whit Sunday" redirect here. For other uses, seeWhitsunday (disambiguation).
Whitsun
Manchester 2010 Whit Walks
Also calledPentecost(Western),Trinity Sunday(Eastern)
Observed byUnited Kingdomand some former colonies
TypeChristian, Public
Begins7th Sunday AfterEaster
DateEaster + 49 days
2023 dateMay 28
2024 dateMay 19
2025 dateJune 8
2026 dateMay 24
Frequencyannual
Related toPentecost,Whit Monday,Whit Tuesday,Whit Friday,Trinity Sunday

Whitsun(alsoWhitsundayorWhit Sunday) is the name used in Britain,[1]and other countries amongAnglicansandMethodists,[2]for the Christian holy day ofPentecost.It falls on the seventh Sunday afterEasterand commemorates the descent of the Spirit of Truth upon Christ's disciples (as described inActs 2).Whitsuntide,the week following Whitsunday, was one of three holiday weeks for the medievalvillein;[3]on mostmanorshe was free from service on the lord'sdemesnethis week, which marked a pause in the agricultural year.[4]Whit Monday,the day after Whitsun, remained a holiday in Britain until 1971[5]when, with effect from 1972, the ruling Conservative Government decided to permanently replace it, following a five-year trial period, with aSpring Bank Holidayon the last Monday in May. Whit had been the occasion for many varied forms of celebration, and was of significant cultural importance. It was a custom for children to receive a new set of clothes, even among the poorest families, a tradition which continued well into the 20th century.[6][7]

In theNorth West of England,church and chapel parades calledwhit walksstill take place at this time (sometimes onWhit Friday,the Friday after Whitsun).[8]Typically, the parades include brass bands and choirs; girls attending are dressed in white. Traditionally, Whit fairs (sometimes calledWhitsun ales[9]) took place. Other customs, such asMorris dancing,were associated with Whitsun, although in most cases they have been transferred to the Spring bank holiday.Whaddon, Cambridgeshire,has its own Whitsun tradition of singing a unique song around the village before and on Whit Sunday itself.[10]

Etymology

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The name is a contraction of "White Sunday", attested in "the Holy Ghost, whom thou didst send on Whit-sunday"[11]in theOld Englishhomilies,and parallel to the mention ofhwitmonedeiin the early 13th-centuryAncrene Riwle.[12]Walter William Skeatnoted that theAnglo-Saxonword also appears in Icelandichvitasunnu-dagr,but that in English the feast was calledPentecosteuntil after theNorman Conquest,whenwhite(hwitte) began to be confused withwitor understanding.[13]According to one interpretation, the name derives from the white garments worn bycatechumens,those expecting to bebaptisedon that Sunday.[14]Moreover,in Englandwhite vestments, rather than the more usual red, were traditional for the day and itsoctave.[citation needed]A different tradition is that of the young women of the parish all coming to church or chapel in new white dresses on that day. However, Augustinian canonJohn Mirk(c. 1382–1414), ofLilleshallAbbey, Shropshire, had another interpretation:

Goode men and woymen, as ȝe knowen wele all, þys day ys called Whitsonday, for bycause þat þe Holy Gost as þys day broȝt wyt and wysdome ynto all Cristes dyscyples.[15]

Thus, he thought the root of the word was "wit" (formerly spelt "wyt" or "wytte" ) and Pentecost was so-called to signify the outpouring of the wisdom of the Holy Ghost on Christ's disciples.[16]

The following day isWhit Monday,a name coined to supersede the formMonday in Whitsun-weekused byJohn Wycliffeand others. The week following Whit Sunday is known as "Whitsuntide" or "Whit week".[17]

History

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As the first holiday of the summer, Whitsun was one of the favourite times in the traditional calendar, and Whit Sunday, or the following week, was a time for celebration. This took the form of fêtes, fairs, pageants and parades, withWhitsun alesandMorris dancingin the south of England andWhit walks,Club Daysandwakesin the north.[18]A poster advertising the Whitsun festivities atSunbury,Middlesex in 1778 listed the following attractions:

On Whit Monday, in the morning, will be a punting match...The first boat that comes in to receive a guinea...In the afternoon a gold-laced hat, worth 30s. to be cudgell'd for... On Whit Tuesday, in the morning, a fine Holland smock and ribbons, to be run for by girls and young women. And in the afternoon six pairs of buckskin gloves to be wrestled for.[18]

InManchesterduring the 17th century the nearbyKersal MoorWhit races were the great event of the year when large numbers of people turned the area into a giant fairground for several days.[19]With the coming of industrialisation it became convenient to close down whole towns for a week in order to clean and maintain the machinery in the mills and factories. The week of closure, orwakes week,was often held at Whitsuntide. A report in John Harlan and T.T. Wilkinson'sLancashire Folk lore(1882) reads:

It is customary for the cotton mills etc., to close for Whitsuntide week to give the hands a holiday; the men going to the races etc. and the women visiting Manchester on Whit-Saturday, thronging the markets, the Royal Exchange and the Infirmary Esplanade, and other public places: And gazing in at the shop windows, whence this day is usually called 'Gaping Sunday'.[18]

Whit Monday was officially recognised as abank holidayin the UK in 1871, but lost this status in 1972 when the fixed Spring Bank Holiday was created.[5]

In literature

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In film

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See also

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References

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  1. ^Anon."High Court Sittings: Law Terms".The Courts Service. Archived fromthe originalon 3 October 2016.Retrieved24 May2014.
  2. ^The Book of Worship for Church and Home: With Orders of Worship, Services for the Administration of the Sacraments and Other Aids to Worship According to the Usages of the Methodist Church.Methodist Publishing House. 1964. p. 126.Retrieved25 March2017.
  3. ^The others beingYuletide,the week followingChristmas,andEaster Week,the week following Easter that ended atHocktide(Homans 1991).
  4. ^George C. Homans,English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century,2nd ed. 1991:369.
  5. ^abBanking and Financial Dealings Act, 1971, Schedule 1, para 1.
  6. ^"Whit Monday in the United Kingdom".timeanddate.
  7. ^"The nostalgia column with Margaret Watson".Dewsbury Reporter.May 20, 2017.
  8. ^"Whit Friday: Whit Walks".saddleworth.org.Archived fromthe originalon 2008-05-09.Retrieved2011-06-07.
  9. ^Liz Woods."Feasts and Festivals".feastsandfestivals.blogspot.
  10. ^Nigel Strudwick."Reviving the Whaddon Whitsun Song".whaddon.org.
  11. ^Skeat, Walter William(1898) [1882].An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language(3rd ed.).Clarendon Press.p.708.ISBN978-0-19-863104-0.the Holy Ghost, whom thou didst send on Whit-sunday; O. Eng. Homilies, i. 209, 1. 16.
  12. ^Both noted in Walter William Skeat,An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language,s.v."Whitsun".
  13. ^Skeat.
  14. ^Campion, William Magan(1870).The Prayer book interleaved with historical illustrations and explanatory notes arranged parallel to the text.Vol. 5. p. 125.Retrieved2017-06-05.
  15. ^Theodore Erbe (editor) (1905).Mirk's Festial: a Collection of Homilies,Kegan Paul et al., for the Early English Text Society, p.159accessed 15 December 2014 at Internet Archive.
  16. ^Anon (29 May 1869). "Whitsuntide".The Manchester Times.Manchester, UK.
  17. ^Anon."Whitsuntide".The Free Online Dictionary.Farlex Inc.Retrieved25 May2010.
  18. ^abcRoud, Steve (31 March 2008).The English Year (eBook).ePenguin.ISBN978-0-14-191927-0.
  19. ^Dobkin, Monty (1999).Broughton and Cheetham Hill in Regency and Victorian times.Neil Richardson.ISBN1-85216-131-0.
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