Tomorrow (June 8) is Pentecost. According to Christians, this is the 1971st (or 1973rd) anniversary of the visual manifestation of the Holy Spirit's presence with the early christian church. A bit over a week ago, May 29, was Ascension Day, the anniversary of Christ's return to God to be humanities eternal Lord and Saviour.
As an american protestant, the only Christian holidays which I really knew about were Easter and Christmas. While Halloween (All Saint's Eve) had some christian (Catholic) root, the US celebration is very removed from such roots. I knew that there were other christian holidays, but I thought of them as 'Catholic' and so unimportant to a protestant like myself. I was very surprised by the holidays celebrated in Europe. For example, in very post-christian Sweden, the holidays Epiphany, Ascension Day, and Pentecost were celebrated.
While Epiphany might deserve more study, it doesn't seem to be religiously different than Christmas, a date which appears to have been chosen for other reasons rather than it's significance to christian events.
The events in a significant portion of all 4 canonical gospels deal with Christ's final days. His death was during the jewish Passover festival and He rose again (Easter) on Nisan 16 (according to the letters of Paul). Forty days after this, according to the synoptic gospels, Christ returned to heaven. Ten days after that, on the jewish festival of Shavuot, the visual manifestation of God being present with the early church occurred as described in Acts.
All of these festivals: Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost, and Ascension Day, are anniversaries of important dates in christianity and, like other anniversaries, are times to remember the past. Tomorrow will be the first time I remember this anniversary.
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