Whitsun
Whitsun | |
---|---|
Also called | Pentecost (Western), Trinity Sunday (Eastern) |
Observed by | Ireland, United Kingdom and some former colonies |
Type | Christian, Public |
Begins | 7th Sunday After Easter |
Date | Easter + 49 days |
2023 date | 28 May |
2024 date | 19 May |
2025 date | 8 June |
2026 date | 24 May |
Frequency | annual |
Related to | Pentecost, Whit Monday, Whit Tuesday, Whit Friday, Trinity Sunday, Beltane[1] |
Whitsun (also Whitsunday or Whit Sunday) is the name used in Britain,
In the
Etymology
The name is a contraction of "White Sunday", attested in "the Holy Ghost, whom thou didst send on Whit-sunday"
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.[16]
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.[17]
The following day is Whit Monday, a name coined to supersede the form Monday in Whitsun-week used by John Wycliffe and others. The week following Whit Sunday is known as "Whitsuntide" or "Whit week".[18]
History
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, with
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.[19]
In Manchester during the 17th century the nearby Kersal Moor Whit races were the great event of the year when large numbers of people turned the area into a giant fairground for several days.[20] 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, or wakes week, was often held at Whitsuntide. A report in John Harlan and T.T. Wilkinson's Lancashire 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'.[19]
Whit Monday was officially recognised as a bank holiday in the UK in 1871, but lost this status in 1972 when the fixed Spring Bank Holiday was created.[6]
In literature
- 1485: Le Morte D'Arthur has the Knights of the Round Table witness a divine vision of the Holy Grailon a Whitsunday, prompting their quest to find its true location.
- 1607: Michaelmas Term(IV.i.73).
- 1611: In Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale Perdita imagines that she plays "as I have seen them do / In Whitsun pastorals" (IV.iv.133-34).
- 1617: James I's Declaration of Sports encouraged "Whitsun ales", among other things, as soon as church was over on a Sunday.
- 1633: George Herbert wrote a poem called "Whitsunday", first published in The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations.
- 1759-67: Laurence Sterne's novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman contains several allusions to Whitsuntide.
- 1785: Samuel Johnson records in his Prayers and Meditations that "Between Easter and Whitsun-tide [1773 . . . he] attempted to learn the Low Dutch language." James Boswell reproduces the remark in his Life of Samuel Johnson (1791).
- 1787: The Whitsun Donative was an anonymous satirical pamphlet inspired by Sterne's Tristram Shandy.
- 1844: Whitsun is central to religious life in Swiss author Jeremias Gotthelf's novel Money and Spirit.
- 1849: Charlotte Brontë's novel Shirley contains an episode set against a Whitsun-tide procession in which Anglican parishioners are confronted by dissenters.
- 1853: Charles Dickens sets a scene in the life of King Edward I on "one Friday in Whitsun week" in A Child's History of England.
- 1853: Christina Rossetti wrote a poem called "Whitsun Eve", published posthumously in 1896.
- 1861: George Eliot mentioned Whitsun in her novel Silas Marner.
- 1875: Charles Dickens's posthumous collection The Uncommercial Traveller includes (in Chapter 21) a reflection on "one day in the Whitsun week last past".
- 1875: In Anthony Trollope's book The Way We Live Now many of the aristocrats leave London and travel to their country estates, or those of their acquaintances, for the week of Whitsuntide.
- 1896: H.G. Wells refers to Whitsun in "The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham", later included in The Country of the Blind and Other Stories.
- 1897: In H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man, important events take place around Whit Monday and subsequent days.
- 1911: The short story "The Wrong Shape" in G. K. Chesterton's The Innocence of Father Brown takes place in Whitsuntide.
- 1916: James Joyce's novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man contains reference (in Chapter 2) to a Whitsuntide play at Stephen Dedalus's school, Belvedere College.
- 1922: James Joyce's novel Ulysses contains four references to Whit Monday. Leopold Bloom is stung by a bee on Whitmonday, 23 May 1904.
