In Germany, public holidays are celebrated in the spring, which have their origins in Christian tradition: Good Friday and Easter, which celebrate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ; The Ascension, commemorating Christ’s ascension to heaven; and Pentecost, considered the birthday of the Christian Church.
Also known as Whitsun or Trinity Sunday by some religious traditions, it marks when the Holy Spirit is believed to have descended upon Jesus, Mary, and other followers of Jesus Christ 50 days after Easter – hence the name, which comes from the Hellenistic Greek word meaning “fiftieth.” Although the holiday is important to Christians, it has its roots in Judaism.
The above followers of Jesus Christ gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot in Hebrew), a harvest festival held seven weeks and one day after the first day of Passover, which was also celebrated as the day the Ten Commandments were revealed to Moses.
miracle of understanding
As the Reverend Aljona Hoffmann, pastor of Berlin’s Protestant Gethsemane Church, explains: “The disciples were a little lost after Jesus’ death and resurrection and then ascension. They didn’t know what to do next. They had spent such a good time with Jesus, who was no longer accessible to them, and they had moved into a house in Jerusalem. And then the Holy Spirit came upon them, this power of God (…) just came upon them and they felt a kind of life force, a “Kind of strength that he had lost.”
That strength inspired her to talk to others about her experience. “It was really a miracle of understanding,” Hoffman tells DW. “They all spoke their own languages, yet they could understand each other.”
According to the Biblical account, the disciples who witnessed this miraculous event went out into the streets and attracted a large crowd. He led about 3,000 people to become baptized followers of Jesus Christ – the first step toward an organized church.
making the abstract concrete
As the birth of the Church, Pentecost is celebrated in all Christian religions, Eastern and Western. In more than 30 countries, it is celebrated as a public holiday, which non-believers simply enjoy as a holiday in the spring.
The color associated with Pentecost is red, which is considered a symbol of the joy and fire of the Holy Spirit.
In Italy, this has been taken a step further and associated with roses, whose petals are often scattered from the rooftops of Catholic churches. The petals represent the tongues of flame that touched Mary and the apostles during Pentecost.
The most notable example of that practice occurs at the Pantheon in Rome, where firefighters dropped thousands of rose petals through the building’s eyewall at the conclusion of the Pentecost Mass.
Some Baroque churches in Austria, southern Germany and France also have openings in the ceilings, although much smaller than the oculus of the Pantheon, called “Holy Ghost holes”, symbolizing the descent of the Holy Spirit. In addition to rose petals, some churches lower a statue of a dove through the hole during the Pentecost ritual, the dove being the primary symbol of the Holy Spirit in the Christian tradition.
They are an attempt to make the abstract concepts behind Pentecost more easily understandable. This intangible quality may be one of the reasons it is less well known than other Christian holidays. “It’s a festival where you don’t have anything concrete. How do you describe a ghost? (…) Christmas is very figurative: a baby is born. It’s familiar; we’ve experienced it in our families. Resurrection is more difficult, but the egg helps us give a little new life. But a soul, how do you explain it?” Reverend Hoffman explains.
small but important gifts
Additionally, Pentecost is not tied to secular traditions that would be amenable to commercialization. “There’s a funny saying that the gifts at Pentecost are the smallest,” says Hoffman. No Easter Bunny, no Santa Claus – it’s just a “Gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Hoffman’s church has enjoyed an ecumenical celebration encompassing many different Christian denominations over the years. It consists of a religious service, after which coffee and cake and grilled sausages are served in typical German fashion.
For her, this event represents the “miracle of understanding” behind Pentecost: “I don’t have to be like you. I don’t have to speak your language to understand each other, but I can stick to what’s important to me, where I feel comfortable, where I’m at home. And yet we can still come together. (…) I think it’s also a miracle that people come closer and understand each other despite all their differences.”
In these highly polarized times, those gifts may be most needed.
Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier