The Season of Easter

We are now in the second week of the highest liturgical season of the year: Easter. Yes, Easter is more than a day or even three days; it is a season of fifty days! It begins with Evening Prayer I* for Easter Sunday and ends with Evening Prayer II* on Pentecost Sunday. In fact, the word pentecost implies fifty days. 

       This makes the season of Easter longer than the season of Lent, the season that prepares us for Easter. This is fitting, and it is in keeping with one of the guiding principals of Catholic liturgy since Vatican II: the principal of progressive solemnity. This principal states that feasts and seasons of higher importance are to be marked with greater solemnity. Thus, the season of Easter should be longer than the season that prepares for it.

       It also means that those who come into a Catholic church during the Easter season should recognize that this time of year is different and more special than either Lent which precedes it, or Ordinary Time which follows it. Some examples of ways that parishes can do this:

• Use more flowers in decorating the sanctuary. For parishes that find it difficult to keep flowers in the sanctuary year-round, having them just for the Easter season is a worthwhile investment.
• The music at the liturgy should a little more elaborate (note that it already is more elaborate than Lent by virtue of resumption of the singing of the Gloria; the trick will be making it more elaborate than the Ordinary Time that follows when the Gloria is also sung).
• Replace the Penitential Rite with a Sprinkling Rite as a reminder of Baptism. (See below for the connection between Easter and Baptism).
• Have more elaborate banners, altar cloths, and other decorations (of course, using the color of the season — white — along with gold and other festive materials).
• Use images of the resurrection and Christian initiation (particularly Baptism), which symbolize the season.

In keeping with this last point, Easter is the usual season for parish celebrations of the Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. Baptism is celebrated in a big way at the Easter Vigil, when adults are brought into the Church during the memorial of Jesus' death and resurrection. But Baptisms should also be celebrated with the Baptism of infants on other Sundays of the Easter season. In addition, many dioceses hold the bulk of their Confirmation celebrations during Easter, and most parishes celebrate First Holy Communion during these fifty days, as well.

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*Evening Prayer (Vespers) is part of the Liturgy of the Hours (also known as the Divine Office), the official prayer of the Church which is not tied to the administration of any of the seven Sacraments. (For some foundational reading on the Liturgy of the Hours, read Chapter IV of The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.) Evening Prayer I is said in the evening of the day before a Sunday or solemnity; Evening Prayer II is said in the evening at the conclusion of a Sunday or solemnity.