Whit Monday

About Whit Monday

Whit Monday — Pentecost Monday — falls on the day after Pentecost Sunday, exactly fifty days after Easter. It closes the Pentecost weekend that brings the Easter season to a close and marks the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples as described in the Acts of the Apostles. In the early church the whole week after Pentecost was celebrated as a single feast, and Whit Monday is in many countries the last legal remnant of that octave. It is a public holiday in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, France (since 2008 when the controversial solidarity day was relaxed), Hungary, Romania, and parts of Switzerland and Greece. In Italy, Sweden and the UK the day has been moved or abolished as a public holiday in the past decades.

Whit Monday traditions across Europe mix religious observance with the start of the warm season. In Germany and Austria farmers celebrate Pfingstausritte — horseback processions, especially in Bavaria — and the Pentecost fairs of small towns are a fixture of the calendar. In the Netherlands and Belgium open-air markets, antique fairs and folk festivals fill the day. In Greece it coincides with Holy Spirit Monday, with services followed by family meals. In France families take advantage of the long weekend for short trips. In Scandinavia it is often the first true beach weekend of the year, and many open the summer cottage. Churches hold the Pentecost Monday mass with red vestments — the colour of the tongues of flame that descended on the disciples.