Mass on Monday / Tuesday after Pentecost

[regression]

This weekend I noticed in the missal there was a note before the readings saying traditional, people will go to Mass the Monday (and sometimes Tuesday) after Pentecost. I have never heard of this before. Has anyone here heard of this before?

 

[Mark1970]

I think I’ve heard this before, in connection with these days possibly having been Holydays of Obligation a long time ago, perhaps in the 1800’s. I think that Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday were the same. I seem to remember that there were once quite a few more Holydays of Obligation than there are now, but their obligation was removed and they became “Days of Devotion” when people went to Mass without being obliged to do so.

 

[Jakub]

They were observed thru the week, days within the Octave of Pentecost and were surpessed after Vatican II…however they are still part of those days observed by those who follow the 1961 rubrics…

 

[MarkThompson]

This weekend I noticed in the missal there was a note before the readings saying traditional, people will go to Mass the Monday (and sometimes Tuesday) after Pentecost. I have never heard of this before. Has anyone here heard of this before?

Yes, Whit Monday and White Tuesday used to be public holidays (at least in many countries) with Massgoing common. In fact, Whit Monday is, apparently, still to this day a holy day of obligation in Germany.

 

[AJV]

This weekend I noticed in the missal there was a note before the readings saying traditional, people will go to Mass the Monday (and sometimes Tuesday) after Pentecost. I have never heard of this before. Has anyone here heard of this before?

In the Middle Ages, the entire Octave of Easter and Pentecost * was observed was solemnity. However later, as the Holy Days of Obligation were reduced, only the Monday and the Tuesday were kept. Together with the feast itself, they were given the highest liturgical ranks (equivalent to the post-1970 “Solemnity”), until 1960, when all the days within the Octaves were given this rank. After 1970, the Octave of Pentecost disappeared, but a rubric in the 2002 Missale Romanum allows for the Mass of Penteocst to be repeated (or other Masses of the Holy Spirit to be celebrated with solemnity) in places where large numbers of people still attend Mass on Monday and Tuesday.

• the two feasts were very closely associated. Both had Octaves and eventually Pentecost was given a Vigil that strongly resembled many ceremonies of the Easter Vigil until 1956.

 

[Corki]

They were observed thru the week, days within the Octave of Pentecost and were surpessed after Vatican II…however they are still part of those days observed by those who follow the 1961 rubrics…

I don’t think that’s what the OP is talking about.

We have the same note in our OCP seasonal Missalette which is just about the farthest thing you can get from the 1961 rubrics. It is a reference to which readings to use where there is a tradition of Masses on the Monday and Tuesday following Pentecost Sunday.

I wondered if this was common in some ethnic parishes or if it was meant for countries outside the US.

 

[laszlo]

Even in the Communist system Easter Monday was public Holiday. The Monday after Pentecost became Holiday recently, to replacing the former May 1st as public Holiday.

For the Church until the Divino Afflatu Reform both Monday and Tuesday and both after Easter and Pentecost were Festa Feriata: Holy days of obligation. So were all the feast of Apostles, and the major feasts of the Blessed Virgin. After 1911 most of them were advised feast, so the Church celebrated them as the Holy days of obligation, but it was not obligatory, the churches were half full.

We went to Church on the day after Christmas and the Monday after Easter.