Pentecost

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Outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Rabbula Gospels (586)

Pentecost (from Greek πεντηκοστὴ ἡμέρα pentēkostē hēméra , German 'fiftieth day' ) is a Christian festival. The designation in German was originally a dative plural "at Pentecost", then nominative plural "the Pentecost", finally nominative singular "Pentecost." The festival content is the sending of the Spirit of God to the disciples of Jesus and his permanent presence in the church . Iconographically , Pentecost is also the sending out of the Holy Spirit or the outpouring of the Holy Spiritcalled. Whitsunday is the 50th day of Easter , i.e. 49 days after Easter Sunday , and is between May 10th (earliest date) and June 13th (latest date).

In the New Testament in the Acts of the Apostles it is told that the Holy Spirit came down on the apostles and disciples when they were gathered in Jerusalem for the Jewish festival of Shavuot ( τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς πεντηκοστῆς 'on the 50th day') ( Acts 2: 1-41  EU ). In the Christian tradition, this date is also understood as the foundation of the church.

Jewish background

The Jewish festival of weeks (Hebrew Shavuot ) is one of the three pilgrimage festivals. Much of ancient Judaism was Greek-speaking; here the festival had the name of ancient Greek ἡ πεντηκοστή hē pentekostḗ “the fiftieth”. Meant is the 50th day after the festival of unleavened bread (Mazzotfest) . It is a harvest festival as it marks the end of the wheat harvest that begins on Passover . On the feast of Weeks, the gift of the Torah to Moses on Sinai was also remembered. The event of Pentecost is told in the Acts of the Apostles in such a way that there are linguistic references to this legislation on Sinai.

Pentecost in the New Testament

Depiction of Pentecoste (Old French for Pentecost) in the Ingeborg Psalter (around 1200)

The festival of pentekostḗ is mentioned three times in the New Testament. Apart from Acts of the Apostles chap. 2, the Jewish festival of the week is twice in Paul's travel plans : In Ephesus he wants to stay until pentekostḗ ( 1 Cor 16.8  EU ), if possible arrive at pentekostḗ in Jerusalem ( Acts 20.16  EU ).

The second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles has great significance in the conception of the Lukan history: In the first part, the Gospel of Luke, the public activity of Jesus of Nazareth begins with the Holy Spirit coming down on him "visibly in the form of a dove" ( Luke 3 , 22  EU ). The second part, the Acts of the Apostles, is accordingly opened with the fact that the Holy Spirit likewise descends on the apostles in a way that is perceptible to the senses. The risen one had already prepared them for it ( Acts 1,4-5  EU , Acts 1,8  EU ).

At the beginning, according to Alfons Weiser, there are special glossolalia experiences in the early Christian community in Jerusalem. They were told in such a way that the theophany motifs echoed the Sinai tradition. The early Christian interpretation of Ps 68.19  EU can be read off from Eph 4.7–8  EU . Accordingly, it is the exalted Christ who gives the disciples the gifts of the Holy Spirit , including the glossolalia (speaking in tongues). Luke took these orally circulating stories and stylized them. A major intervention was the transformation of the glossolalia tradition into a foreign language miracle, whereby he shows knowledge of a list of peoples of ancient geography. The result is a report that is unique in the whole of the New Testament that the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles at a certain date and place with extraordinary accompanying phenomena and that the effect, the foreign language miracle, was witnessed by people from different countries:

  • The assembled disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit:

“When the day of Pentecost came, everyone was in the same place. Suddenly there was a roar from heaven, as if a violent storm was driving along, and it filled the whole house in which they were sitting. And tongues of fire appeared to them, and they were dispersed; one perched on each of them. And all were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit told them to do. "

- Acts 2, 1–4  EU
  • Peter invokes a promise from God through the prophet Joel that God will pour out his spirit on all flesh in the last days (cf. Joel 3: 1-5  EU ):

“Then Peter appeared, together with the eleven; He raised his voice and began to say, You Jews and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem! You should know this, pay attention to my words! These men are not drunk as you think; it's only the third hour of the day; But now what was said by the prophet Joel is happening : In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters will speak prophetically, your young men will have visions, and your elders will have dreams. In those days I will pour out my spirit on my servants and maidservants and they will speak prophetically. "

