Easter (Pascha) to Pentecost (Biblical)

The celebrations of the Easter season have always been the most joyous festivals of the church year, for they focus on the event that vindicates Jesus as Lord and Messiah and that offers the promise of life for those who belong to him. "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor. 15:20). The Easter or Paschal season includes Ascension Day and concludes with Pentecost. Easter Day The festival of the resurrection of Christ has been called "the greatest and oldest feast of the Christian Church" (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church [New York: Oxford University Press, 1957], 432). There is no instruction in the New Testament regarding an annual festival of Jesus' resurrection; every Lord's Day, and indeed every gathering of his body, was a celebration of the presence of the risen Christ. Some exegetes, however, point to Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 5:78 as an indication that such an annual celebration of the Resurrecti…