Whitsunday, a festival of the Christian Church commemorative of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles, as “they were all assembled together with one accord in one place,” on the day of Pentecost (q.v.), from which fact the name Pentecost is sometimes used instead of Whitsunday. Blunt says (Dict. of Doct. and Hist. Theol.), “The etymology of the term has been strangely confused. It has been derived (a) from White Sunday, in supposed allusion to the white garments of the neophytes, as Whitsuntide was one of the two chief seasons for baptism; and (b) from Wytsonday, i.e., Wit, or Wisdom, Sunday, in reference to the outpouring of wisdom upon the apostles. But the real White Sunday is the octave of Easter, or Dominica in albis, and both of these derivations must be abandoned when the proper use of the title is considered. It is not Whit Sunday, but Whitsun Day, as Easter is Easter Day; and the week is Whitsun Week, not Whit Week; and the season Whitsuntide, not Whittide. In Yorkshire, and doubtless also in other parts of England, the feast is commonly called Whissun Day, the accent being strongly thrown on the first syllable; and the two days following, Whissun Monday and Whissun Tuesday. The name is thus derived, as Dr. Neale shows (Essays on Liturgiology, etc.), directly from Pentecost, passing, by various corruptions, Pingsten, Whingsten, into the German Pfingsten and the English Whitsun. The Germans have also their Pfingsten-Woche, in exact correspondence to our Whitsun Week.”
Still other derivations of the term are given, Hamon L'Estrange thinking it is derived from the French huit, or eight; because there are eight Sundays between Easter and Pentecost. “Wheatley publishes a letter of the famous Gerard Langbain, written on Whitsuneve, 1650, in reply to a friend who had asked of him the origin of the name, in which it is attempted to be shown that the festival was so called from a custom among our ancestors upon this day to.give all the milk of their ewes and kine to the poor for the love of God, in order to qualify themselves to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; which milk being then (as it is still in some countries) called white- meat, therefore the day from that custom took its name.” It is also suggested that all persons were required to pay their tithe of young before that day or be liable to the wite, or mulct.
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Author: McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia
Keywords: Whitsunday, White Sunday, Pentecost
Source: John McClintock and James Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.
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