- Acts 2: 14-18  EU

“God raised this Jesus from the dead, we are all witnesses to that. Exalted to the right of God, he received the promised Holy Spirit from the Father and poured it out, as you see and hear. [...] So let the whole house of Israel know with certainty: God made him Lord and Christ, this Jesus, whom you crucified. "

- Acts 2, 32-36  EU
  • When asked by the audience, Peter mentions repentance and baptism as a way to receive the promised Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, three thousand people obeyed:

“When they heard this, it struck them right in the heart, and they said to Peter and the other apostles, What should we do, brothers? Peter answered them, Repent and be baptized each one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise applies to you and your children and to all those far away whom the Lord our God will call. In many other words he implored and exhorted them: Let yourself be saved from this corrupt generation! Now those who accepted his word were baptized. About three thousand people were added to their community that day. They held fast to the teaching of the apostles and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayers. "

- Acts 2,37-42  EU

For the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Acts of the Apostles chooses the metaphor “tongues of fire”, which came down on those present ( Acts 2,3  EU ). The presence of the Holy Spirit, on the other hand , is expressed by the four Gospels at the baptism of Jesus as “in the form of a dove” who came down on Jesus ( Mk 1.10  EU ).

The xenoglossia described in the Acts of the Apostles ( Acts 2, 4-13  EU ) is called the “Pentecost miracle” , ie the miraculous occurrence that the people gathered at the festival heard the apostles speak in their own language.

In the presentation of the Gospel of John ( Joh 20,19-23 EU ) the risen One  came into the midst of his disciples on the evening of Easter, breathed on them and transmitted the Spirit of God to them with the words “Receive the Holy Spirit!”.

History of Pentecost

A fifty-day festival after Easter is attested in the early 2nd century in the Epistula Apostolorum . Tertullian mentioned it as a time of joy, when baptisms were preferred. Further evidence comes from Rome and Egypt in the 3rd century. According to Ambrose of Milan , these days are “like a single Sunday”. The fiftieth day was something special as the end of this festival season, but it did not yet have an independent festival character.

In the late 4th century the custom emerged of celebrating the individual stages of the Passion and Easter story on special dates ( Triduum Sacrum , Holy Week ). In Jerusalem and the surrounding area, this is linked to the imperial church building program and the flourishing pilgrimage tourism to the Holy Land. In this context, the pentekostḗ festival was broken down after Easter and regionally partly the 40th day, partly the 50th day was celebrated as a festival, which had both the ascension of Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit to the apostles as content. Around 400 it then became generally accepted to celebrate the 40th day as the feast of the Ascension and the 50th day as the feast of the outpouring of the spirit, apparently first in Spain. Ceremonial sermons by John Chrysostom , Gregory of Nazianzen , Augustine of Hippo and Leo the Great show how Pentecost was increasingly related to Easter and interpreted as its fulfillment. The days between Ascension Day and Pentecost were celebrated regionally with fasting, which meant that the idea of ​​a pentekostḗ joy time was abandoned.

Liturgical celebration

Byzantine rite

Pentecost Icon, Kirillo Belozersky Monastery (around 1497)

In the Orthodox churches the character of the pentekostḗ was preserved as a fifty-day festival that closes on Pentecost Sunday. The book with the hymns and readings for this period is called Pentekostarion or Flower Triodion . The churches of the Byzantine rite understand the Easter season as marked by the presence of the risen Lord on earth. So it ends with the ascension , and with the disappearance of the visible Christ, the expectation of the promised spiritual mission begins. The descent of the spirit at Pentecost is then the completion of the self-revelation of the triune God . At Pentecost, the apostles begin to preach the gospel, from now on the mystical memory of the Lord is celebrated. Pentecost is the birth festival of the church and the beginning of church history . This is also sung about in the Troparion of the Feast: “Blessed are you, Christ our God. You made the fishermen all-wise by sending down the holy spirit and through them you captured the world. More philanthropic, honor be to you. "

There are several subjects of liturgical importance. On the day before Pentecost Sunday, the memory of the deceased is celebrated as a “Sabbath of Souls”; the dead are also included in the outpouring of the Spirit. The liturgical texts of the feast themselves emphasize on the one hand the Spiritual Mission and on the other hand the Trinity of God. The pouring out of the gift of the Spirit is not only celebrated in the Divine Liturgy, but also in Vespers on Pentecost Sunday with three solemn prayers, the so-called knee prayers . This celebration of knee flexion prayers is an ancient Jerusalem tradition. In many places it is customary to pick a bouquet of flowers on the way to this Vespers and bring them to the church, which is decorated with flowers and occasionally even lined with freshly mown grass - a reminder of the Feast of Tabernacles .