- 1932: Agatha Christie's short story "Ingots of Gold" references Whitsuntide and Whit Monday as clues in solving the crime.
- 1936: In Gladys Mitchell's Mrs Bradley detective novel Dead Men's Morris (Michael Joseph, 1936, reprinted 1986) the story of the murders of an Oxfordshire solicitor and his rival, a landowner, begins on Christmas Eve, and reaches its climax with a Morris dance performance on Whit-Monday.
- 1938: In Graham Greene's Brighton Rock, Hale is murdered on Whitsun, kicking off events in the novel.
- 1950: The autobiographical novel A Voice Through A Cloud by Denton Welch concerns the author's near-fatal bike accident and its aftermath, which occurred on a Whitsun holiday.
- 1957: Famous Fiveseries of children's books set during a camping holiday at Whitsun.
- 1961: Sylvia Plath wrote a poem called "Whitsun", published posthumously in 1971.
- 1964: The Whitsun Weddings is a poem and the title of a collection by Philip Larkin.
- 1965: "Whitsunday in Kirchstetten" is a poem by W. H. Auden, from his collection About the House.
- 1973: Thomas Pynchon refers to Whitsun in his novel Gravity's Rainbow (section 2, 20).
- 2010: In Washington: A Life, a 2010 biography by Ron Chernow, George Washington is said to have included a drinking allowance in an employment contract with one of his gardeners, allowing "two dollars at Whitsuntide to be drunk four days and four nights" (p. 135).
- 2011: Several episodes in author Jeff Wheeler's Muirwood Trilogy revolve around Whitsunday and its significance and impact on Muirwood's inhabitants.
- 2022: Whitsun is mentioned in Gillian McAllister’s “Wrong Place Wrong Time”
In film
- 1942: The Second World War film Went the Day Well? depicts the fictional takeover of an English village by Nazi soldiers over Whitsun weekend.
- 1995: P.R.O.B.E: The Devil of Winterborne takes place over the Whitsun holiday.
See also
- county fair with competitions, Morris dancing, and music, usually sponsored by a local pub or tavern.
- Semik
- Rusalii
- Counting of the Omer
References
- ^ ISBN 0-415-15804-4. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
- ^ Anon. "High Court Sittings: Law Terms". The Courts Service. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- ^ 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. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
- Easter Week, the week following Easter that ended at Hocktide(Homans 1991).
- ^ George C. Homans, English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century, 2nd ed. 1991:369.
- ^ a b Banking and Financial Dealings Act, 1971, Schedule 1, para 1.
- ^ "Whit Monday in the United Kingdom". www.timeanddate.com.
- ^ "The nostalgia column with Margaret Watson". Dewsbury Reporter. May 20, 2017.
- ^ "Whit Friday: Whit Walks". saddleworth.org. Archived from the original on 2008-05-09. Retrieved 2011-06-07.
- ^ Liz Woods. "Feasts and Festivals". feastsandfestivals.blogspot.com.
- ^ Nigel Strudwick. "Reviving the Whaddon Whitsun Song". whaddon.org.
- ISBN 978-0-19-863104-0.
the Holy Ghost, whom thou didst send on Whit-sunday; O. Eng. Homilies, i. 209, 1. 16.
- ^ Both noted in Walter William Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, s.v. "Whitsun".
- ^ Skeat.
- Campion, William Magan (1870). The Prayer book interleaved with historical illustrations and explanatory notes arranged parallel to the text. Vol. 5. p. 125. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
- ^ Theodore Erbe (editor) (1905). Mirk's Festial: a Collection of Homilies, Kegan Paul et al., for the Early English Text Society, p.159 accessed 15 December 2014 at Internet Archive.
- The Manchester Times. Manchester, UK.
- ^ Anon. "Whitsuntide". The Free Online Dictionary. Farlex Inc. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-14-191927-0.
- ISBN 1-85216-131-0.