Whatever happened to Whitsun! I remember the days of my childhood when this annual event meant time at church meetings for the bank holiday with extra time with friends and extended family.

This official bank holiday actually began in 1871 and was lost when the Spring Bank holiday, even though people still called it 'Whitsun', was created as early as 1971 for the last weekend in May. According to the previous calendar the 2014 date for Whitsun would be the 8th of June.

This word has faded out of common usage although the Houses of Parliament still use the label 'Whitsun' for the recess, which in 2014 runs from 22nd May to 2nd June.

Whitsun marks the Day of Pentecost being the fiftieth day from the Passover and connecting to the death of our Lord Jesus as the Passover lamb. Pentecost comes from the Greek word pentekoste meaning fiftieth and is similar to some words in English which relate to the number five, like pentagon, and pentathlon.

This event ties up with the Jewish harvest of Shavuot, also known in the O.T. as the "Feast of Weeks" which marked the end of the barley harvest and the start of the wheat harvest. According to Rabbinic Tradition, it marks the time Moses was given the law on Mount Sinai, although the scriptures do not record the days for us to verify this. The BBC website also notes the same tie up between the Jewish feast and the Day of Pentecost (Whitsun). In Synagogues prayers are said for the five books of Moses, the Old Testament Pentateuch. Some spend the first night of the feast studying it. Synagogues are decorated with flowers as a reminder of those plants and flowers found on Mount Sinai. However the Feast of Weeks was not instituted until Israel entered the Promised Land 39 years later (Exo.23.16, Lev.23.10). This would contradict the connection with the giving of the Law.

But what does it mean to Christians today ? It marks giving of the Holy Spirit on the believers in Jerusalem, as our Lord Jesus had promised, and that power has stayed with us since. Additionally it provides for extra time for fellowship, reading and visiting during the long summer daylight hours whilst we are surrounded by beauty of the flowers and the growth of the crops in the field, which are a testament to God's creation.

NAC