Roman Catholic liturgy

Book of hours of the Duke of Berry Les Très Riches Heures (15th century)

Older Roman practice

According to the Roman Missal of 1540, the Whitsun feast began with a Whitsun vigil, which had the same sequence as the Easter vigil and also included a consecration of baptismal water. Like Easter, Pentecost had its own festival week; the octave day was the Trinity festival (however, this festival week ended before with the mass on Saturday). All masses of the week of Pentecost had their own proprium; Wednesday, Friday and Saturday were quarter days .

Roman practice since the 2nd Vatican Council

Pentecost is a solemn festival on which the coming of the Holy Spirit - announced by Jesus Christ - is celebrated. The festival is also the solemn end of Easter ("8th Easter Sunday"). One of the main concerns of the post-conciliar liturgical reform was the recovery of the fifty-day Easter period. The festival week after Pentecost is canceled; rather, on Whit Monday the annual cycle is thematically resumed where it was interrupted before Ash Wednesday .

By the Second Vatican Council re gave Easter holidays as paschal mystery , as a celebration of Oikonomia , of God's plan with the people and the basic set of Easter redemption through death and exaltation of Jesus Christ, includes the Pentecost event one with the sending of the Spirit. On the feast of Pentecost the Church was revealed in the world. People are incorporated into the Church through baptism after "receiving the word of Peter" and continually gather in the power of the Holy Spirit in celebration of the Passover mystery.

The liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church includes a preparatory prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit in the Pentecost Novena , the nine days between Ascension and Pentecost; On these days, the liturgy of Holy Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours is already shaped by the expectation of the spiritual sending. The solemn festival itself begins with the first Vespers the evening before and ends with the second Vespers on Pentecost Sunday. Until 1955, the entire day before Pentecost was a Vigil Day , today the evening before can be celebrated as a Vigil Mass with its own liturgical proprium . The liturgy includes the oration Deus, qui sacramento festivitatis hodiernae and the Pentecost sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus (“Come, Holy Spirit”), one of a total of five sequences in the church year .

The preface of Holy Mass on Pentecost Sunday, newly formulated after the Second Vatican Council, expresses the Easter festive character :

“For today you have completed the Paschal work of salvation, today you have sent the Holy Spirit over all who you raised with Christ and called to be your children. On the day of Pentecost you fill your church with life: Your spirit gives all peoples the knowledge of the living God and unites the many languages ​​in the confession of the one faith. That is why all the peoples on earth praise you in Easter joy. "

In some countries, Whit Monday was retained as the second public holiday and the day of the earlier Pentecost octave, but after the liturgical reform it is no longer formally part of the Easter period, but is now part of the year . Only in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite is the whole Pentecostave still observed. In 2018, Pope Francis designated Whit Monday for the whole Church as the “Remembrance Day of the Blessed Virgin Mary , Mother of the Church ” ( Memoria Beatae Mariae Virginis, Ecclesiae Matris ). In 1995, the German Bishops' Conference declared Whit Monday to be an Obligatory Holiday . H. Sunday duty applies, which is not fulfilled by attending an ecumenical service. As a result, ecumenical worship services on the morning of Whit Monday became an exception.

Protestant church

The idea that the feast of Pentecost closes the fifty days after Easter is expressed in the prefatory prayer on Pentecost Sunday:

“It is healing and good to sing your praises, you God of life, at all times and in every place, but above all on this day on which you have completed the Easter mystery. You have poured out your spirit on your sons and daughters, young and old, that they may call people from all nations to your grace. "

The Evangelical Worship Book retains the traditional Western Church Whitsun octave: Whit Monday and Whitsun week have their own proprium. The Easter season ends on the Saturday before Trinity.

