Pentecost

Pentecost is one of the prominent feasts in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection. The feast is also called Whit Sunday, Whitsun, or Whit especially in the UK, where the following Monday was traditionally a holiday. Pentecost is celebrated 7 weeks after Easter Sunday, hence its name. Pentecost falls on the 10th day after Ascension Thursday.

Pentecost is historically and symbolically related to the Jewish harvest festival of Shavuot, which commemorates God giving the 10 Commandments at Mount Sinai 50 days after the Exodus. Among Christians, Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus as described in the New Testament Acts of the Apostles 2:1-31. For this reason, Pentecost is sometimes described as the "Birthday of the Church".

The Pentecostal movement of Christianity derives its name from this biblical event.

The Lutheran church of the Baroque observed three days of Pentecost. Some composers wrote sacred cantatas to be performed in the church services of these days. Johann Sebastian Bach composed several cantatas for days of Pentecost, including Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172 in 1714. Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel wrote cantatas such as Werdet voll Geistes

in 1737.

Olivier Messiaen composed an organ mass Messe de la Pentecôte in 1949/50. In 1964 Fritz Werner wrote an oratorio for Pentecost Veni, sancte spiritus on the sequence Veni sancte spiritus, and Jani Christou wrote Tongues of Fire, a Pentecost oratorio. Richard Hillert wrote a Motet for the Day of Pentecost for choir, vibraphone, and prepared electronic tape in 1969. Violeta Dinescu composed Pfingstoratorium, an oratorio for Pentecost for 5 soloists, mixed chorus and small orchestra in 1993.