Temps pascal
Eastertide (also known as Eastertime or the Easter season) or Paschaltide (also known as Paschaltime or the Paschal season) is a festal season in the liturgical year of Christianity that focuses on celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Preceded by Lent, it begins on Easter Sunday, which initiates Easter Week in Western Christianity, and Bright Week in Eastern Christianity. There are several Eastertide customs across the Christian world, including flowering the cross, sunrise services, the wearing of Easter bonnets by women, exclaiming the Paschal greeting, clipping the church, and decorating Easter eggs, a symbol of the empty tomb. Additional Eastertide traditions include egg hunting, eating special Easter foods and watching Easter parades. The Easter lily, a symbol of the resurrection in Christianity, traditionally decorates the chancel area of churches on this day and for the rest of Eastertide. Traditionally lasting 40 days to commemorate the time the resurrected Jesus remained on earth before his Ascension, in some western churches Eastertide lasts 50 days to conclude on the day of Pentecost or Whitsunday. Easter time is the period of 50 days, spanning from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. It is celebrated as a single joyful feast, called the "great Lord's Day". Each Sunday of the season is treated as a Sunday of Easter. In some traditions, Easter Sunday is the first Sunday of Eastertide and the following Sunday (Low Sunday) is the second Sunday of Eastertide and so on. Easter Sunday and Pentecost correspond to pre-existing Jewish feasts: The first day of Pesach (פסח) and the holiday of Shavu'ot (שבועות). In the Jewish tradition, the 49 days between these holidays are known as Counting of the Omer (ספירת העומר). The first eight days constitute the Octave of Easter and are celebrated as solemnities of the Lord. Since 2000, the Second Sunday of Easter is also called Divine Mercy Sunday. The name "Low Sunday" for this Sunday, once common in English, is now used mainly in the Church of England.