Modern profiling of the festival

In contrast to Christmas and Easter, Pentecost is hardly part of the civil religion in western countries . For a large part of the population, the days of Pentecost are characterized by travel and vacation activities. The churches are therefore making efforts to profile Pentecost as the “birthday of the church” and to focus on their own corporate identity . In this way, Pentecost is reinterpreted as a Christian festival of ideas.

The Holy Spirit, who descended on the disciples, created the unity of the believers and raised the Church from baptism. From that moment on, the disciples saw themselves as God's people. The Christian community appeared publicly for the first time: "The protagonists of Christianity who had been despondent up to that point suddenly turned out to be powerful in speech and missionarily convincing."

Pentecostal Movement

In Christian charismatic circles, the New Testament Pentecost event plays an essential role. In the Pentecostal movement in particular , the personal experience of the work of the Holy Spirit is emphasized.

Pentecost date

Just as Judaism celebrates Shavuot seven weeks after Passover , Christianity celebrates Pentecost seven weeks after Easter. The date of Pentecost depends on the moving Easter date . Since Christianity celebrates the day of Jesus' resurrection on Easter, i.e. a Sunday , Pentecost is also always celebrated on a Sunday seven weeks after Easter.

The following table shows the western church (Catholic and Protestant) and Orthodox dates of Pentecost Sunday from 2020 to 2030:

year Western church (Gregorian calendar) orthodox (Gregorian calendar) orthodox (Julian calendar)
2020 31. May June 7th 25. May
2021 23. May 20th June June 7th
2022 June 5th June 12 30th May
2023 28th of May June 4th May 22
2024 May 19 23rd June the 10th of June
2025 8th June 8th June May 26
2026 May 24th 31. May May 18
2027 May 16 20th June June 7th
2028 June 4th June 4th May 22
2029 May 20th May 27th May 14th
2030 June 9th June 16 3rd of June

Depending on Easter, Pentecost Sunday falls between May 10th (earliest date) and June 13th (latest date). Since the introduction of the Gregorian calendar , Pentecost has only occurred four times on May 10th (1598, 1693, 1761 and 1818; again not until 2285) and also only four times on June 13th (1666, 1734, 1886 and 1943; not again until 2038 ).

Pentecost Sundays from 2016 to 2026

  • 2016: May 15th
  • 2017: June 4th
  • 2018: May 20th
  • 2019: June 9th
  • 2020: May 31
  • 2021: May 23
  • 2022: June 5th
  • 2023: May 28th
  • 2024: May 19th
  • 2025: June 8th
  • 2026: May 24th

Customs at Pentecost

Ancient customs: Spring decorations or fountain decorations at Whitsun (2019): Eg "Unterer" or "Lindenbrunnen", opposite Niederweiler town hall (Müllheim)

Comprehensively, the (secular) Pentecostal custom as a spring custom can be traced back to the veneration and appreciation as well as the hoping or conjuring of fertility and the abundant and healthy flourishing of plants, food and animals.

In many regions, there are at Pentecost Customs that the Maibrauchtum in the Rhineland similar or elements includes a shepherd festival to boost pasture of cattle. These include B. Whitsun trees in the Lüneburg Heath , in Oelde the Whitsun wreath , in Mecklenburg the decorating of the Pentecost , in Frankfurt am Main the Wäldchestag , in Halle (Saale) the Garlic Wednesday , the billy goat auction in Deidesheim or the Whitsun fair in Menden . In some places the “ birch sticking ” is practiced, where bachelors open up on the night of Pentecost to place a birch on the wall of their loved ones.

In Bergisch Land is usually the Pentecostal singing : Young men or male choirs go from house to house, clad in the Pentecost greeting. For this they collect eggs, bacon and other gifts, but also money. A similar preaching custom at Pentecost is the water bird singing in the lower Bavarian Forest . In some places in the Palatinate, children go through the village as a Whitsun quack with decorated handcarts and are also given eggs, bacon or money for their serenade.

In the youth work Pentecostal camp are traditionally very popular.

In some regions of Germany, the Sunday after Pentecost is called Little Pentecost. I.a. In Thuringia and Saxony, the custom of Heischebrauch, including egg begging, is maintained on this Sunday.

holiday

Whit Monday is a public holiday in Germany , Austria , the Netherlands , Belgium , France , Liechtenstein , Luxembourg , Hungary , Denmark and in large parts of Switzerland . In Germany, business associations demanded its abolition in 2005. All parties represented in the Bundestag with the exception of the FDP , as well as the churches and trade unions, spoke out against this proposal.

