The fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful exultation as one feast day, or better, as one “great Sunday” (Athanasius, Epist. Fest.). These above all others are the days for the singing of the Alleluia (General Norms, 22). The days of the Easter octave form the “early hours” of this “great Sunday”, with accounts of the Lord who rose early in the morning, and the early preaching of the disciples who were witnesses to his resurrection.
- The first eight days of the Easter season make up the octave of Easter and are celebrated as solemnities of the Lord. At Mass, Morning Prayer and Vespers, throughout the octave, a double alleluia is added to the dismissal and its response. The sequence, Victmae paschali, obligatory at Mass on Easter Sunday, is optional on the other days of the octave, Easter Preface I is used (“on this day”) through the octave day of Easter, namely, the Second Sunday of Easter.
- Throughout the Easter season the neophytes should be assigned their own special place among the faithful. Intercession should be made in the Eucharistic Prayer for the newly baptized during the Easter octave (see RCIA, nos, 244-251).
- The paschal candle, a symbol of the presence of the risen Christ among the people of God, remains in the Sanctuary near the altar or ambo through Vespers on Pentecost Sunday. Its use is encouraged at all liturgical celebrations, especially Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.
Reflection on the Season of Easter