Editing Whitsun

{{Short description|Name for Christian holy day of Pentecost}}
{{Redirect2|Whitsunday|Whit Sunday}}
{{Infobox holiday
|holiday_name  = Whitsun
|nickname      = [[Pentecost]] (Western), [[Trinity Sunday]] (Eastern)
|type          = christian
|image         = Whit walks Manchester.jpg
|imagesize     =
|caption       = Manchester 2010 Whit Walks
|official_name = 
|observedby    = [[United Kingdom]] and some former colonies
|litcolor      =
|longtype      = Christian, Public
|significance  =
|begins        = 7th Sunday After [[Easter]]
|ends          =
|date          = Easter + 49 days
|date{{LASTYEAR}}    = {{Moveable date |holiday=Pentecost |year={{LASTYEAR}} |format=infobox}}
|date{{CURRENTYEAR}} = {{Moveable date |holiday=Pentecost |year={{CURRENTYEAR}} |format=infobox |cite=y}}
|date{{NEXTYEAR}}    = {{Moveable date |holiday=Pentecost |year={{NEXTYEAR}} |format=infobox}}
|date{{NEXTYEAR|2}}  = {{Moveable date |holiday=Pentecost |year={{NEXTYEAR|2}} |format=infobox}}
|celebrations  =
|duration   = 1 day
|frequency   = annual
|observances   =
|relatedto     = [[Pentecost]], [[Whit Monday]], [[Whit Tuesday]], [[Whit Friday]], [[Trinity Sunday]]
}}
'''Whitsun''' (also '''Whitsunday''' or '''Whit Sunday''') is the name used in Britain,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.courts.ie/Courts.ie/Library3.nsf/16c93c36d3635d5180256e3f003a4580/5c38b125ae0e10ad80256fe80039564b?OpenDocument|title=High Court Sittings: Law Terms|last=Anon|publisher=The Courts Service|access-date=24 May 2014|archive-date=3 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161003215452/http://www.courts.ie/courts.ie/library3.nsf/16c93c36d3635d5180256e3f003a4580/5c38b125ae0e10ad80256fe80039564b?OpenDocument|url-status=dead}}</ref> and other countries among [[Anglicans]] and [[Methodists]],<ref name="BOW1964">{{cite book|title=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|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ckw6vgAACAAJ|access-date=25 March 2017|year=1964|publisher=Methodist Publishing House|pages=126}}</ref> for the Christian holy day of [[Pentecost]]. It falls on the seventh Sunday after [[Easter]] and commemorates the descent of the [[Holy Spirit]] upon [[Jesus|Jesus’]] disciples (as described in [[Acts 2]]).  '''Whitsuntide''', the week following Whitsunday, was one of three holiday weeks for the medieval [[villein]];<ref>The others being [[Yuletide]], the week following [[Christmas]], and [[Easter Week]], the week following Easter that ended at [[Hocktide]] (Homans 1991).</ref> on most [[Feudalism|manors]] he was free from service on the lord's [[demesne]] this week, which marked a pause in the agricultural year.<ref>[[George C. Homans]], ''English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century'', 2nd ed. 1991:369.</ref> [[Whit Monday]], the day after Whitsun, remained a holiday in Britain until 1971<ref name="Financial Dealings Act 1971">Banking and Financial Dealings Act, 1971, Schedule 1, para 1.</ref> when, with effect from 1972, the ruling Conservative Government decided to permanently replace it, following a five-year trial period, with a [[Spring Bank Holiday]] on the last Monday in May. 
Whit had been the occasion for many varied forms of celebration, and was of significant cultural importance. It was a custom for children to receive a new set of clothes, even among the poorest families, a tradition which continued well into the 20th century.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/uk/whit-monday|title=Whit Monday in the United Kingdom|website=timeanddate.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dewsburyreporter.co.uk/news/the-nostalgia-column-with-margaret-watson-2090587|title=The nostalgia column with Margaret Watson|date=May 20, 2017|website=Dewsbury Reporter}}</ref>

In the [[North West of England]], church and chapel parades called [[Whit Friday#Whit walks|whit walks]] still take place at this time (sometimes on [[Whit Friday]], the Friday after Whitsun).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.whitfriday.brassbands.saddleworth.org/Walks.html|title=Whit Friday: Whit Walks|work=saddleworth.org|access-date=2011-06-07|archive-date=2008-05-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509141436/http://www.whitfriday.brassbands.saddleworth.org/Walks.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Typically, the parades include brass bands and choirs; girls attending are dressed in white. Traditionally, Whit fairs (sometimes called [[Parish ale|Whitsun ale]]s<ref>{{cite web|url=http://feastsandfestivals.blogspot.com/2010/05/23-may-whitsun-ales.html|title=Feasts and Festivals|author=Liz Woods|work=feastsandfestivals.blogspot.com}}</ref>) took place. Other customs, such as [[Morris dance|Morris dancing]], were associated with Whitsun, although in most cases they have been transferred to the Spring bank holiday.  [[Whaddon, Cambridgeshire]], has its own Whitsun tradition of singing a unique song around the village before and on Whit Sunday itself.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.whaddon.org/whitsun/Whitsun_article.html|title=Reviving the Whaddon Whitsun Song|author=Nigel Strudwick|work=whaddon.org}}</ref>

==Etymology==
The name is a contraction of "White Sunday", attested in "the Holy Ghost, whom thou didst send on Whit-sunday"<ref>{{cite book|last= Skeat |first= Walter William |author-link= Walter William Skeat |title= An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language |edition= 3rd |year= 1898 |orig-year= 1882 |publisher= [[Oxford University Press#Clarendon Press|Clarendon Press]] |url= https://archive.org/details/etymologicaldict00skea_1 |page= [https://archive.org/details/etymologicaldict00skea_1/page/708 708] |isbn= 978-0-19-863104-0 |quote= the Holy Ghost, whom thou didst send on Whit-sunday; O. Eng. Homilies, i. 209, 1. 16.}}</ref> in the [[Old English]] [[homilies]], and parallel to the mention of {{lang|ang|hwitmonedei}} in the early 13th-century ''[[Ancrene Riwle]]''.<ref>Both noted in Walter William Skeat, ''An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language'', ''s.v.'' "Whitsun".</ref> [[Walter William Skeat]] noted that the [[Anglo-Saxon]] word also appears in Icelandic ''hvitasunnu-dagr'', but that in English the feast was called ''Pentecoste'' until after the [[Norman Conquest]], when ''white'' ({{lang|enm|hwitte}}) began to be confused with ''wit'' or understanding.<ref>Skeat.</ref> According to one interpretation, the name derives from the white garments worn by [[catechumen]]s, those expecting to be [[Baptism|baptised]] on that Sunday.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Campion |first1=William Magan |author-link=William Magan Campion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D8QCAAAAQAAJ&q=Whitsunday+baptized&pg=PA125 |title=The Prayer book interleaved with historical illustrations and explanatory notes arranged parallel to the text |volume=5 |year=1870 |page=125 |access-date=2017-06-05 }}</ref> Moreover, [[Sarum Use|in England]] white vestments, rather than the more usual red, were traditional for the day and its [[octave (liturgical)|octave]].{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} A different tradition is that of the young women of the parish all coming to church or chapel in new white dresses on that day. However, Augustinian canon [[John Mirk]] (c. 1382–1414), of [[Lilleshall]] Abbey, Shropshire, had another interpretation:

<blockquote>
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.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/mirksfestialcoll00mirk#page/158/mode/2up 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.</ref>
</blockquote>

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.<ref>{{cite news|title=Whitsuntide|last=Anon|date=29 May 1869|work=[[The Manchester Times]]|location=Manchester, UK}}</ref>

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".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Whitsuntide|title=Whitsuntide|last=Anon|work=The Free Online Dictionary|publisher=Farlex Inc|access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref>

==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 [[Parish ale|Whitsun ales]] and [[Morris dancing]] in the south of England and [[Whit Friday#Whit walks|Whit walks]], [[Club Day]]s and [[Wakes week|wakes]] in the north.<ref name="Roud">{{cite book|last=Roud|first=Steve|title=The English Year (eBook)|publisher=ePenguin|date=31 March 2008|isbn=978-0-14-191927-0}}</ref> A poster advertising the Whitsun festivities at [[Sunbury-on-Thames|Sunbury]], Middlesex in 1778 listed the following attractions:
<blockquote>
On Whit Monday, in the morning, will be a punting match{{nbsp}}...{{nbsp}}The first boat that comes in to receive a guinea...In the afternoon a gold-laced hat, worth 30s. to be cudgell'd for{{nbsp}}... 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.<ref name="Roud"/>
</blockquote>

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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dobkin |first=Monty |title=Broughton and Cheetham Hill in Regency and Victorian times |year=1999 |publisher=Neil Richardson |isbn=1-85216-131-0}}</ref> 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:
<blockquote>
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'.<ref name="Roud"/>
</blockquote>

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.<ref name="Financial Dealings Act 1971"/>

==In literature==
* 1485: [[Thomas Malory|Malory]]'s ''[[Le Morte D'Arthur]]'' has the [[Knights of the Round Table]] witness a divine vision of the [[Holy Grail]] on a Whitsunday, prompting their quest to find its true location.
* 1607: [[Thomas Middleton]] refers to "the Whitsun holy-days" in ''[[Michaelmas Term (play)|Michaelmas Term]]'' (IV.i.73).
* 1611: In [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[The Winter's Tale]]'' [[Perdita (The Winter's Tale)|Perdita]] imagines that she plays "as I have seen them do / In Whitsun pastorals" (IV.iv.133-34).
* 1617: [[James VI and I|James I]]'s ''[[Declaration of Sports]]'' encouraged "[[Parish ale|Whitsun ale]]s", among other things, as soon as church was over on a [[Sabbath in Christianity|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 [[Laurence Sterne|Sterne]]'s ''[[The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman|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 (novel)|Shirley]]'' contains an episode set against a Whitsun-tide procession in which [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] parishioners are confronted by [[English Dissenters|dissenters]].
* 1853: [[Charles Dickens]] sets a scene in the life of King [[Edward I of England|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|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 (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 "[[The Thirteen Problems|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 (publisher)|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 (novel)|Brighton Rock]], Hale is murdered on Whitsun, kicking off events in the novel.
* 1943: [[Kathleen Raine]]'s poem "Whitsuntide 1942" provides the title for her first poetry collection, ''Stone and Flower'', by referencing 'the world / of stone and flower that compels my thought... what nerve have I, beloved Lord, what sense / to know the holy presence of my God?'
* 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: [[Enid Blyton]]'s ''[[Five Go to Billycock Hill]]'' is a novel in the [[The Famous Five (novel series)|Famous Five]] series of children's books set during a camping holiday at Whitsun.
* 1961: [[Sylvia Plath]] wrote a poem called "[[Crossing the Water|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.&nbsp;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 German soldiers over Whitsun weekend.
* 1995: ''[[P.R.O.B.E.#The Devil of Winterborne (1995)|P.R.O.B.E: The Devil of Winterborne]]'' takes place over the Whitsun holiday.

==See also==
* [[Whitsun Ale]] (esp., [[England|English]]), a [[county fair]] with competitions, [[morris dance|Morris dancing]], and music, usually sponsored by a local pub or tavern.
* [[Semik]]
* [[Rusalii]]
* [[Counting of the Omer]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Pentecost|state = expanded}}

[[Category:Christian Sunday observances]]
[[Category:Christian terminology]]
[[Category:Holidays based on the date of Easter]]
[[Category:June observances]]
[[Category:May observances]]
[[Category:Pentecost]]
[[Category:Scottish quarter days]]