Only the state of Brandenburg explicitly names Pentecost Sunday (and Whit Monday) as a public holiday (Section 2, Paragraph 1 of the Public Holidays Act for the State of Brandenburg).

In Frankfurt am Main, the Wäldchestag , a folk festival on the afternoon of Whit Tuesday, was a day off until the 1990s . Elsewhere, too, employees were given a day off on the Tuesday after Pentecost until the 1960s. In several German federal states, Pentecost Tuesday is still a vacation day in schools or the beginning or end of Pentecost holidays lasting several days.

In France , the Raffarin government's attempt to make Whit Monday an unpaid public holiday in 2005 failed due to popular resistance. However, a report prepared for the government came to the conclusion that, despite the abolition of Whit Monday, around 52 percent of the workforce would not have worked on that day. Schools and public services were mostly closed. Whit Monday has been a public holiday since 2008.

In Sweden , Whit Monday was abolished as a public holiday in 2005. Instead, the Swedish national holiday , June 6th, has also been a statutory and therefore non-working holiday since that year .

In Italy (with the exception of South Tyrol ) Whit Monday was abolished as a public holiday a few years ago. There are attempts to reintroduce the Christian holiday along with other church holidays. A bill (status: 2007) about this is in the Italian Parliament (Senate: No. 940; Chamber: No. 1647).

