Why doesn't Pentecost receive as much emphasis as Christmas and Easter?

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Like for example, Christmas and Easter receive a lot of emphasis but Pentecost seems to be in a lower rung (though honestly, is it more like the third major day?); is the main reason for this due to the fact that Christmas and Easter focus on the life of Christ while Pentecost focuses more on the apostles and followers as the Holy Spirit/Ghost descended on them? Honestly (forgive my vain and frivolous question), I wouldn’t really know but is Pentecost actually still a pretty big thing in your parish and diocese like any major or special activities during that day?

Thanks @TradViolin, for the edit!
 
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My guess this is a regional thing. There are parishes in Italy that have a grand celebration for Pentecost with a shower of roses!
 
Catechumens are usually confirmed on or around Pentecost. That’s usually a pretty big deal as it is usually done by the Bishop or auxiliary Bishop, who comes out to the parishes to do it.

As we have discussed on previous threads, some dioceses also have Mass of the Holy Spirit, which is especially popular with charismatics.

Christmas and Easter just seem like a bigger deal because they are preceded by periods of waiting (Advent and Lent) of which at least one (Lent) involves penitence (Advent is supposed to be penitential too, but that’s de-emphasized nowadays) and also, Christmas and Easter are huge secular holidays as well.

Pentecost only has a short time of waiting between Ascension and Pentecost. it is also a purely religious holiday so there is no secular emphasis, as in no push for gift-giving, decorating, buying a lot of candy and food and toys, etc.

To truly religious/ observant people, all of these days are special. Ascension is special and every Sunday is special too. We don’t really care if Pentecost gets a big emphasis from the world. The priest will certainly describe and discuss it.
 
TheLittleLady said:
There are parishes in Italy that have a grand celebration for Pentecost with a shower of roses!
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Yes, the Pantheon has the rose petals come down from the dome.

I tend to think the need to schedule all the confirmations, deal with Ascension (which is not always moved to Sunday) and then deal with Pentecost, all in a short time frame, and often with First Communions also scheduled in the weeks just preceding, makes Pentecost a bit less of a production in the US. This year every church seemed to be having First Communions followed by May crownings, Catholic school graduations at many parishes, Ascension, confirmations, and Pentecost all in a row, and at some places there were new priest ordination Masses and existing priest anniversary Masses in there too. It was hard to keep up with everything going on week to week.
 
Around here, Confirmations take place year round. When the Bishop can come to your parish, you have Confirmation. They schedule a year out!!
 
That’s interesting. Chaput seemed to have all of his assistants making about 2 or 3 stops per day for a few days, to hit all the parishes during the couple of weeks before Pentecost.
 
RCIAGraduate said:
Christmas and Easter receive a lot of emphasis
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Our Faith is based on these two occasions - the Birth of our Saviour who entered mankind/history (Christmas) and the Resurrection of Christ and the victory over sin and the promise of our resurrection with Him (Easter).

On Restoring the Lost Emphasis on Pentecost by Restoring the Octave and the Numeration of the Sundays after Pentecost

In the EF, Pentecost itself is a First Class with Octave - Pentecost Monday, Pentecost Tuesday etc until Pentecost Saturday, First Sunday after Pentecost, Second Sunday after Pentecost with Sundays numerated up to Twenty Fourth Sunday after Pentecost.
 
Around here, it is important to have Confirmation before school is out because, ideal or not, the family vacation is sacrosanct.
 
  1. The Holy Spirit is rightly considered to be the forgotten member of the Trinity. (I did not make this up).
  2. It is very hard to commercialize the Holy Spirit. There is no secular, Coca Cola Santa Claus version, for example.
  3. The Holy Spirit remains the most difficult to grasp (and to explain) of the Trinity.
 
I, for one, kind of wish Pentecost was a bigger deal.

But I also get that by the time Pentecost comes around, the parish staff and volunteers are often running on fumes. It’s a fairly “crowded” time of year, what with First Communions, confirmations, graduations, a whole bunch of solemnities, etc.

I know that at my parish people tend to dress in red on Pentecost and we sing all kinds of Holy Spirit songs. And that is when we had our candidates for full communion come in to the Church.

There is a lot we DON’T tend to think about at Pentecost that we could. Such as what, if anything, does the coming of the Holy Spirit have to do with Shavuot. Our protestant brothers and sisters don’t tend to make a big deal about Pentecost; I think our making a big deal about Pentecost is something they should see.
 
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Pentecost is probably the second most important liturgical day of the year after Easter.
It was along with Easter privileged Octaves of the first Order. Ephiphany, Ascension, and Corpus Christi were second order. Christmas along with some others was third order.
Pentecost had an Octave until 1969…
It is very important. By removing the Octave now it just seems to be a final hoorah of the Easter season, which it is not. In fact Trinity Sunday was the Octave day of Pentecost.
So yes I agree it is unbelievable.
 
Pentecost doesn’t receive as much emphasis as Christmas and Easter because sadly Catholicism has been tragically watered down in the lives of most people and now holds almost no relevance in their lives. As another poster said, there is no secular component to Pentecost and therefore nothing to draw people to it en masse. Even among regular churchgoers, the whole idea of Pentecost is probably lost because it is not explained or elucidated clearly, simply, or relevantly for people. It’s just a really sad state of affairs.

May God bless you all! 🙂
 
Our diocese has confirmations year round, too. With only one bishop they cannot all be held at the same time. It is often the practice in our diocese for the bishop to come to the parish from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. As well as confirmations on the Sunday he will often hear confessions on Saturday, concelebrate the Vigil Mass with the priest, and conduct his visitation of the parish.
 
Yah well it should be the novus ordo too.
And Septuagesima. And Passiontide.
 
Catechumens are confirmed on Pentecost Sunday? I’ve never heard of that. I thought it was universal Church law that catechumens should generally be baptized and then immediately confirmed at the Easter Vigil.
 
The RCIA candidates are the ones receiving sacraments at the Easter Vigil.

In USA, the classes of Catholic young people being confirmed in the regular course of their Catholic education are very often confirmed around Pentecost. Typically the First Communion classes will receive First Communion sometime after Easter in May, and then the Confirmation classes are confirmed within a couple weeks after that, with the exact date depending on scheduling with the Bishop’s office as usually a bishop or auxiliary bishop will administer the sacrament.

Some parishes do it on a rolling basis so confirmations are happening at different times around the year. I also just noticed that the TLM parish here is for some reason having their confirmation much later in the summer.

I note that while “catechumen” usually means somebody converting or just joining the Church, it has a secondary meaning according to the dictionary of “a young Christian preparing for Confirmation”. Sorry if the word was misleading.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
I note that while “catechumen” usually means somebody converting or just joining the Church, it has a secondary meaning according to the dictionary of “a young Christian preparing for Confirmation”. Sorry if the word was misleading.
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That was my hang up. I understood “catechumen” to mean those preparing for baptism.
 
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