No products in the cart.
The church year · Easter
Most people think of Easter as a day. In the church's calendar it is a season: fifty days of celebration that run from Easter Sunday to Pentecost, ten days longer than Lent.
Eastertide is the fifty-day season of Easter in the Christian year. It begins on Easter Sunday and ends on the Day of Pentecost, seven weeks later. Its liturgical color is white or gold. In 2027, Eastertide runs from March 28 through May 16.
Tide is an old English word for a time or season, the same root that gives us Christmastide. Eastertide simply means “the Easter season.” You will also hear it called the Easter season, the Season of Easter, the Great Fifty Days, and Paschaltide.
That last name is worth a moment. Pascha comes from the Hebrew Pesach, Passover. Jesus died and was raised during Passover, and in many languages the name of Easter still carries the word: Pascua in Spanish, Pâques in French. The resurrection belongs to a story of liberation that is older than the church, and the season's oldest name keeps that connection in view.
Fifty days. The count includes Easter Sunday itself and ends on the fiftieth day, which is why that day is called Pentecost, from the Greek word for “fiftieth.” The season holds eight Sundays: Easter Day, the Second through Seventh Sundays of Easter, and the Day of Pentecost.
Notice the arithmetic. Lent lasts forty days, and Easter lasts fifty. The church spends more time celebrating the resurrection than preparing for it. Early Christians took this seriously enough that the Council of Nicaea, in 325, asked believers to pray standing rather than kneeling on Sundays and throughout the fifty days. The whole season was treated as one long Sunday.
It is also why modern calendars speak of the “Second Sunday of Easter” rather than the older “Sunday after Easter.” The preposition is the point: those Sundays are still Easter.
The Easter season ends on the Day of Pentecost, the fiftieth day. Two other markers fall along the way.
Acts places Jesus' ascension forty days after the resurrection, so Ascension Day always falls on a Thursday, thirty-nine days after Easter Sunday. Few Protestant congregations gather on a weekday, so many transfer it to the following Sunday and keep it as Ascension Sunday.
Pentecost both completes Easter and opens what follows. The color changes to red for that one Sunday. Trinity Sunday comes the week after, and then the long green stretch of Ordinary Time, the Season after Pentecost, carries the church to Advent.
Easter 2027 falls in Lectionary Year B. Here is every Sunday and feast of the season in the Revised Common Lectionary.
For the psalm and second reading on each date, see the full Liturgical Calendar 2027.
White, often trimmed or paired with gold, is the color for all fifty days. It is the color of light and of feasts, and it stays on the altar and pulpit from Easter morning to the eve of Pentecost, when red takes over for a single Sunday. Our guide to liturgical colors covers why, and what to do on the two-toned days.
Three other signals carry the season. The alleluias that were set aside for Lent come back and stay. The paschal candle, first lit at the Easter Vigil, burns at every service until Pentecost. And many congregations keep the flowers of Easter morning in the sanctuary well past the first week.
Something unusual happens to the lectionary during Eastertide. For most of the year, the first reading on Sunday comes from the Hebrew Bible. During the Easter season, the Revised Common Lectionary sets the Book of Acts in that place nearly every week. The church spends fifty days reading about its own beginnings.
That choice makes an argument. The resurrection is not only something that happened to Jesus. It is something that happened to a group of frightened people, and then to everyone they met. In Year B the Acts readings make the point plainly:
Read across the season, Eastertide is fifty days of a welcome that keeps getting wider than its gatekeepers planned. For an affirming congregation, that is the whole story of Easter.
A planning note for Year B
On the Third and Fourth Sundays of Easter, Peter addresses crowds and leaders in Jerusalem (Acts 3:12-19 and 4:5-12). Lines such as “you killed the Author of life” have a long history of being heard as an accusation against Jewish people as a whole. Preach them as what they are: one Jewish teacher's argument with a specific audience at a specific moment, not a verdict on Judaism.
In most congregations, Easter morning gets everything: the brass, the lilies, the best attendance of the year. The following Sunday has an old nickname, Low Sunday, and the empty pews earn it.
The fifty days quietly push back. The gospel for that “low” Sunday is the same every year: Thomas, who missed the first appearance, says he cannot believe without seeing for himself. A week later Jesus comes back for him. Nobody scolds him out of the room. He gets his own Sunday.
If Easter morning has ever felt like a performance you could not quite join, because of grief, or doubt, or because the church that raised you made it clear there was no place for you there, the season is built with you in mind. Resurrection takes more than one morning to believe. The church calendar gives it fifty days, and you are welcome in every one of them.
Write “Third Sunday of Easter” in the bulletin and on the welcome slide. It is the easiest way to teach the season, and it costs nothing.
Do not let the screens go back to generic graphics on Easter Monday. White and gold imagery that runs all seven weeks tells your congregation the celebration is still going.
Sing alleluia every week, and light the paschal candle at every service through Pentecost.
In Year B, the second reading comes from 1 John on every Sunday from the Second through the Seventh Sunday of Easter. Either book gives you a natural seven-week arc.
Earth Day (April 22, 2027) and Mother's Day (May 9, 2027, the Seventh Sunday of Easter) both fall within Eastertide. Hold them in the light of the season, and on Mother's Day make room for everyone the day is hard for.
If you won't gather on Thursday, May 6, plan now to observe Ascension on Sunday, May 9, and plan your Mother's Day acknowledgment alongside it.
Pentecost arrives faster than you expect. Our Pentecost Sunday sermon ideas are a good place to start in April.
For worship media, sermon ideas, and everything else for the season, start at our Easter season worship resources. For how Eastertide fits the whole year, see our guide to the liturgical calendar.
Your congregation deserves to see itself in worship, for all fifty days.
PCM Complete
Easter Sunday through Pentecost, and every season after it: slides, video loops, and graphics made for affirming congregations. Your downloads stay yours, even after your membership ends.
See membership plansEaster worship media
White-and-gold slides, video loops, and social graphics for Easter Day and the Sundays that follow.
Browse Easter mediaPCM Imago
Create still images for each week's readings with presets that show the full diversity of the people of God.
Try PCM ImagoWhat is Eastertide?
Eastertide is the season of Easter in the Christian year. It lasts fifty days, from Easter Sunday through the Day of Pentecost, and celebrates the resurrection as a season rather than a single day.
How long is Eastertide?
Fifty days, counting Easter Sunday as the first day and Pentecost as the fiftieth. It includes eight Sundays: Easter Day, the Second through Seventh Sundays of Easter, and Pentecost.
When does the Easter season end?
The Easter season ends on the Day of Pentecost, seven weeks after Easter Sunday. In 2027, Pentecost is May 16. Trinity Sunday follows, and then Ordinary Time, the Season after Pentecost.
When is Eastertide 2027?
Eastertide 2027 runs from Easter Sunday, March 28, through the Day of Pentecost, May 16. Ascension Day falls on Thursday, May 6.
What is the liturgical color for Eastertide?
White, often with gold, for all fifty days. The color changes to red on the Day of Pentecost.
Is Ascension part of the Easter season?
Yes. Ascension Day is the fortieth day of Easter and always falls on a Thursday. Many Protestant churches observe it on the following Sunday, the Seventh Sunday of Easter.
Why is it called Eastertide?
"Tide" is an old English word for a time or season, as in Christmastide. Eastertide simply means the Easter season. It is also called the Great Fifty Days and Paschaltide.
