Pentecost or Pentecost Sunday (symbolically related to the Jewish festival of Shavuot) is a feast on the Christian liturgical calendar that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and women followers of Jesus, fifty days (seven weeks) after Easter, and nine days after Ascension Thursday.
Pentecost is also known in English, especially in Britain, as Whitsun (Whitsunday), from the Old English, as Hwita Sunnandæg, ("White Sunday,") —in reference to the white robes worn by those baptized on the previous Easter.
PentecostalChristian churches, which are so named because they emphasise the Holy Spirit in each individual, celebrate Pentecost as the anniversary of the disciples' being filled with the Spirit, as described in the New Testament in Acts 2:17.
Whit Monday or PentecostMonday is the Christian holiday celebrated the day after Pentecost, a movable feast in the Christian calendar, being dependent upon the date of Easter.
Until recently it was a public holiday in Ireland, and was a bank holiday in the United Kingdom until 1967, when it was formally replaced by a fixed 'spring holiday' on the last Monday in May in 1971.
The Monday is also a holiday in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Belgium, The Netherlands and several Scandinavian countries, there going under the name "Pentecôte" (fr), "Pinse" (no, da), "Pingst" (sv), "Pfingsten" (de) and "Pinksteren" (nl).
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