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Summary
- Catholics keep Easter as the greatest feast of the year, beginning with the Easter Triduum, which runs from the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday to Vespers on Easter Sunday.
- Holy Thursday recalls the Last Supper and may include the washing of feet; on Good Friday no Mass is said, and Catholics venerate the cross and receive Communion consecrated the day before.
- The Easter Vigil must begin after nightfall. It opens with a new fire and the Paschal candle, includes up to seven Old Testament readings, and is the night on which adults are baptized and confirmed.
- The first eight days of Easter form the octave, each kept as a solemnity; it ends on Divine Mercy Sunday.
- The Easter season lasts fifty days, includes the Ascension, and ends on Pentecost.
- In 2027 Catholics celebrate Easter on March 28.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version (Exodus 14:29; Luke 24:27; John 13:14; 19:30; Acts 1:3; 2:3; 1 Corinthians 11:24).
- Congregation for Divine Worship, Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman Calendar, nos. 18–26 and 30–31. https://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Calendar/Info/GNLY.pdf
- General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 64. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20030317_ordinamento-messale_en.html
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “The Roman Missal and the Easter Vigil.” https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year-and-calendar/triduum/roman-missal-and-the-easter-vigil
- “Paschal Triduum,” Wikipedia (Holy Thursday and Good Friday rites). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paschal_Triduum
- “Divine Mercy Sunday,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Mercy_Sunday
- “Easter Monday,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Monday
- “Regina Caeli,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regina_Caeli
- “Victimae paschali laudes,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victimae_paschali_laudes
- “Urbi et Orbi,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbi_et_orbi
- “Święconka,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Awi%C4%99conka
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