Catholics celebrated the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, but the day also ushered in the start of the Easter season, or Eastertide, a 50-day period leading up to the Pentecost.

“Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her, ablaze with light from her eternal King, let all corners of the earth be glad, knowing an end to gloom and darkness,” Allentown Bishop Alfred Schlert said in an April 9 Facebook post.

In helping his parishioners ring in the season, Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, sent out a message on social media. 

“Let us proclaim ‘He is Risen’ throughout this Octave and for the entire Easter Season of 50 days until Pentecost,” Strickland said on Twitter. “Easter is not just a day, but Jesus’s Resurrection ushers in a New Day for all humanity for all time. Let us strive to live in the Light of His Resurrection always!” 

The Eastertide is the longest season of the liturgical calendar. The Lenten season, which precedes Easter, lasts for 40 days. The length of the Easter season is a testament to its enduring nature, according to the Anglican Compass. Jesus declared that fasting would eventually fade away, while the Great Feast of the Lamb, which signifies eternity, would remain. 

The reason for the 50-day length is rooted in the fact that after Jesus was resurrected, he spent 40 days on earth before ascending to heaven, and another 10 days passed before the Pentecost arrived. The Pentecost marks the day that the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles as they were with Mary, the mother of God. Pentecost will be celebrated May 28 this year, which is the seventh Sunday after Easter.

"As Jesus was raised from the dead, we walk with confidence, in what St. Paul called ‘newness of life,’ following in Jesus’ footsteps, our lives now an adventure destined for heaven and the love that never ends," José Gomez, the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, wrote in the Angelus newsletter. "These next 50 days, from Resurrection Sunday to Pentecost Sunday, are meant to be lived as one long feast, a ‘great Sunday,’ as the Church Father St. Athanasius put it.”