See also

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Pentecost  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Pentecost  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Pentecost  Quotes
Wikisource: Pentecost  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl-Heinrich Bieritz :  Whitsun / Whitsun / Whitsun Sermon II. Whitsun in the history of the Church . In: Theological Real Encyclopedia (TRE). Volume 26, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1996, ISBN 3-11-015155-3 , pp. 382–387., Here p. 382. Cf. “Pentecost” in the German dictionary by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm , online: http : //woerterbuchnetz.de/cgi-bin/WBNetz/wbgui_py? sigle = DWB & mode = Networking & lemid = GP03626 # XGP03626
  2. ↑ Cf. for example Tob 2,1  EU : "On our Pentecost, which is the holy festival of the seven weeks, a good meal was prepared for me."
  3. ^ Edward B. Foley:  Pentecost . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 4th edition. Volume 6, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 2003, Sp. 1242-1243.
  4. ^ Alfons Weiser :  Whitsun / Whitsun / Whitsun Sermon I. New Testament basics of Whitsun . In: Theological Real Encyclopedia (TRE). Volume 26, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1996, ISBN 3-11-015155-3 , pp. 379-382., Here p. 379.
  5. ^ Alfons Weiser :  Whitsun / Whitsun / Whitsun Sermon I. New Testament basics of Whitsun . In: Theological Real Encyclopedia (TRE). Volume 26, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1996, ISBN 3-11-015155-3 , pp. 379-382., Here pp. 380f.
  6. ^ Stefan Weinstock : The Geographical Catalog in Acts II, 9-11. In: The Journal of Roman Studies 38, Issue 1–2 (1) 848), pp. 43–46; Wolfgang Huebner : Natural Sciences V: Astrology . In: Der Neue Pauly , vol. 15/1, JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2000, col. 833.
  7. ^ Karl-Heinrich Bieritz :  Whitsun / Whitsun / Whitsun Sermon II. Whitsun in Church History . In: Theological Real Encyclopedia (TRE). Volume 26, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1996, ISBN 3-11-015155-3 , pp. 382-387., Here p. 383.
  8. ^ Karl-Heinrich Bieritz :  Whitsun / Whitsun / Whitsun Sermon II. Whitsun in Church History . In: Theological Real Encyclopedia (TRE). Volume 26, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1996, ISBN 3-11-015155-3 , pp. 382-387., Here p. 384.
  9. ^ A b c Karl-Heinrich Bieritz :  Whitsun / Whitsun / Whitsun Sermon II. Whitsun in the history of the Church . In: Theological Real Encyclopedia (TRE). Volume 26, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1996, ISBN 3-11-015155-3 , pp. 382-387., Here p. 386.
  10. ↑ See Sergius Heitz : Mysterium der Adoration . Luthe-Verlag, Cologne 1986, pp. 603-612.
  11. ↑ Gospel of the day is Jn 5: 24-30
  12. ↑ Epistle : Acts 2,1-11; Gospel: John 7: 37-52
  13. ↑ The emphasis on the kneeling of believers during these prayers is explained by the fact that for the first time since Easter this prayer position is allowed again. Cf. M. Arranz: Les prières de la Gonyklisia ou de la Génuflexion du jour de la Pentecôte dans l'ancien Euchologe Byzantin . In: Orientalia Christiana Periodica 48 (1982) 92-123.
  14. ^ Karl-Heinrich Bieritz :  Whitsun / Whitsun / Whitsun Sermon II. Whitsun in Church History . In: Theological Real Encyclopedia (TRE). Volume 26, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1996, ISBN 3-11-015155-3 , pp. 382-387., Here pp. 384f.
  15. ^ Adolf Adam : Pentecost. II. Liturgical . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 8 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1999, Sp. 189 .
  16. ^ Karl-Heinrich Bieritz :  Whitsun / Whitsun / Whitsun Sermon II. Whitsun in Church History . In: Theological Real Encyclopedia (TRE). Volume 26, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1996, ISBN 3-11-015155-3 , pp. 382-387., Here pp. 385f.
  17. ^ Second Vatican Council, Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium on Sacred Liturgy No. 6 [1] ; see Odo Casel OSB: Type and meaning of the oldest Christian Easter celebration. In: Yearbook for liturgical science. 14/1934, pp. 1–78, here p. 46.48.
  18. ^ Decreto della Congregazione per il Culto Divino e la Disciplina dei Sacramenti sulla celebrazione della beata Vergine Maria Madre della Chiesa nel Calendario Romano Generale. In: Holy See Press Bulletin. Press room of the Holy See, March 3, 2018, accessed on March 3, 2018 (German).
  19. ↑ Agathe Lukassek: Whit Monday - Maria or ecumenism ? , www.katholisch.de, March 16, 2018.
  20. ↑ Evangelical church service book. Agenda for the EKU and the VELKD . Verlagsgemeinschaft Evangelisches Gottesdienstbuch, 3rd edition Berlin 2003, p. 342.
  21. ↑ Evangelical church service book. Agenda for the EKU and the VELKD . Verlagsgemeinschaft Evangelisches Gottesdienstbuch, 3rd edition Berlin 2003, p. 705.
  22. ↑ Peter Brandt: The Holy Spirit and Corporate Identity. Cybernetic consequences from Pentecost and more recent management theory . In: Peter Cornehl , Martin Dutzmann , Andreas Strauch (eds.): "... in the crowd of those who celebrate". Celebrations as an object of practical theological reflection (Festschrift Friedrich Wintzer ). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993, pp. 223-234, here p. 223.
  23. ↑ evangelisch.de: Whitsun, the unknown miracle , May 24th, 2015
    Christoph Meurer: Whitsun: What does the festival after Easter mean? In: kathisch.de , February 1, 2015.
  24. ^ Karl-Heinrich Bieritz :  Whitsun / Whitsun Festival / Whitsun Sermon III. Practical theological aspects . In: Theological Real Encyclopedia (TRE). Volume 26, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1996, ISBN 3-11-015155-3 , pp. 387-391., Here p. 388.
  25. ↑ evangelisch.de: Pentecost, the unknown miracle , May 24, 2015
  26. ↑ Werner T. Huber: Easter and movable holidays (based on the Gaussian formula for calculating the Easter date)
  27. ^ Manfred Becker-Huberti : Celebrations - Festivals - Seasons. Living customs all year round . Herder, Freiburg-Basel-Wien 1998, ISBN 3-451-27702-6 , pp. 332f.
  28. ↑ Egg begging and Little Pentecost. Accessed on November 26, 2018.
  29. ↑ Middle Elbian Dictionary - Little Pentecost. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
  30. ^ "Little Whitsun" in Breitenfeld. Accessed on November 26, 2018.
  31. ^ [Brandenburgisches] Law on Sundays and Holidays - brandenburg.de
  32. ^ E.g. Siemens and Pierburg in Berlin
  33. ↑ 2012: Bremen, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia