The Easter Season

The Church's celebration of Easter is a season of fifty days, beginning with the Sunday of the Resurrection through Pentecost, that are to be celebrated in joy and exultation as one feast day, as one great Sunday. These are days above all others in which the Alleluia is sung.

The Liturgical norms guiding this season are as follows:

• Easter is celebrated for fifty days, from the Solemn Easter Vigil through Evening Prayer of  Pentecost Sunday.

• The first eight days of the season make up the "octave" of Easter and are celebrated as Solemnities of the Lord. During these days, as well as at Pentecost, the Gloria is sung or recited and a double "alleluia" is added to the dismissal of the Mass.

• The sequence Victimae Paschali (To the Paschal Victim) is sung at the Mass of Easter Sunday; it is optional during the Masses of the Octave.

• During the Octave, intercessions should be made in the Eucharistic Prayer for the newly baptized.

• The Paschal Candle, a symbol of the Risen Christ among the People of God, remains in the sanctuary near the altar or the ambo throughout the Easter Season, until Evening Prayer of Pentecost Sunday. It should be lighted at all liturgical services during this season.

• The liturgical color is white.

• A vessel containing water blessed at the Solemn Easter Vigil could be put in a suitable place in church, available for the faithful.

• On Easter Sunday, the baptismal font should be suitably decorated to highlight the renewal of baptismal promises.